Taylor Swift might not be releasing any kind of music this year, but you can’t deny that she’s been in the spotlight all throughout 2016. Whether it’s a controversy with a Kanye West song or a breakup with a world renowned DJ, Swift is still all over the headlines, and that doesn’t mean she’s completely strayed from music of her own, either. If you recall, Swift took over the summer with a secret co-write on the Calvin Harris and Rihanna collab, “This What You Came For,” and she just performed it live for the very first time.
The singer took the stage this past weekend at the Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix race in Texas and gave her first concert of the year. Her 15 song setlist included her biggest hits like “Shake It Off” and “I Knew You Were Trouble,” but she managed to squeeze in her rendition of the Harris and Rihanna hit, too.
Seen above, Swift brings the dance track back into her natural territory by turning it into a vulnerable piano ballad. She didn’t perform the whole thing, but just by the brief snippet she gave, it was enough to make people want a studio version in the future.
Despite all the rumblings of a surprise album release, fans will undoubtedly be disappointed that there won’t be new music, but maybe this one-off show (which could be one of her only shows of the year) was a good enough consolation. Either way, what people don’t realize is that the overexposure of Taylor Swift isn’t good in the first place – we need to miss her, crave her songs again, and wonder what music would be like if she stopped, because that’s what will make the follow-up to 1989 all the more appealing.
