Flanked by Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, Swift opened her medley with “cardigan,” the first single from folklore. Lying down in what appeared to be a grassy meadow, Swift, clad in a long floral dress belted out the tune before rising and wandering into a cottage where her collaborators played their instruments. Once inside, Swift picked up her own guitar and crooned “August,” a fan favorite tune from folklore before launching into the closer, “willow.” The setting for each song was integral: “willow” and “cardigan” were outside, like much of their respective music videos, which featured Swift wandering following sparkles in her piano. Sparkling gold lights were strewn about the stage in a similar vein to the CGI trails in the original “cardigan” and “willow” visuals. For “august,” Swift went inside the cottage-style setup on the stage, a tribute to her “cottagecore” aesthetic for the folklore and evermore eras. For the closer, “willow,” Swift spent the bulk of the song singing inside of a specific wood frame of the structure, similar to the music video for the song, part of which she spends trapped in a box. For the conclusion, Swift, Antonoff and Dessner went “outside” their cottage once more, where Swift had fun with the remainder of the performance, dancing and flouncing her gown. Swift wrote and recorded both folklore and evermore during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Whether intentional or not, the “escape” from the cottage at the performance’s end can be interpreted as a celebration of the world finally seeing the light at the end of the coronavirus crisis and finding freedom to just be out again. At the 2021 Grammys, Swift was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year (folklore), Best Pop Solo Performance and Song of the Year (for “cardigan”), Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (for “exile” with Bon Iver), and Best Song Written for Visual Media (“Beautiful Ghosts” for Cats). Whether or not she takes home any trophies, this performance showed she’s already a winner in a big way. Next, get to know Taylor Swift’s cats!
