If you guys scream loud enough, Taylor
will hear you," DJ/Swift friend Ruby Rose hollered from behind her
turntables Saturday night inside a 62,500-square-foot mega-club custom-built
(and soon to be unbuilt) for a series of high-profile Super Bowl week parties
in Houston.
The opening act was probably right, given
that the guest of honor was Instagramming videos of her cats from backstage
just before that moment, and about 15 minutes later (no doubt after she heard
fans' chants of "Taylor! Taylor!" from her cat- and
Haim-sister-filled dressing room), Taylor Swift emerged to face 9,000 screaming
fans and perform a packed 17-song set -- including two tracks she'd never
performed live before.
"You have come from all over the world
-- possibly to see football, but would it be all right with you if we played
some music first?" Taylor asked the all-too-eager AT&T Presents
DIRECTV NOW Super Saturday Night crowd during the opening number, 1989 bonus
track "New Romantics." The answer was a resounding yes.
Below are highlights from the hour-and-a-half
spectacle, which spanned from her 2008 hit "Love Story" to the
first-ever performance of her most recent Billboard Hot 100 top five -- albeit
without her duet partner.
***Going It
Alone***
"I don't want you to think Zayn is going
to come out, because he's definitely not," Swift immediately cautioned
while introducing "I Don't Wanna Live Forever," her Fifty Shades
Darker collaboration with the One Direction alum. "I saw a lot of phones
go up in the air. The only one you have here is me, I'm so sorry." The
crowd didn't seem to mind, helping Taylor out with the oh-oh-ohs during her
stripped-down take on the steamy song.
***Little Big
Taylor***
Another live debut was "Better
Man," the Hot Country Songs No. 1 that Swift wrote for Nashville quartet
Little Big Town. Not only has she never performed it live, we've never heard
her sing it ever. Swift made epic use of her background singers for the
performance, having them join her out on the circular stage and creating her
own vocal group, a la LBT.
"I never really knew what it would feel like to
hear my song on the radio and have someone else singing it. Turns out, it feels
awesome," she said before the song. "I feel really grateful to the
artists who have decided to record the things that I have written. The one
drawback is just that you don't really get to hear the crowd sing the songs
back to you." This intro also led into an acoustic take on Calvin Harris
and Rihanna's "This Is What You Came For," which she famously wrote
with her EDM ex.
***On Theme***
There's a Taylor Swift song for every
occasion -- even Super Bowl. "I figured you guys are going to be watching
football, and I wrote a song when I was 16 that features, like, cheer captains
and bleachers, and I don't know, I felt like it might be appropriate to play
tonight," she said to introduce her 2008 crossover smash "You Belong
With Me." "I mean, it's really old, but…"
***Grammys
Flashback***
For Swift's last concert, at October's
Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, she apparently faked out a few fans
when her bedazzled white grand piano rolled out onstage. "When I sat down
at the piano, a lot of people were chanting the name of a song I haven't played
in a long time.
You know what I'm talking about?" she asked, referencing
her famous hair-flipping 2014 Grammys performance of the Red track "All
Too Well" behind the keys. "So I figured that next time I was in
Texas, if you wanted to hear 'All Too Well,' I would play it." And so she
did, re-creating the hair-eography that made the original performance so
memorable (and meme-able).
Several celebs were spotted in the crowd at
the concert, including Chrissy Teigen and husband John Legend, who appeared
cuddly together while standing and also sitting on a couch. The model sang
along to the songs.
Lea Michele was also spotted getting cozy
with a mystery guy while singing along to the tracks. Chris Evans and The
Avengers co-star Jeremy Renner were also spotted, having drinks while watching
Swift's performance.
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