Taylor Swift is all about bringing people together.
Just hours after her 11th studio album debuted to praise from her millions of fans worldwide, the “Bad Blood” singer, 34, dropped an accompanying music video for “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone from The Tortured Poets Department.
While fans expected to see the “Sunflower” singer in the video, they certainly didn’t predict that Swift would host a Dead Poets Society reunion for the project.
Nevertheless, Swift, who wrote and directed the music video, welcomed Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles into her world. She cast the men, who starred in the 1989 flick (catch that Easter Egg, Swifties?), as scientists examining her after a love affair goes wrong.
Throughout the video, the relationship between Swift and Post is shown from its face tattoo-free inception all the way until it leads to the psychiatric ward.
After the music video’s release, Swift took to Instagram to share details about the idea for the video.
“When I was writing the ‘Fortnight’ music video, I wanted to show you the worlds I saw in my head that served as the backdrop for making this music,” she wrote. “Pretty much everything in it is a metaphor or a reference to one corner of the album or another. For me, this video turned out to be the perfect visual representation of this record and the stories I tell in it.”
“@postmalone blew me away on set as our tortured tragic hero and I’m so grateful to him for everything he put into this collaboration,” she added. “I’m still laughing from getting to work with the coolest guys on earth, @ethanhawke and @mrjoshcharles (tortured poets, meet your colleagues from down the hall, the dead poets).”
Charles also posted about the music video, writing on Instagram, “I’ve admired Taylor for a long time, but meeting her in person took my fandom to a whole new level. Genuine, kind, approachable, and just an all around stellar human being – Not to mention a kick ass director to boot! #TSTTPD”
In Hawke’s Instagram post about the project he wrote, “‘Todd’ & ‘Knox’ from DEAD POETS SOCIETY are now PhDs in THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. It’s quite an honor. Thank you @taylorswift for the opportunity to be in the music video for your song FORTNIGHT feat. @postmalone. carpe diem!”
On Thursday, the music icon announced that not only would “Fortnight” be the first song off the album to receive a music video, it would officially be the lead single off the album, hitting the charts at the same time as the album’s release.
“I got to witness that magic come to life firsthand when we worked together on Fortnight. Honestly can’t wait for you guys to hear this song at Midnight TONIGHT and see the video at 8pm ET TOMORROW,” Swift wrote in an Instagram post.
She also attached the cover art for the single, which sees the “Wow” rapper seated casually next to her as they stare down the camera in a black and white photo.
Within a few hours of exciting fans with the news of her single and music video’s release, Swift was right back at it on social media doing what she does best — teasing something for the fans.
In a six-second video posted to her accounts, she gifted fans a first look at the music video for “Fortnight,” which previewed the epic video to come.
In the quick supercut, Swift and Malone could be seen at dueling typewriters in a black-and-white office space while colorful energy streams fly out from their machines. The pair also embrace on a street in a desert area in another moment.
“At this hearing, I stand before my fellow members of The Tortured Poets Department with a summary of my findings,” Swift wrote in the tweet with the short video.
Another shot in the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it teaser showed Swift strapped down to a vertical medical examination table and screaming out.
The 14-time GRAMMY winner first teased the release of a music video days out from the album’s debut when she posted a timetable video to her Instagram page on Tuesday. In that teaser, the camera first focused on a clock on the wall with its hands pointed at 2:00 before zooming out of the room devoted to her 2022 album Midnights and traveling down a long hallway before entering an office.
The camera then entered the room through the keyhole of a door marked “The Tortured Poets Department” before showing a typewriter on a desk and then quickly zooming in on a bulletin board. The calendar hung up on the wall then shared the news of then-unidentiefed music video’s impending drop.
“The Tortured Poets Department release day” the note on April 19 read, just above another scribble that stated, “8pm ET. Music video release!!”
At the bottom of the calendar date for the album’s release were 14 tally marks which were not explained in the video at the time.
The same day T-Swift teased the music video, a Time interview with Patrick Mahomes — Travis Kelce‘s Kansas City Chiefs teammate — dropped online and caused many fans to spiral as he hinted that the singer may have something up her sleeve.
“She’s never not working,” the 28-year-old football star shared. “Even when she’s taking her downtime, she’s working on something. Shooting a music video or singing a song or writing a song.”
Swift has come a long way in the two months since she announced The Tortured Poets Department at the GRAMMYs after claiming her 13th career trophy. That same night, she won her fourth Album of the Year GRAMMY and set a new record in the category by beating out Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder and Frank Sinatra, who each have three wins.
“OK, this is my 13th GRAMMY, which is my lucky number. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you that,” Swift quipped on stage at the ceremony. “So I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I have been keeping from you for the last two years, which is that my brand-new album comes out April 19. It’s called The Tortured Poets Department.”
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