Hello, Nation of Swifties!
It feels like an age has passed, but finally the Sparkly Dressed resurfaced at the Amazon Prime Day Concert. Following the performances of Dua Lipa, Becky G and SZA, the Blonde With The Sparkly Guitar Which Is Pink At The Moment, took the stage as the final act of the night. Here at the Swift Agency, just a guy that wishes the crowd had been a little more enthusiastic during SZA’s performance, we were hoping for a classic Taylor moment. I have to congratulate Sofia Jain for capturing in this image below, which Taylor later posted on her own instagram. That’s the Enchantress taking it all in.
But the Mother of Fighting Dragons With You was doing something else beside singing. There was subtext to her playing her setlist. It started with ME! which I don’t particularly like, but then she went into the hit list with “Blank Space”, “I Knew You Were Trouble” and her classic “Love Story”. She switched to the guitar and went solo for “Welcome To New York”. She also did “Delicate” with the entire crowd adding the “1, 2, 3. Let’s go, bitch” fandom response. She went back to full band for her hit “Style” followed by the first live performance of “You Need To Calm Down”. She of course closed with “Shake It Off” making a strong emphasis on the lyrics of “liars and dirty dirty cheats”, with a not-that-subtle jab to the new Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named hater of the month.
I give props to Refinery29’s Kaitlin Kelly for choosing to aptly title her excellent article, Taylor Swift’s Amazon Concert Was A Subtle Reminder Of Who Wrote All Those Hits, catching on to the very intention of the Forever and Always Fearless One.
“Little known fact about me,” said T-Swizzle before starting on the notes for “Love Story”. “I started out in country music, and one thing that has been really wonderfully consistent throughout the entire time that I’ve been making music is that I write all of it. It’s my favorite thing to write songs and they go out into the world and you guys are nice enough to care about the words that I’ve written…anyone who has been singing the words to this, it’s like, yes, thank you. When I was 17 I ended up writing this song in my room when I was by myself and you really never know what’s going to happen in life, and I didn’t know that would go out into the world and completely change my life.”
The emphasis on her songwriting should not escape anybody, I hope.
To quote Kaitlin Kelly’s article: “While the masters of these songs are owned by Braun, Swift subtly reminds everyone that they are the products of her creativity — she wrote every single one.” I couldn’t agree more.
On a different note, I still find it amazing that although Taylor is at the very top of her game and has gone mainstream as mainstream one can be, she still manages to connect to her fans despite the layer upon layer of commercial ads we have to wade through to hear her perform.
Coming up in the Calendar!
- August 23: Taylor Swift releases her seventh studio album, Lover.
(Sources: Taylor Swift via Instagram, Refinery29. Featured image: Photo by Sofia Jain via Instagram, reposted by Taylor Swift, cropped for size)
The Swift Agency 
I like that “Nation of Swifties!”.