Taylor Swift Performs ‘Anti-Hero’ Live for the First Time in Surprise Cameo at the 1975 Concert
Taylor Swift made a surprise cameo during the 1975’s concert in London at The O2 on Thursday night to deliver the first live performance of “Anti-Hero” from her chart-topping album “Midnights.” She also treated the crowd to a cover of the 1975’s “The City.”
Making an unannounced arrival on stage sporting a shimmering silver dress, Swift took a cheery look around the stadium before picking up the microphone. She acknowledged the crowd with a smile and strapped on her guitar to sing “Anti-Hero,” as captured in fan videos that began spreading like wildfire online.
Taylor Swift makes surprise appearance at The 1975’s concert in London to perform ‘Anti-Hero.’ pic.twitter.com/yz4uXg9fgh
— Pop Base (@PopBase) January 12, 2023
Swift released her 10th studio album “Midnights” on Oct. 21. The release made history almost immediately, breaking the Spotify record for the most-streamed album in a single day and completely dominating the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.
“Midnights” has also been met with critical fanfare, with Variety‘s Chris Willman writing: “Worth noting is that ‘Midnights’ marks her 10th grand slam in a row (not counting re-recordings), a record you’d be hard-pressed to find matched among the singer-songwriter greats that influenced or otherwise came before her, almost any one of whom had their duds by this point. The rest of the charting music sphere isn’t often rising to the same occasion, to the point that you’re often thinking this is anything like pop’s golden age. But the arrival of each new Swift album as a bona fide musical event can lull you into thinking we’re living in the good old days, or nights, after all.”
Following the November announcement of Swift’s own “Eras Tour,” a 52-date tour across North America and her biggest trek to date, Ticketmaster was met with intense criticism for their mishandling of ticket sales. The fiasco placed a renewed focus on the company’s dominance over the market, triggering a domino effect of action, including an anti-trust hearing at the Senate and a lawsuit on behalf of more than two dozen Swifties against Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation Entertainment.
The 1975 kicked off the U.K. leg of the “At Their Very Best” tour on Sunday in Brighton. In support of their 2022 album “Being Funny in a Foreign Language,” the band took to American stages in the fall.
