It’s hard not to think that everything Taylor Swift does is expertly calculated when she proves all the conspiracy theorists right. After fans thought that Taylor, 30, was going to announce something on May 8 after she posted a simple selfie, they were right on the nose. On Friday, it was announced that ABC would air a concert special, Taylor Swift City of Lover Concert, right after the American Idol finale on Sunday, May 18!
The concert special will reveal footage of Taylor’s performance for an “intimate crowd” at the L’Olympia Theater in Paris, France in Sept. 2019. This special marks Taylor’s “only concert performance this year,” after the coronavirus pandemic forced the pop star to cancel all the 2020 dates on her Lover Fest tour, according to ABC’s press release.
The television concert will showcase Taylor performing songs from her Lover album that was released in Aug. 2019, an experience that many Swifties will have to sadly miss out on in-person this year. Taylor was originally set to kick off Lover Fest this June in Belgium, but has since been forced to push back the entire tour to 2021.
https://twitter.com/TS7Track3/status/1258744324910649345
A selfie is just a selfie, unless you’re Taylor Swift. “Not a lot going on at the moment,” Taylor captioned a picture she uploaded on April 30. She looked great in the photo, and the caption seemed to indicate that she was slightly bored while under quarantine. However, since Taylor never does anything without a plan or a purpose, the Swifties began to Galaxy Brain the selfie. They noticed she posted it at 5:08 PM (5 + 8 = 13, which is Taylor’s favorite number). 5/08 is also the date of May 8th. Taylor’s song “Cruel Summer” is two minutes and 58 seconds long (5 x 8 showing up again.) So, some wondered if Taylor was going to release the “Cruel Summer” music video.
Others wondered if Taylor was going to release the re-recording of her Red album. Her selfie caption – “Not a lot going on at the moment” – is the same phrase she had on the shirt she wore in the “22” music video. Another fan saw that the eight words were spread over five lines – 8 x 5 yet again – and since “22” came off of Red, some fans took this as a confirmation that Red 2.0 was on its way. Taylor has been vocal about re-recording her old songs since her music industry nemesis Scooter Braun bought the rights to her entire discography up to her Reputation album. Taylor claims she attempted to buy her master recordings – her self-titled debut, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, and Reputation – but Scooter’s Ithaca Holdings (backed by the Carlyle Group) reportedly bought them for over $300 million.
Taylor recently shaded Scooter and his financial partners over releasing Live From Clear Channel Stripped 2008. “I’m always honest with you guys about this stuff so I just wanted to tell you that this release is not approved by me,” she posted to her Instagram Story. “It looks to me like Scooter Braun and his financial backers, 23 Capital, Alex Sorors and the Sorors family, and the Carlyle Group have seen the latest balance sheets and realized that paying $330 MILLION for my music wasn’t exactly a wise choice and they need money. … just another case of shameless greed in the time of Coronavirus. So tasteless, but very transparent.”