Taylor Swift appeared on the cover of this year’s Time 100 issue, celebrating the most influential people in culture, politics, technology and more. On Tuesday night, as an honoree at Time’s 100 Gala, Swift performed an exclusive acoustic set on guitar and piano.
.@taylorswift13 performed at Tuesday night’s #TIME100 Gala in New York City for an audience of fellow honorees https://t.co/8pVOCBcmvL pic.twitter.com/TUg4P3noBs
— TIME (@TIME) April 24, 2019
Loving @taylorswift13 at Time 100❤️ https://t.co/fpVXfB1DDX
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) April 24, 2019
The pop star performed five songs from across her career, including “Style,” “Delicate,” “Love Story,” “New Year’s Day” and “Shake It Off.”
On her songwriting, Swift told the audience, “I’ve always known it was the main pillar of kind of my sanity as well, like I always looked at writing as sort of like a protective armor. Which is weird, because you think of writing about your life, that’s usually like a vulnerability, but I think that when you write about your life, it gives you the ability to process your life.”
“I use it as a way of justifying things that have happened to me,” she continued. “Whether they’re good or bad. I like to honor the good times and really process the bad times when I write.”
For the past two weeks, Swift has hinted at new music on her social media accounts. Bathing her Twitter and Instagram in photos of pink tulle skirts, Gogurt-blue bicycles, heart-shaped jewelry and shining mermaid scales, Swift has captioned all her posts with “4.26,” to suggest an announcement coming this Friday, April 26th.