Everyone is in Taylor Swift's new music video for "You Need To Calm Down"
Last Friday Taylor Swift dropped her newest single “You Need To Calm Down,” an upbeat wag of the finger at anonymous online hate and the toxic obsession with other people’s lives—in particular, those within the LGBTQ+ community. Since then, Swift released a number of teasers hinting towards a star-studded music video, promising the likes of Ellen Degeneres, the Queer Eye Fab Five, Hayley Kiyoko, Ryan Damn Reynolds, Todrick Hall, and plenty more. This morning, Swift released her candy-coated video and yes, she was right: Just about everyone is here.
Set in the world’s most colorful trailer park, the song and video take shots at past controversies—specifically “snakes and stones never broke my bones” alludes to her very public feud with the Kardashian-Wests, where the snake emoji became a petty centerpiece. (What happened to not being a part of that narrative anymore?) Neighbors include Laverne Cox, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Hannah Hart, consistent joy Billy Porter, RuPaul, a gaggle of Drag Race alumni donning their best pop queen drag, Ciara, Adam Rippon, Dexter Mayfield, and others as they party in the face of very upset anti-queer protesters.
The biggest cameo, however, easily came from former nemesis Katy Perry, who literally showed up to be the cheeseburger to Swift’s french fry (a very overt nod to Perry’s 2019 Met Gala burger costume). While the two pop staples made up a while ago, the video seems to serve as a visual olive branch of sorts. The song ends with a call for fans to sign her petition for Senate support of the Equality Act.
Maybe the future will include a video of Swift and Kanye jumping in a bouncy house while battling climate change, hand-in-hand? We’ve seen weirder.