Taylor spoke at the retrospective, with attendee Larry Dvoskin sharing the following insights:

“MY NIGHT WITH TAYLOR SWIFT- The Grammy Academy hosted a Taylor Swift talk tonight. The invite just mentioned Academy President Harvey Mason Jr, but it was like a 'Wink IYKYK' thing.

Taylor came onstage and shared her beautiful stories of how she writes songs and where she gets her endless inspiration from. Then she played a few tunes for the 100 or so people there. It wasn't even sold out, there were empty seats.

I honestly am not a 'Swiftie,' though her success is as big as it gets. The biggest Grammy winning female in history. Afterward there was a reception and I had a sweet, and kinda nerdy songwriter chat with her for quite a long time. Alot of people were trying to get in and talk with her, but she has a laser attention and when it was on me, the world was shut off around us.

Here's some songwriting nuggets I wrote down.

- She told the audience "Enthusiasm can protect you from anything." At the reception I shared her the word "Enthusiasm" actually comes from ancient Greece, meaning 'the divine within,' or 'possessed by divine inspiration.'

- She plays a spinet piano on tour. I mentioned to her that Paul McCartney also plays a spinet. She told me she likes a smaller piano so she can see over it and look around at everyone onstage and in the crowd.

- ‘YES AND'- Is a big thing for her when songwriting and recording. Trying an idea, but being open to exploring music with another point of view.

- Show up to work even then the 'Idea Fairy' as she calls her muse of inspiration isn't around. It sometimes shows up when you do.

I was impressed she stayed to talk to everyone who attended. As I report this, she is likely still speaking to the people at the Grammy Museum giving every person very present, quality time.”

The submission window for the 2027 Grammys closes this Friday, and The Life of a Showgirl is eligible this cycle.
It reminded me that Taylor’s last Grammys as a nominee ended with six nominations and zero wins in 2025. The result looks pretty brutal on paper, but she spent the whole night dancing, cheering for everyone and seemingly having a great time anyway.
She had no eligible release for the 2026 ceremony, so this will be her first opportunity to return to the nominations since that shutout.
Which categories, if any, do you realistically see The Life of a Showgirl being nominated in? Do you think it has a better chance of winning than TTPD did?

I'm gonna preface this to say - Taylor herself has said she's not the greatest dancer. And even for moments when she is clearly not performing (like being on fancam at MTV Video Music Awards or dancing during the Grammys), she draws a lot of criticism when she's just vibing to music that to me seems kind of unwarranted.

But when it comes to the Eras Tour... a lot of the choreography (to me and maybe some others here?) is not very good. I'm not saying that the dancers were not good - they are very personable and charismatic, the ability to put on a 3 hour show for Taylor and the dancers requires unimaginable stamina and hard work.

I'm saying that Mandy Moore interpolates dancing into the songs on such a very literal, and repetitive, level that a lot of it becomes over the top and hammy (Lover comes to mind with The Man and You Need to Calm Down).

Some of the sequences are great - Fearless has really cute simple choreography; Ready For It goes hard; 1989 has a great set-up with the bikes and smashing the car from Blank Space; TTPD, in particular, like I Can Do It With A Broken reusing the choreography from other sections says a lot about how Taylor has used art for her break-ups and how it's consumed for people wanting more. Midnights overall is very good. And there's a lot of things going on in Fortnight and Mastermind. I think Moore did a good job balancing where people's eyelines are supposed to go (usually centering the dancers around Taylor but also giving them enough solo moments too).

But when Taylor is on her own, a lot of it is miming to her own lyrics. Vulture had an article about this - I tried to link the article without the paywall but it wasn't successful. But they pretty much point out that if there's a lyric of seeing, hiding, thinking; she and the dancers point to their heads. And there's more other examples of that throughout. When she sings about dying or being in pain, she makes a stabbing motion towards her stomach. ETC. It's kind of something you can't unsee once you see how common it is.

At times, when I pull back from watching Taylor, the other choreography is also kind of cringe. Some sequences that come to mind is Shake It Off. I know ppl will it's kind of silly to criticize dancing for this song 'cause it's mean to be playful. But there are parts where the dance is what I can only describe is a chicken squawking from like the polka? And, random jumping up and down?

Enchanted also comes to mind, where the female dancers are basically left to run around in circles twirling the ends of their dresses. Your eyes are supposed to be on Taylor on the stage lift, but looking at the dancers, it's not very connective to the song itself.

A lot of songs also recycle moves - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together uses a rowing(?) motion that's used elsewhere a lot. This side step from Bad Blood is used a lot as well.

I can see why people might downvote me for something that Taylor and a lot of people are already aware of that Taylor is not a good dancer. But the choreography was something that I noticed and wondered how other people felt....especially because I felt like Reputation stadium tour was able to center around Taylor with choreography that (even for a pop concert) was very expressive and complex, let her mime here and there and dance on her own...but it wasn't so on the nose.

EDITING this to say - a lot of ppl are saying 'just don't watch her tours for the choreography'. I don't watch her concerts primarily for the choreography, but since dancing is a part of the whole concert, I was just noting how I thought the choreography could be disjointed. I thought my post was fairly objective in thinking out loud about the strengths and weaknesses. I didn’t drag anyone? But go ahead and downvote I guess lol

• Part 1: Intro & Debut
• Part 2: Fearless
• Part 3: Speak Now
• Part 4: Red
• Part 5: 1989
• Part 6: Reputation
• Part 7: Lover
• Part 8: Folklore
• Part 9: Evermore

^(CWs)^(: besides TLOAS getting its title drive-by and some negative comments about rep, nothing really. Another album I just love to bits.)

I am running around like a tattooed golden retriever over this one. This was the first TSwift album I ever loved --and also the first one I ever listened to in full -- and I am so excited to talk about it! At the same time, I'm weirdly nervous to talk about it; discussing the albums I hated is so much easier than the ones I loved, and I know Midnights is a bit contentious even among fans. I don't know what to say. It's just really important to me.

But who cares about any of that? It's 2022! We're finally starting to see a world coming back to normal, and music is starting to reflect that feeling, with a lot of the biggest hits being from established players: Adele, Beyonce, Harry Styles, Justin Bieber. Things are often upbeat, and generally this is considered a pretty great year for pop. People are starting to feel hopeful and happy, with a touch of the bittersweet and introspective, and it's not hard to construct a look-back of the year in popular music that reflects this.

Taylor is kind of on top of the world at this point: this is the year she'll receive an honorary doctor in fine arts from NYU, announce the Eras tour, and release the short film All Too Well to the Toronto Film Festival. Being taken seriously as an artist in multiple mediums and as beloved as ever, her next album is surely going to be a cheerful, glitter-penned good time like Lover or Fearless, right? And it surely won't be controversial or even considered a disappointment*... right?*

Ladies, gentlemen, both, and neither, say hello to...

Midnights (2022)

Image source

^((I can't seem to put the image in the body. ☹️ Oh well, pretend it's here))

Overall

This was (is?) my favorite album, and for a long time the only Taylor Swift album I would listen to. I remember asking people, "well, if I liked Midnights, what other albums of hers would I like?" and being told that it was hard to compare, since nothing else sounds like it. Which is true, for the most part; she does a lot of really interesting things both lyrically -- I think this is her first concept album, a collection of songs capturing the thoughts you have in the middle of the night -- and musically. Aside from reputation, which I guess is its closest comparison (a little funny, considering how differently I feel about both experiments), I'm not sure she has anything that could so clearly be seen as a dance album, or that plays so much with synths, autotune, and a bunch of other electronic elements I'm not musically educated enough to know the names of. It's a jangly, sparkly album that also manages to be deeply melancholy and muted, and honestly I'm still not sure how she pulled both of those off without it feeling jarring or incoherent, but it really doesn't. Even when some of it doesn't work for me -- personally I'm a much bigger fan of the muted parts than the jangly ones -- I still have to be impressed that she's still out here trying new things without coming across as desperate or selling out. Apparently this is called "bedroom pop" or "dream pop," which means moody, late-night vibes and low-fi beats, which I'd never heard of before but is honestly fitting. A lot of this album feels like a dream, or like the part of the early, early morning when you need to be asleep but can't, where everything feels just a bit surreal.

I know this album was disappointing on both a critical and commercial level (well, by Taylor Swift standards) but I think it's her most daring since the massive swing-and-a-miss of reputation, or the swing-and-a-general-success of Red before it. Not every song is great, or even good, but the stuff that works is really excellent, and honestly I don't think anything here is really bad; at worst it's either weird but interesting or bland and forgettable, but never offensive to the senses.

And I love it. I love it so, so much. Love love love love love it.

Songs saved:

• "Lavender Haze"
• "Maroon"
• "Anti-Hero"
• "Snow on the Beach"
• "You're On Your Own, Kid"
• "Midnight Rain"
• "Question...?"
• "Vigilante Shit"
• "Bejeweled"
• "Labyrinth"
• "Karma"
• "Sweet Nothing"
• "The Great War"
• "High Infidelity"
• "Would've, Could've, Should've"
• "Hits Different"

Best song: "Anti-Hero" is just an outstanding song, and one of the rare times her leading single was actually the best choice to introduce people to the album. It's a really good illustration of the entire album's concept: how it feels to be up way too late and unable to keep your thoughts under control, and obsessing over the things that are wrong with you. If you're interested in Taylor lore, it's also fascinating on that level, because for a woman so preoccupied with what people think of her (according to a reading of her music, anyway) and struggling to maintain healthy relationships, a song with her coming to the realization that she has haters and failed relationships because people just plain don't like her, and she doesn't know if there's anything that can be done about it, is the kind of matter-of-fact, mundane tragedy that she is so good at capturing and expressing. It's understated, funny and sometimes awkward, but mostly it's just a quiet, resigned sort of sadness. It's a vibe that permeates that album, not dramatic or grand but in my opinion more poignant because of it.

Honorable MenJUST KIDDING BEST SONG #2: "Would've, Could've, Should've" is tied with "Anti-Hero," and depending on my mood might beat it out. They're both 10/10 songs, so trying to figure out which is slightly more perfect is just giving me a headache. I said in my folklore review that "Exile" was in my Top 3 TS songs, and these are the 2 that might go above it. WCS is a beautiful postmortem of a relationship she didn't grasp the power imbalance of while she was in it. Obsessing over past relationships is another great concept for "things you cannot stop thinking about late at night," and this combines a very justified righteous indignation with that same muted musical palette that makes it quietly devastating.

Honorable Mentions:

• "You're On Your Own, Kid" is my other favorite of the album; it's about her evolution from lovestruck teenager to queen of pop, and the things she's lost, changed, and abandoned on her way to get there. It's not quite a song about regrets, and it's not quite a song about the loneliness that comes from clawing your way to the top, but it's a bit of both those things, as well as touching on that sense she's given in other songs of just being unloved -- or difficult to love -- and not understanding why. I've never felt more empathy for Taylor than in these 3 songs, though I'm not sure how much of this is "real" and how much these are story songs with a first-person narration style. Regardless, they're extremely impactful and beautifully written.
• "Midnight Rain" is I think the only song of the big dance-synth experiments that landed for me, but I just love it. Never would've guessed from those first few seconds that it was a Taylor Swift song, which is honestly really impressive for an artist who is always first and foremost a recognizable brand.
• "High Infidelity" makes adultery look so glamorous, goddamn.
• Other songs I just think are great but don't have anything to say about them: "Maroon," "Bejeweled," "The Great War," and "Sweet Nothings."
• I keep struggling to decide if I like "Snow on the Beach" or if I feel nothing for it, but the catchiness of the chorus and the beauty of the imagery keeps pulling me back in.
• "Lavender Haze" is another song I don't feel all that strongly about, but it gets a shoutout for its music video, which is awesome (and stars a trans dude of color as the love interest! That's neat. I love when she quietly does stuff like that; way more effective and sincere than the performative bombast of "You Need to Calm Down," in my opinion).

Worst song: "Glitch" sounds like a song not good enough to make it onto reputation (which I keep forgetting is supposed to be lowercase, oops). That's not a compliment coming from me.

Dishonorable Mentions: I could go for one of the ones I didn't save, but that's boring so of the ones I did still end up mostly liking:

• "Karma" is trying way too hard in the same way "Better Than Revenge" did back on Speak Now, and it really doesn't land. I give it credit for being the kind of embarrassing, cringe thoughts you might have in the middle of the night, which is the entire point of the album, so it succeeds in its failure. However, I do think I'm giving it way too much credit; I'm not confident that Taylor knows this song is as lame as it is, because she's written equally (or more) awful lyrics when not pursuing this theme. But whether it's trying to fit the concept of the album or not, it does, and that plus its catchiness means gets a pass from me.
• "Vigilante Shit" is even more embarrassing than "Karma," but way more over the top with it. Does that mean it's more intentional? Maybe. Does that mean it's way more fun? Yes, absolutely. Opening with "Draw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a man" creates this image of Taylor sitting up in her room at 3am, practicing bad bitch makeup and fantasizing about actually being one. It's charming and humanizing in a way a lot of her "ooh I'm so cool and tough, I'm the bad guy who always gets the last laugh" posing doesn't.
• I will say, I kept almost liking "Mastermind," but again... it's the same pose, but without the catchiness or the camp. I don't believe Taylor Swift is a mastermind manipulator; I just don't buy it, and unlike the other songs I put here, there's nothing that really added texture to it enough for me to want to hear it regularly.
• The "then everyone clapped" bit in "...Question?" made me cringe until I learned it was based off an actual anecdote. Still a little cringe, but hey, sometimes life is more embarrassing than art.

Definitive song of the album: It always feels like a cop-out to put the biggest single as the definitive song, but most of the time it just is, for better or for worse. So... "Anti-Hero." It's a commentary on her as an artist, a public figure, and arguably a person, and it embodies the concept of the album -- those midnight self-loathing musings -- the best. It's the standout track, the most pop-radio-friendly, and manages to both retain her classic sound and lyricism while fitting in neatly with the more experimental stuff she's playing with around it (I mean, experimental for pop music. This isn't Butthole Surfers or anything).

Best lyric: There are a lot, and most of them are from "Would've, Could've, Should've" or "High Infidelity," but I'm going to stick with just a couple from each, plus some other noteworthy mentions:

• "And now that I know, I wish you'd left me wondering" and "Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first" are both gut-wrenching from the former.
• "You know there's many different ways that you can kill the one you love / The slowest way is never loving them enough" is probably my favorite line from the latter.
• Also fuck it, the entirety of "Anti-Hero." It's very, very good. She doesn't always pull off intentional comedy, but that whole bit about the will reading is great.
• And while I thought "Mastermind" was generally mediocre and kind of embarrassing, "No one wanted to play with me as a little kid" is very revealing re: my entire theory about the Taylor Swift Machine being born of unlikeability and the loneliness it caused. There's a reason an entire school of Swiftie thought centers around speculating about her being neurodivergent, and while I'm not cosigning it because armchair diagnoses are problematic, I will say she speaks to the autistic experience beautifully. And "I'm only cryptic and Machiavellian 'cause I care" is a really fun line that she can't quite pull off.

I know I'm missing some. There are too many great lyrics to list.

Worst lyric: NOT THE SEXY BABY LINE, THAT'S FOR FUCKING SURE. No, seriously, I could write an entire essay on why the sexy baby line is brilliant, but I'll save that for another rant.

Of lines I actually think are bad, most of "Glitch" is nonsense, including "Five seconds later, I'm fastening myself to you with a stitch, oh, yeah." And "that's romance, that's dance" is just... this whole song is vibe-based, and I am not fucking with the vibes. She has a line about "what's in my system" and girl, what is it, root beer? No one thinks you're doing coke. (She might be a real party girl who does hard drugs all the time, but that's not the persona she's developed for herself and she's somewhat trapped by it.)

I also hear a lot of people saying "...Question?" is incomprehensible, which is weird because I think it's a pretty straightforward song, but I'll plop it here to see if other people agree.

You'll love this album if: You enjoy bedroom pop, concept albums, and/or the kinds of thoughts you get when you should've been asleep hours ago set to sad dance music. Or you wanted to hear Taylor Swift play with a synthesizer; apparently no one except me wanted that, considering this album is generally considered a disappointment, but I think this one is brilliant.

On its own, I really loved this album. In the context of her discography, I love it even more.

Recommendations

1. Biggest Hit: "Anti-Hero" -- debuted at #1 and became her longest-leading #1 hit -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1kbLwvqugk
2. Fan Favorite: "Would've, Could've, Should've" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-MfwP_RmHY
3. My Favorite: well, the two listed up there. But after that, "You're On Your Own, Kid" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gbg6Z70J7E
4. My #2 (not already listed): "Midnight Rain" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Odh9ddPUkEY
5. My #3 (not already listed): "High Infidelity" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qee6dFKlw4

What career could you see Taylor having if she wasn't an artist?

I feel like she'd make an excellent teacher. She engages with her fans quite often and I believe she would give the same devotion to students. Even by doing Easter Eggs as hints, I feel like she'd be able to keep students focused and engaged by making learning fun somehow. Of course, she's also has strong communication and gets her point across well, inspiring others while doing so.