It’s not “Reputation (Taylor’s Version),” but Taylor Swift is allowing the Olympics to use a song from her sixth album in an Olympic ad teasing Saturday’s prime-time show.
In the trailer, Swift riffs “let the games begin” between athlete sound bites. Super Swifties will recognize the version is from her Eras Tour movie available on Disney+. At the end of the 2-minute clip, gymnast Simone Biles says, “Are you guys ready for it?” and laughs.
Taylor Nation, Swift’s in-house marketing and public relations team, posted a 2-minute promo showing sound bites from Olympians and a caption that reads, “You should see the things they’re doing in Paris. Tune into @nbc and @peacock at 8/7c to hear …Ready For It? – Live From Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour on Primetime. #WeAreReadyForIt.”
Swift is not at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. She is 530 miles east in Munich, Germany, performing two sold-out concerts.
‘Reputation (Taylor’s Version)’ is coming
Swifties have been anticipating Swift’s sixth album, longing onto livestreams and wishing the singer would make an announcement at one of her Eras Tour stops like she did with her albums “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” She teased the album in her Time person of the year interview telling fans the punk-rock era of snakes and newsprint would include “fire” additional songs.
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Only parts of one song from the rerecord have been heard. In August last year, a snippet of “Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version)” played in a trailer for Amazon Prime Video’s show “Wilderness.”
The Eras Tour star has two rerecords left to release: “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” and “Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version).” No word on when either will be available.
Swift’s first Olympic song: ‘Change’
A decade and a half ago, Team USA athletes and NBC hand-selected “Change,” a “Fearless” track, to be included in highlight reels and commercials. Swift recorded a second version of her music video for the 2008 Summer Games. Red, white and blue lights glowed behind the teen starlet while different Olympic events and athletes were projected onto her guitar amps and walls.
The inspirational track came out during the Summer Games, months before the original “Fearless” album was released on Nov. 11, 2008. Debuting at No. 10 on Billboard’s U.S. chart, the single became Swift’s first song to break the Top 10.
A month after her second album hit store shelves, Swift told entertainment website The Boot: “I wrote the song ‘Change’ as an underdog story. It’s kind of crazy to think that the Olympics chose this as one of the songs to play during the Olympic Games. That blew my mind because what I actually wrote this song about was being on a small record label. When you’re at a record label that had 12 employees, you have to work harder to get on major tours.”
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