Call it what you want but this Taylor Swift performance will forever and always stand out.
The superstar singer stopped by NPR as part of the Tiny Desk series to perform songs from her new album Lover and some of old classics. In true T.Swift fashion, the Grammy-winner took the stage with her guitar in hand and sang each tune acoustically. As she explained during the intimate concert, “I just decided to take this as an opportunity to show you guys how the songs sounded when I first wrote them.”
She kicked things off with “The Man,” a song that she had wanted to write for years but never really knew how to approach.
“Over the course of my life, it has occurred to me that we have a bit of a double standard issue in our society,” she told the crowd. “I decided that the most fun thing to do would be to imagine what my life would be like and what people would say about my life if I did all of the same things, but if I was a man.”
She then hopped over to the piano for “Lover,” which was inspired by her relationship with Joe Alwyn. After seemingly finding the fairy tale ending to her love story, the 29-year-old admitted she wondered how that would impact her lyrics.
“‘What would happen if I was ever happy?'” she had asked herself. “‘Would I not be able to do the thing that I love the most in the world? Would I not be able to write breakup songs anymore?'”
Up next: “Death by a Thousand Cuts” followed by an old favorite, “All Too Well” from her 2012 album Red. (Loyal Tiny Desk viewers know that performances typically only cover three songs, but with Swift, the limit does not exist!)
Grab your tissues and watch the video above!
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