Taylor Swift has released a new song and accompanying music video.
The singer debuted Me on Friday, an upbeat pop track featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco.
It is Swift’s first new music since her 2017 album Reputation.
ME! Out now! Made this song with @brendonurie and @iamjoellittle. Dave Meyers and I co-directed the video. And everyone knows you can’t spell awesome without DAVIDBRENDONJOEL. Oh wait… https://t.co/xFsUDfSRSJ pic.twitter.com/0FgYZqMeOP
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 26, 2019
Despite speculation in the build-up of Me’s release, in which Swift dropped a number of hints via social media, she did not provide any information regarding a new album.
Me’s music video opens with a snake – an animal heavily linked to Reputation and its ensuing tour – slithering over a cobbled street before bursting into butterflies.
Swift and Urie are then introduced as a warring couple who own a pair of cats.
The four-minute video, directed by Dave Meyers, features Swift in a variety of colourful outfits while the song’s chorus contains the lyrics: “I’m the only one of me/Baby, that’s the fun of me.”
Shortly before releasing the song, Swift, 29, appeared on US TV network ABC to preview the track.
She told host Robin Roberts: “It’s a song about embracing your individuality and really celebrating it and owning it.
“You know, I think that with a pop song we have the ability to get a melody stuck in people’s heads and I just want it to be one that makes people feel better about themselves, not worse.”
Swift also thanked her fans for “caring about the music that I make” and said the hints dropped in the build-up to Me’s release made the experience “more fun” because to “create music and music videos knowing (fans) will care about little Easter eggs or clues or hints — you have no idea how much fun that is.”
Me is Swift’s first new release since leaving her previous record label, Big Machine Records, and signing with Universal Music Group in November last year.