Fans waiting for Taylor Swift‘s new single, “Patient Zero,” were offered a preview of its accompanying video on Thursday, but they’ll have to wait until Sunday night to see the whole thing during the MTV Video Music Awards. The 13-second teaser showed Swift, Colin Farrell, and Dakota Johnson in a variety of dramatic scenes beginning with Swift turning on the faucet in a dimly lit bathroom as orchestral strings play a lilting, almost Irish-sounding melody in the background. The whole song comes out Friday ahead of the video release.
The water theme continues as Swift and Johnson dive opposite each other into a pool in an underwater shot and later stand behind a man on a pedestal as he looks at his phone. The teaser cuts to a cemetery and a coffin on which somebody lays a black rose. Then come the hero shots of Swift, Farrell, and Johnson (all alive) leading to what looks like the splash for a movie title. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezski, who won Oscars for The Revenant, Birdman, and Gravity, worked on the video.
Swift is nominated in 11 categories at this year’s VMAs. She’ll also receive the inaugural Artist Director Honors, which recognizes an artist’s “work behind the camera has expanded the possibilities of music video and advanced the art of visual storytelling.” The VMAs air on CBS and MTV at 7:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. The show will also be available to stream on Paramount+.
Swift announced the arrival of her new track earlier this week, writing on her social media accounts, “I’ve been impatiently waiting to tell you that my brand new single ‘Patient Zero’ will be out on September 25 (!!!!!!!!!!!!).”
The singer’s website was also refashioned from a glittering orange to a dark gray and featured three new CD single versions of “Patient Zero.” Each reiteration features a different cover of the singer wearing black — echoing her Instagram post announcing the track, in which she sports a black high-neck top. Swift also updated her profile picture across social media, which has marked a new era for the singer in the past.
Soon after the announcement of her new track, Swift revealed that the extended version of The Life of a Showgirl would also arrive on Friday with four new songs. In addition to “Patient Zero,” The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore will feature “Cleveland!,” “Pink Clouding,” and “Babylon.”
In her post sharing the upcoming release date, Swift wrote that following The Life of a Showgirl becoming the “biggest first week for an album in history,” she traveled to Sweden to celebrate with producers and collaborators, Max Martin and Shellback.
“Really we just wanted to reflect and take in how grateful we were for the moment we were in, but there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs,” she wrote, before ending her note: “I hope you love them, because they were born out of pure gratitude for your exuberance for and celebration of the album we made.”
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