Swift dances like no one’s watching
Singer celebrates invisibility in new video
Taylor Swift won the prize for female artist of the year at the iHeartRadio Music Awards on Sunday.
“Hey guys, I just wanted to say thank you so much for this award,” Swift said to the audience in a pretaped video. “But in my absence and to show my gratitude, I really wanted to show you my brand new video for my new single, Delicate.”
Delicate, Swift’s fourth single from her latest album, Reputation, is Swift’s most direct song about her ... well, reputation, which suffered over the last 18 months or so, after much-dissected feuds, relationships and people’s frustration with her refusal to speak out about current events. As Swift explained to fans at a private event last fall, Delicate — about stressing over a new crush — explores the question: “What happens when you meet somebody that you really want in your life and then you start worrying about what they ’ve heard before they met you?” (Sample lyric: “My reputation’s never been worse, so you must like me for me.”)
So it’s fitting that the video may offer a clue as to why Swift has recently shunned the spotlight. While unnamed “sources” assure the tabloids that she’s doing quite well with her boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn, they’re rarely seen in public together. She wiped all of her social media accounts clean last year and now uses them only for album promotion.
The opening to the Delicate video is jarring because it’s an image of Swift on the red carpet with a glazed expression. Reporters shove microphones at her and dozens of camera lights flash. A mysterious figure slips Swift a small piece of paper. Next, Swift walks into a fancy hotel lobby. Everyone turns and stares as she walks by, surrounded by four bodyguards.
She finally gets some privacy in a dressing room, turning the piece of paper over in her hands, and she starts making fake smiles and goofy faces at herself in the mirror. Suddenly, a group of women walks in, and Swift stops, startled. Then, when she turns around back to the mirror, her reflection is gone. Could it be? She tries yelling at the women, who can’t see or hear a thing she’s doing. Yes — she’s invisible! It’s a dream come true.
With her new invisibility cloak, Swift has never looked more thrilled. She tosses her stiletto heels, tears off the bottom part of her long blue gown, and starts dancing. In the final scene, soaked from the rain, she arrives at a grungy bar, holding the piece of paper. Everyone turns and looks at her, and she’s visible again.
The message of the video? Even with all the perks, being one of the most powerful celebrities in the world has its drawbacks.
As for the note, in the lyrics for Delicate, Swift receives a text from her crush that says “Dive bar on the East Side, where you at? Come here, you can meet me in the back.” Presumably, in the video — given that she winds up at a dive bar — the note serves as that message.
Apparently, it’s from someone she really likes, who doesn’t care about her reputation, and that helps give her power to become invisible and joyful. And, seeing that Swift was coincidentally photographed a couple of days ago with Alwyn, a rare sighting of the couple, it seems like she really wanted to drive the message home: She may be gone from the spotlight, but she’s doing better than she ever was.