Singer Taylor Swift has released a new single and music video.
The 29-year-old singer has dropped new track ‘ME!’, which features Panic! at the Disco frontman Brendon Urie, and has released an accompanying video directed by Dave Meyers.
Taylor wants the song to help people “feel better about themselves”, and says the hotly-anticipated tune is about “embracing your individuality and really celebrating it”.
During a surprise appearance at 2019 NFL Draft in Nashville on Thursday night (25.04.19), she told ABC’s Robin Roberts: “‘ME!’ is about embracing your individuality and really celebrating it and owning it, and you know, I think that with a pop song we have an ability to get a melody stuck in your head.
“I just wanted it to be one that makes them feel better about themselves. The fans are amazing. I can’t believe how much they care. So it makes it more fun for me to create music, to create music videos, knowing that they’ll care about little Easter eggs, or clues, or hints. You don’t know how much fun that is to make stuff for people who care about it that much. So it’s the fans, they’ve always been there and it’s gotten more fun as time has passed.”
Taylor makes a nod to her feud with Kim Kardashian West in the opening few seconds of the video as a pink snake slithers along a cobbled street, and the video also features her pet cats, Olivia and Meredith.
Before she bursts into song, the ‘Blank Space’ hitmaker and Brendon have an argument in French in front of their “young daughters”, Taylor’s two adorable felines.
The video features a Mary Poppins-themed scene, which could be a reference to her London-born boyfriend Joe Alwyn, in which Brendon floats while using an umbrella, just as the magical character does in 1964 film ‘Mary Poppins’.
Brendon took to Instagram to thank Taylor for “allowing” him to be part of her “beautiful story” and admitted it was “incredible” to work alongside her.
He shared: “Wait. This really happened?! Like for real?!?! Well, I can’t begin to describe how incredible it has been to work on this song and video. So I will simply say: Thank you @taylorswift for allowing me to be a part of your beautiful story. So much f***in love and respect. (sic)”
Taylor had been teasing fans about a new project for weeks, and the date “4.26” started appearing on her social media captions recently.
Should the star drop a new album, as is widely expected, it will be her first since she released her sixth studio album ‘Reputation’ in November 2017.
