Taylor Swift’s fans have been eagerly anticipating the start of her long-awaited The Eras Tour, which kicked off on Friday, March 17. And while that alone is exciting news, Swift has gone above and beyond to delight her fans by releasing not one, not two, not three, but four new songs on the same day.
Among the tracks are three re-recordings, including a pair of cuts she wrote and recorded specifically for the The Hunger Games soundtrack, which was released more than a decade ago.
The two tunes are “Eyes Open” and “Safe & Sound,” which credits musicians Joy Williams and John Paul White as featured acts. At the time the song was originally made available, those two were in a duo known as The Civil Wars, though now they work independently.
Also included in Swift’s offering is a new version of “If This Was a Movie.” That tune was originally released as a track on the deluxe edition of Swift’s third album Speak Now.
But perhaps the biggest surprise for Swifties is the final song on the list, “All of the Girls You Loved Before,” which has never been heard before.
The cover used on YouTube is from her album Lover, so it appears the cut was written and recorded around that time. It’s interesting that Swift is pulling from different periods of her career – eras, as she’s used to saying – for this special drop.
Of the four tracks, “If This Was a Movie” has already proved to be the most successful, hitting No. 10 on the Hot 100 chart when it was first unleashed.
Meanwhile, “Eyes Open” and “Safe & Sound” both performed well on the same ranking upon their original release, with the former peaking inside the top 20 and the latter reaching the top 40.
“Safe & Sound” even won a Grammy (out of two nominations) and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Original Song.
Swift only gave fans a few hours’ notice of the new music, taking to her Instagram Story last Thursday to announce the surprise release.
“In celebration of The Eras Tour, I’m releasing 4 previously unreleased songs tonight at midnight,” she wrote, which, of course, immediately got her trending and had superfans of the singer-songwriter freaking out.
As fans rush to buy and stream the new tracks, several thousand are also preparing to see Swift perform live on stage. The Eras Tour begins tonight in Glendale, AZ, with openers Gayle and Paramore joining the headliner for the ride. The tour – one of the most highly-anticipated and in-demand tickets in recent memory – will take her across the country through August, wrapping up in Los Angeles.
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