Taylor Swift Says New Song ‘Anti-Hero’ Confronts ‘the Things I Hate About Myself’

Taylor Swift's latest LP has broken the Spotify record for most-steamed album in a single day.

Searching for clues! Taylor Swift is known for hiding tons of Easter eggs in her lyrics, and her latest album, Midnights, is no exception.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic London-based rapper Little Simz has been awarded the 2022 Mercury Prize, topping a list of candidates that included Harry Styles, Wet Leg and Sam Fender. The 28-year-old performer won for “Sometimes I Feel Introvert,” her fourth album, and her second to be nominated for the prestigious honor, after “Grey Area” landed on the shortlist for the same award in 2019. Little Simz has been considered a major artist in the U.K. for years, although this album represented more of a breakthrough for her in the U.S. That may hold somewhat true in her native country, too — she recently won the best new artist award at the Brits, despite having released albums over the last seven years.

Taylor Swift has announced details of the first single from her upcoming album ‘Midnights’, and shared some of its lyrics on billboards.The singer will release her 10th album on Friday (October 21), and has already confirmed an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon the following Monday (October 24).In a social media post, the singer has now confirmed a host of other events happening in the week around the album’s release, including the release of an official video for the single ‘Anti-Hero’ at 8am EST (1pm BST) on album release day.Swift declared the track ‘Anti-Hero’ to be “one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written”, and noted of its significance: “I really don’t think I’ve delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before.”On Thursday (October 20), a teaser trailer will be shown in the third quarter of Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video, while a “special very chaotic surprise” is also set to take place at 3am EST (8am BST) on Friday. Lyric videos will then follow later that evening.See the full calendar of events for album release week below, alongside a Spotify billboard in New York City’s Times Square, which revealed the lyric: “I should not be left to my own devices.”A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)A post shared by Spotify (@spotify)Swift is yet to preview any material from ‘Midnights’, instead promoting it with a series of videos explaining the stories behind tracks.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Guess how many submissions Taylor Swift has on the preliminary Grammy ballot? If you know her all too well, you can probably intuit the answer to that one even before we tell you? It’s 13… of course. But there are many other burning questions about the ballot that has gone out to Recording Academy members where the answers are not so easily guessed, and we’re here to clear up some of those mysteries. The annual intrigue often centers on which categories certain genre-straddling artists ended up submitting their material in… or where that material got shifted sometimes against the artists’ wishes, as we’ve seen already this year with Nicki Minaj very vocally objecting to having “Super Freaky Girl” moved from a rap category to pop.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Arcade Fire is having trouble keeping name acts in the opening slots for its arena tours. Beck has now dropped out of his position as the opener for the group’s U.S. tour, without any explanation so far. In an email sent to ticket buyers, Beck was described only as “unfortunately no longer able to join Arcade Fire on their upcoming North American tour. Taking his place will be Boukman Eksperyans,” described as a Grammy-nominated Haitian roots band. Contacted by Variety, Beck’s reps declined to comment on his bowing out. The move was not necessarily a surprise, as fans had already been speculating whether the singer-songwriter might exit the Arcade Fire outing, after Win Butler was accused of sexual misconduct in an August Pitchfork article. Feist dropped out of her opening slot on the European leg of the tour after playing just the first two dates.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic When it comes to the 2023 Grammys, it’s easy to jump ahead and look at what we expect will be the final showdown on Feb. 3 between the top two competitors — Adele and Beyoncé. Because, yes, in the top three general categories, it’s likely to be a narrow contest that runs the gamut from A to B, as it were … almost a direct sequel to the 2017 Grammy race, in which “25” was pitted against “Lemonade.” The big question may be, will this movie have the same ending, with Adele apologizing to Bey for besting her, again? But there’s a lot of road to travel before then and considerable suspense over which other eight artists will fill out the 10 available slots in the album, record and song of the year categories. (The Recording Academy upped the slots from eight at the last minute last year, only in those divisions.) The only other virtual certainties in all three of those categories are Harry Styles and Silk Sonic, neither of whom can be completely counted out as ultimate winners, should the voting members decide they don’t even want to have to decide between all that big diva energy again

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Grammy winning singer and arranger Anita Kerr, whose vocal ensemble the Anita Kerr Singers became a staple of hit pop and country recordings in the 1950s and ’60s, has died at age 94. Her daughter Kelley Kerr confirmed the death in a social media post, writing, “Such sad news and what a great loss for the music industry. Anita was a legend in her time but first and foremost she was my mother. May you rest in peace. I will forever miss you but I am comforted in knowing that you are now singing with angels. You are forever in my heart.” Kerr’s vocal arrangement sound was considered a key component in the “countrypolitan” or “Nashville sound” era of country music, in which the music saw the addition of strings and background vocals, lending lusher elements to recordings by some of the genre’s top stars, perhaps most notably Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves. The smoother take on country lent itself to less rough-hewn crossover hits.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic If Kid Cudi is indeed retiring his rapper persona, as strongly indicated in recent interviews, Monday night might have served as an early farewell party of sorts.  At a special screening at the Netflix Tudum Theater in Hollywood, the star was all smiles as he answered questions and celebrated the release of “Entergalactic,” the new animated Netflix special that serves as a kind of filmic companion piece to Cudi’s new album of the same name.  “I’m just overwhelmed, you know?” Cudi, who created, starred in, and executive-produced the project, said immediately after the screening, sitting next to the film’s director, Fletcher Moules. “The past week has been really exciting to see the reviews, see the response. We’ve been working on this thing for three years, man.” 

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The word “contested” shows up a lot lately in singer-songwriter Elizabeth Chan’s world, as she made headlines this summer for going to court to try to ensure that Mariah Carey is not legally granted sole possession of the “Queen of Christmas” tag, which has also been applied to her. But there’s at least one aspect of what Chan does that will likely continue to go unchallenged. With her 12th album, “12 Months of Christmas,” coming out this week, Chan further breaks her own record for having the most all-original Christmas albums in circulation of any nationally established pop artist. Although “most Christmas albums” is not the sort of record where Santa is keeping an official list and checking it twice — nor the Guinness Book, for that matter — it seems safe to say that no one else is even close when it comes to self-penned, all-new Yuletide collections, thanks to the one-a-year pace established by Chan, the only nationally recognized artist who does nothing but Christmas albums.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The top spots on the respective U.S. album and singles charts remain as they were last week, with Bad Bunny holding the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 for a 13th non-consecutive week and Steve Lacy claiming the top song for a second week in a row. No surprises there, but at least there was some fresh blood in the No. 2 positions. A new album from hard rock veterans Slipknot debuted in second place. And on the Billboard Hot 100, a duet by Sam Smith and Kim Petras, “Unholy,” showed surprising strength in moving up to No. 2 after debuting well one spot behind that last week. Billboard points out that Bad Bunny is within striking distance of a record on the album chart, or at least a recent record. His 13 weeks on top with “Un Verano Sin Ti” have the album tied for the most weeks spent by an album at No. 1 in the last decade; he’s currently on par with Drake’s “Views” and the “Frozen” soundtrack. If he reaches No. 1 next week, he’ll singular own the record for most weeks spent on top over the last 10 years. But if we go back more than a decade, he still has a way to go to surpass Adele’s “21,” which spent 24 nonconsecutive weeks leading the chart in 2011-12.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift kept the “Midnights” oil burning later than usual late Thursday night and early Friday morning, revealing not just the name of one song at midnight, as has been her custom in the buildup to the Oct. 21 album release, but all five of the remaining mystery track titles, one per hour, until she finally reached a grand finale at 4 a.m. ET. And that final track reveal had — as she promised — “QUITE the twist of an ending,” with Lana Del Rey being revealed as making the only featured appearance by a guest on the album. Del Rey will make her cameo on a song titled “Snow on the Beach,” which will be track 4 on “Midnights.” The other four tracks whose titles were revealed over the course of the wee hours were “Lavender Haze,” set to be the first track on the album; “You’re on Your Own,” track 5; “Labyrinth,” track 10; and “Sweet Nothing,” track 12.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift kept the “Midnights” oil going once again with the late-night revelation of yet another new song, with an explanation of its subject matter to match. But this time, indications are that she may keep going into the wee hours and not just call it a night at 12:02 a.m. The new song Swift revealed and talked about as the clock struck 12 on the east coast is “Lavender Haze.” About the song, Swift said in a video message on Instagram: “Track 1 on ‘Midnights’ is ‘Lavender Haze,’ and I happened upon the phrase ‘lavender haze’ when I was watching ‘Mad Men.’ And I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool, and it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the fifties where they would just describe being in love. Like, if you were in the lavender haze, you were in that all-encompassing love glow… and I thought that was really beautiful. And I guess theoretically, when you’re in the lavender haze, you’ll do anything to stay there and not let people bring you down off of that cloud. And I think a lot of people have to deal with this now, not just like ‘public figures.’ because we live in the era of social media, and if the world finds out that you’re in love with somebody, they’re going to weigh in on it. Like my relationship for six years: we’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it. So this song is about ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff. I hope you guys like it.”

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Shortly after announcing that next summer’s tour would be the last one for Dead and Company, the group has announced the full schedule of dates for that farewell outing, with tickets set to go on sale a week from Friday. The tour will begin with a two-night stand at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum May 19-20 and end — perhaps not surprisingly — in San Francisco, at Oracle Park, where this offshoot of the Grateful Dead will call it a night after final gigs set to take place there July 14-15. Nineteen cities are on the agenda in all, with two-nighters set for Chicago, New York City, Saratoga Springs, NY, and George, Wa. in addition to San Francisco and L.A. Barring any added dates, Boulder is the one city due to get a three-night stand, scheduled for July 1-3. Including those multi-night runs, the total number of shows scheduled for summer 2023 comes to 27. See the full lineup of concerts below.

As the song theft legal battle in relation to Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ rumbles on, at a court hearing yesterday attention turned to the argument that the songwriters suing Swift don’t even have the legal right to pursue the litigation.In this particular song-theft case, songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler accuse Swift of ripping off their 2001 song ‘Playas Gon Play’ when she wrote her 2014 hit. The claim is mainly based on the similarities between the two songs’ respective key lines, with the 2001 track having the line “the playas gon play/them haters gonna hate”, while ‘Shake It Off’ famously includes the lyric “the players gonna play, play, play, play, play/and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate”.Swift’s legal team have been trying very hard to get the case dismissed, mainly on the basis that the notion of players playing and haters hating is far too generic for lyrics based on said notion to be protected by copyright in isolation.

Taylor Swift has said that her new song ‘Anti-Hero’ hears her delve the deepest she ever has into her “insecurities”.The pop star has been sharing information about her forthcoming 10th album, ‘Midnights’, on social media and telling fans about the cover artwork over the course of the last few weeks. In August, she officially announced her new record, which is based on “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life”.As of yesterday (October 3) the singer-songwriter had revealed nearly half the album’s tracklist, which she has been unveiling incrementally.

Taylor Swift has called one of the tracks of her upcoming album Midnights "one of my favourite songs I've ever written."

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Brandi Carlile’s IMAX livecast Wednesday evening couldn’t have been better timed in the calendar year, coming just a few days after the equinox. A nationwide live simulcast on IMAX screens pretty much demands a universal start time of 6 p.m. PT/9 ET,  a time frame that, in the last week of September, means a 90-minute show being shot outdoors on a ridge overlooking L.A. will start sunny and end with a dark sky and the basin at its twinkliest. Cinematographers everywhere couldn’t have asked the movie gods for a more compliant dusk than the one Carlile and her band and filmmaking team got. She’s having her own magic hour, of course … definitely not to be confused with a twilight, in her case. The Carlile album that came out just about a year ago, “In These Silent Days,” carried on its Grammy-winning predecessor’s success in further establishing her as America’s troubadour du jour in the classic singer-songwriter vein. Now she’s celebrating that anniversary with a deluxe edition that includes a separate, all-new rendering of the album, titled “In the Canyon Haze,” featuring re-arrangements meant to invoke the spirit of early ‘70s Laurel Canyon folk-rock just as blatantly as the altered title suggests. There’s something almost ironically contrary about marrying the new record’s intimacy to giant screens — Lookout Mountain meets “Attack of the 50-Foot Woman”? — but with a little bit of help, maybe, from the spirits of the hippie holler, it worked.

There’s a huge update in Taylor Swift‘s Midnights Mayhem reveal!