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TOPLINE
Taylor Swift is releasing four new songs—one previously unreleased and three re-recorded—at midnight Friday, the singer announced on her Instagram, hours before she’s set to retake the stage for the first time in nearly five years for her highly-anticipated Eras world tour.
Two of the songs Swift is re-recording—”Eyes Open” and “Safe & Sound”—were initially recorded for the 2012 movie, The Hunger Games.
Swift is also releasing a re-recording of the song “If This Was A Movie” from her 2010 album Speak Now, as well as a previously unreleased song from her 2019 album Lover.
Swift, who was the only woman among Forbes’ list of the top ten highest earning entertainers in 2022, kicks off her 52-stop Eras tour Friday.
KEY BACKGROUND
In 2019, Swift announced she was re-recording her first five albums in an effort to own her own work. The master recordings of Swift’s early work were sold to a media company owned by Scooter Braun, a man Swift has accused of “incessant, manipulative bullying,” leading Swift to release new versions of her albums and ask fans to listen and buy the “Taylor’s Version” of her songs. Lover was the first album Swift owned herself. So far she’s re-recorded two of her first five albums: Red and Fearless. In 2021, the re-recorded version of Red broke a Spotify record for the most-streamed album by a female artist in a single day, and she broke the single-day record for most-streamed female artist.
TANGENT
Swift made headlines in November after Ticketmaster’s website crashed during the pre-sale ticket drop for the Eras tour. Ticketmaster temporarily suspended sales after fans waited for hours and tickets were oversold. In a statement, Swift said Ticketmaster “assured” her the company could manage the high demand and manage the situation. The ticket fiasco led to a Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing in which Live Nation President Joe Berchtold blamed “industrial scalpers” and a “cyberattack” for the Swift meltdown.
BIG NUMBER
53%. That’s the percentage of U.S. adults who said they were fans of Swift in a Morning Consult survey published Tuesday.
FURTHER READING
More Than Half Of U.S. Adults Say They’re Taylor Swift Fans, Survey Finds (Forbes)
Ticketmaster Urges Congress To Crack Down On Ticket Scalping As Lawmakers Take Aim Over Taylor Swift Debacle (Forbes)
‘Anti-Hero’ Now Taylor Swift’s Best-Performing Single After Eight Weeks Atop Hot 100 Chart (Forbes)
So … Where Are We at With the Taylor Swift Rerecordings? (Vulture)