You Need to Calm Down is the new Taylor Swift song that has taken the internet like a storm!
So let’s find out some trivia and facts about this new bop!
- “You Need to Calm Down” is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift
- It was released on June 14, 2019
- As the second single off her upcoming seventh studio album, Lover
- Taylor Swift wrote and produced this song with her co-producer Joel Little
- Swift addresses homophobia and her critics in the song
- On June 12, 2019, Swift announced a livestream on Instagram for the following day
- During which she announced that her upcoming album’s second single, entitled “You Need to Calm Down”
- It was to be released at midnight
- A lyric video for the song was released together with the song on YouTube
- The video contained several easter eggs
- Including changing the word “glad” to GLAAD
- And highlighting “EA” letters as a reference to the Equality Act
- Following the release, GLAAD reported an “influx” in donations in the amount of $13
- A reference to Swift’s favorite number
- “You Need to Calm Down” received generally positive reviews from music critics
- Dan Stubbs from NME called the song “withering in its measured response”
- Concluding it was “an infectious, bite-size pop package”
- Gwen Ihnat of The A.V. Club wrote that the song “clearly and refreshingly combats homophobia and anti-gay bias”
- Maeve McDermott and Joshua Bote, writing for USA Today, considered the song “an improvement” over the previous single “Me!”
- And “a more promising example of what fans can expect” from the album
- Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times also concurred that the song was “a big creative improvement” over “Me!”
- While commenting the “explicit pro-gay message is certainly welcome, but it also feels just the slightest bit cynical”
- Michelle Kim of Pitchfork opined that while the song is “well-intentioned” and the allyship deserved some praise
- It is also “bewildering and underwhelming at the same time”
- Justin Kirkland of Esquire wrote the song “misses the point of being an LGBTQ ally” by “equating online haters with the personal and societal struggle of LGBTQ+ people”
- Constance Grady of Vox called the song “exhausting”, comparing the song unfavorably to “Blank Space” (2014)
- The music video, directed by Drew Kirsch and Swift
- And executive produced by Todrick Hall and Swift
- It was released on June 17, 2019
- After a premiere on Good Morning America
- The video featured a large number of celebrity cameos
- Many of whom identify as LGBT
- In order of appearance, the list includes Dexter Mayfield, Hannah Hart, Laverne Cox, Chester Lockhart, Todrick Hall, Hayley Kiyoko, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Justin Mikita, Ciara, Queer Eye’s Fab Five (Tan France, Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness), Adam Rippon, Adam Lambert, Ellen DeGeneres, Billy Porter, RuPaul, Katy Perry, and Ryan Reynolds
- The appearance of Perry serves as an end to a dispute between the two
- Although both artists had publicly ended the feud several months prior
- A number of impersonators, most of whom drag queens and past contestants on RuPaul’s Drag Race, also appear in the video impersonating various female singers
- They are: Tatianna as Ariana Grande, Trinity Taylor as Lady Gaga, Delta Work as Adele, Trinity K. Bonet as Cardi B, Jade Jolie as Swift, Riley Knoxx as Beyoncé, Adore Delano as Katy Perry, and A’keria C. Davenport as Nicki Minaj
- The video is set in a colorful trailer park
- Taylor Swift awakens in her trailer
- With an embroidery containing the Cher quote “Mom, I am a Rich Man” hanging on a wall
- Taylor Swift throws her smartphone onto her bed
- Which then gives off sparks and starts a fire in the trailer
- She nonchalantly walks to a pool, ignoring her burning trailer
- The camera then switches to other residents in the trailer park and their activities
- Including Mayfield dancing, Hart weightlifting a boombox, Cox watering her yard of plastic flamingoes and greeting Lockhart, who promptly faints
- The scene cuts to Swift walking and dancing down a street with Hall
- Interspersed with scenes of Kiyoko shooting an arrow into a target with the number “5”
- Protestors holding placards with anti-gay slogans
- Ciara officiating a wedding between Ferguson and Mikita
- And Rippon serving snow cones to customers from a stall
- Swift also holds a tea party with the Fab Five and Hall
- In another trailer, Lambert tattoos the words “Cruel Summer” onto DeGeneres’ right arm
- Taylor Swift and other residents sun tan while ignoring the heckling protestors
- Followed by Porter walking down the middle wearing a dress
- The scene shifts to a “pop queen pageant” with the contestants dressed as numerous female singers
- RuPaul walks down the lineup with a crown decorated with emeralds and fleur-de-lis motifs
- But instead of crowning a winner, he throws it in the air
- A food fight begins, with Swift appearing in a french fries costume and Perry in a hamburger suit
- The two see and walk towards each other
- Elsewhere, Reynolds works on a painting of the Stonewall Inn
- Swift and Perry smile and dance and share a hug
- At the end of the video, a message appears urging viewers to sign Swift’s Change.org petition for the United States Senate to pass the Equality Act
Got anything to add?