Taylor Swift fans have shared their emotional responses to the pop star’s surprise release of her new single, The Archer, as news broke that she had been nominated for 10 gongs at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards.
Swift launched the new track in the middle of an Instagram live session on Wednesday morning Australian time, saying it was to be the fifth track of her 18-track forthcoming album, Lover.
Swift has made headlines recently for her feud with mega-manager Scooter Braun over the sale of her masters, and was briefly sighted in her role as Bombalurina in the trailer for the forthcoming movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats.
Track five has particular significance for the singer’s fans, as that slot on any of Swift album is traditionally given to the most “honest, emotional, vulnerable” song of the collection. Swift said she had been planting teasers for The Archer throughout her music videos and other social media content for the last few months.
in a taylor swift album centered around love she still managed to throw in a song for us sad girls who hate themselves pic.twitter.com/oNQAgC0O8D
— bombalurina enthusiast (@tracesofswift) July 24, 2019
live footage of me (on my period) listening to taylor swift track 5 pic.twitter.com/ENvMgpOgsP
— Dana Schwartz (@DanaSchwartzzz) July 23, 2019
WHO COULD EVER LEAVE ME DARLING BUT WHO COULD STAY? #TheArcher pic.twitter.com/TCARutTTUN
— LOVER babe💗 (@sweeranoflife) July 23, 2019
The Archer received widespread praise on social media, in stark contrast to the lukewarm reception that the saccharine Me! and its pastel rainbow-themed video clip received on launch in April. The second single from the album, You Need To Calm Down, was released in June.
On Tuesday night, MTV announced those videos had yielded Swift 10 nominations in the Video Music Awards, including video of the year and song of the year for You Need to Calm Down. The latter, which was seen as “a bold show of LGBTQ+ solidarity”, was nominated for seven awards, while Me! was nominated for three.
Lover is due out on 23 August. The MTV VMA ceremony will take place the following week, on 27 August.
