Topline
A tweet from Taylor Swift celebrating the release of her re-recorded album Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)—the latest effort by Swift to reclaim her early albums—became the top-performing post on Twitter for this week, beating out Elon Musk and others.
A tweet from Taylor Swift was the most-liked post on Twitter this week.
Key Facts
Swift’s tweet Friday announcing the release of the re-recorded album has accumulated more than 280,000 retweets and 1 million likes since it was posted Friday at noon.
Swift announced the album—originally released in October 2010—in a tweet last month, which has since garnered over 326,100 retweets and 1.1 million likes.
The tweet outperformed another from Musk—who joked after announcing “temporary” reading limits for the platform—that received nearly 660,000 likes and over 93,500 retweets since July 2.
Big Hit Music—the Korean music label for K-pop superstars BTS—also fell below Swift, with a tweet featuring member Jungkook’s new song “Seven.”
Crucial Quote
Swift celebrated the re-recorded album, noting it was “an album I wrote alone about the whims, fantasies, heartaches, dramas and tragedies I lived out as a young woman.”
Surprising Fact
Swift’s tweet is the sixth-most-liked Twitter post this year, falling just behind a tweet from Buffalo Bills player Demar Hamlin, who thanked his fans four days after he suffered a cardiac arrest during a regular season game. Swift’s tweet announcing the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is the fourth-most-liked so far this year.
Key Background
Swift decided to re-record each of her six albums after Big Machine Records—with whom Swift originally signed—sold their rights over to music manager Scooter Braun in 2019. Braun then sold the rights to Shamrock Capitol, though Swift claimed she was never given the opportunity to purchase them. Swift released re-recorded versions of Fearless and Red last year, though she has yet to announce the release of new versions for Taylor Swift, 1989 and Reputation. The re-recorded albums have been commercially successful, after Red (Taylor’s Version) sold over 325,000 copies in the first five days after it was released. Following Swift’s announcement she would re-record her original albums, iHeartRadio said it would only broadcast her re-recordings.
Tangent
Swift altered a lyric in the album’s 10th song, “Better than Revenge,” changing the line, “But she’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress” to, “He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches.” Swift has not commented on why she made the change, though some criticized the line for being “deeply sexist.”
Further Reading
Taylor Swift Announces Re-Recorded ‘Speak Now’—And Hits A New Record (Forbes)
Taylor Swift Changes Controversial ‘Better Than Revenge’ Lyric On ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’ (Forbes)
Elon Musk Beast Out Rihanna for Most-Liked Tweet Of 2023 (Forbes)
