On the eve of her Eras Tour kickoff, Taylor Swift shared four new “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings in honor of the highly-anticipated live show.
Videos by American Songwriter
The four re-recordings include her Hunger Games soundtrack contributions “Safe and Sound (featuring the Civil Wars)” and “Eyes Open” as well as “If This Was a Movie” from Speak Now and “All of the Girls You Loved Before” from Lover.
The Hunger Games cuts come right as the film series hit Netflix, which is likely more than a coincidence given Swift’s track record. “Safe and Sound” went on to earn the singer a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media in 2013. The song marks a reunion of sorts for the Civil Wars, consisting of John Paul White and Joy Williams.
The other two recordings tee up Swift’s next fully re-recording album, which will be part of her effort to regain control of her master recordings. She started the pursuit with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in early 2021 before moving on to Red (Taylor’s Version) a few months later. The re-recording of Red earned the singer a fair few lauds, including a Grammy for her short film All Too Well.
Though Swift hasn’t shared more “Taylor’s Version” albums since Red, she has released a number of one-off recordings that have kept Swifties guessing as to which album is next on the docket. “This Love (Taylor’s Version)” was dropped last year for the Prime Video series The Summer I Turned Pretty, giving fans an inkling that an updated version of 1989 might be coming soon.
Now with her latest releases, fans seem to think Swift is leaning toward Speak Now. With the addition of a few easter eggs found in her Midnights music videos, that might be a safe assumption.
Swift kicks off her Eras tour on Friday (March 17) in Glendale, Arizona, (also known as Swift City). The tour started a discourse around Ticketmaster’s practices.
“I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could,” Swift wrote in a statement in November. “It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”
(Photo: ABC)
