Taylor Swift apologized for causing a moment of confusion on Thursday night during her second of four sold-out shows at the Tokyo Dome stadium.
While teasing which surprise songs she would be adding to her three-hour long Eras tour setlist, the 34-year-old pop star sent the crowd of 55,000 into a frenzy as she announced her plans to perform ‘two brand-new’ tracks that evening.
Before she could even finish her sentence, the 14-time Grammy winner was quickly interrupted by roaring applause and screams from fans, who assumed she was about to sing new material off her unreleased album, The Tortured Poets Department. ‘Not on my new album,’ she quickly clarified. ‘I’m so sorry, I just realized what you thought I said.’
She continued: ‘They are brand new live, they’re not on the new album, oh my God, I’m so sorry.’ The Cruel Summer hitmaker proceeded to perform her song, Electric Touch, which was originally intended for her 2010 studio album, Speak Now, on the piano. While the tune, the featuring Fall Out Boy, did not make the original cut, she included it on her 2023 re-recorded album Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).
The pop-punk and pop rock song was produced with Aaron Dessner and describes self-doubt over a newfound romance. The chorus goes: ‘All I know is this could either break my heart or bring it back to life/ Got a feeling your electric touch could fill this ghost town up with life.’
It peaked at number 35 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 16 on Hot Country Songs. Her second surprise song was her 2012 song, Eyes Open, written for The Hunger Games movie soundtrack, The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond.
‘I love this one. And I really relate to it and it resonates with me a lot, which makes sense because I wrote it,’ she said ahead of the performance. While Swift may have said she had never sang it live before, she actually premiered the song during a performance in Auckland for her Speak Now World Tour
At the time, she told the crowd: ‘I’m really excited about it…but, I mean, you don’t think I’d get in trouble if I played it now? Probably not, right?’ While on her journey of re-rerecording her discography while under contract with Big Machine Records, stretching back to 2006, Swift released a Eyes Open (Taylor’s Version) last year.
On Wednesday, Swift revealed she planned to announce her new album – The Tortured Poets Department – at her Tokyo concerts if she had failed to win any Grammys. The star, who won two awards at Sunday’s ceremony, including Album of the Year for Midnights, told the audience on Wednesday: ‘Going to the Grammys, going in, I had this plan.
‘But I really hadn’t told very many other people. I thought, ‘OK, if I’m lucky enough to get up there and win one thing tonight, I’m just gonna do it. I’m just gonna announce my new album. ‘And luckily enough, that ended up happening. My backup plan was I was going to do it tonight in Tokyo.