Taylor Swift Desperately Asked Dozens of People to Keep 1 Secret
Throughout the course of her career, Taylor Swift has become known for keeping her work a secret until the right moment. Back in 2020, the “All Too Well” singer surprised released not one, but two albums. But Swift has also trained her fans to keep secrets for her. One of the best examples of this is the Pennsylvania native’s secret sessions.
What are Taylor Swift’s secret sessions?
But what exactly are secret sessions? These occur when Swift invites hundreds of loyal fans to her various homes to play them her full album prior to release. At these coveted sessions, Swift speaks with her fans about the inspiration behind her album, bakes them treats (like cookies and brownies), and takes photos with them. As a parting gift, she sends them home with their own (typically signed) copy of her latest album.
Though the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has prohibited Swift from having secret sessions in recent years, she has shared that she will continue doing them in the future. According to the Amsterdam actor, her fans have never given her a reason to stop doing them. Her album has never leaked prematurely, and most Swifties don’t mention that they were extended an invitation to secret sessions until after it’s over.
The ‘Shake It Off’ music video was filmed in complete secrecy
But fans aren’t the only ones who have kept huge secrets for the “’tis the damn season” singer. The people she has worked with have also been tight-lipped about top secret T. Swift projects. A good example of this is the music video for one of Swift’s most popular singles, “Shake It Off,” which was released back in 2014. The music video, which took three days to shoot, was filmed before the song was even out.
How did Swift get the performers to stay quiet about her new single?
So how did Swift manage to get the dancers and crew to keep her secret for Shake It Off? Considering 1989 was one of her most anticipated albums, getting scores of people not to leak the news of a new song or music video to the press is pretty impressive. But according to an interview with Nashville magazine, Swift was able to accomplish this with a carefully worded plea.
“Basically, I just gave them a very, very long talk. And I asked them really nicely and somewhat desperately to please keep this secret for me, because I said it’s the biggest secret I have right now,” Swift shared. “And it’s all I have right now. ‘Please don’t tell anyone about this. You weren’t here. You can scream it from the rooftops after this is over. But please, please be the exception. Be the one group of people in this day and age who can keep a secret.’ And they went and did that.”
Swift admits she felt a lot of paranoia about her most viewed music video
Of course, Swift had no assurance that her heartfelt plea would be honored. The way she released “Shake It Off” was new territory for her. And Swift admits she was a bit nervous about whether or not she’d be able to pull it off.
“When you’re shooting a music video before a song is even out, I approach that with a very high level of paranoia because I’ve never done things like that before,” Swift explained. “I’ve always put out a song and then shot the video, like, two weeks later. So going into this, it was very much a mission and a project and a secret kind of hush-hush thing.”
Swift may have been nervous, but clearly, things worked out for her in the end. To date, Shake It Off remains her most viewed music video with over 3 Billion views.
