This week’s “SNL” musical guest was none other than Taylor Swift, whose latest album, “Reputation,” just dropped on Thursday night. Swift performed a pair of tracks off the album — the first was a lively performance of the single “…Ready For It?” and the second was a quieter performance of “Call It What You Want,” in which she also played acoustic guitar.
We’ve embedded the two performances below for your viewing pleasure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s1rvMFUweQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE7JvEsCGkc
Unlike Miley Cyrus, who popped up in random spots all across the show a week ago in addition to her musical guest spot, Swift did not appear in any sketches. But that didn’t temper the enthusiasm of her fans — the hashtag #TaylorOnSNL was the top trending item from the show on Twitter by the end of the show.
Of particular interest was the shockingly fancy jewel-encrusted microphone she used during “…Ready For It?” which had pretty much everybody who noticed it remarking on it. It was, admittedly, pretty nice.
The Taylor Swift performances served as much needed calm breaks during what was a pretty frantic episode of “SNL.” It kicked off with the obligatory political cold open which took aim squarely at Roy Moore, the U.S. Senate candidate from Alabama who was caught up this week in scandal as several women came forward and accused him of dating teenagers when he was in his thirties.
Host Tiffany Haddish then brought us the liveliest monologue of the season so far (which you can watch here), and it was off to the races from there.