{"id":211630,"date":"2019-04-27T05:47:41","date_gmt":"2019-04-27T09:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=211630"},"modified":"2019-04-28T07:17:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-28T11:17:48","slug":"taylor-swift-to-open-billboard-awards-with-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/04\/27\/taylor-swift-to-open-billboard-awards-with-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift to open Billboard Awards with performance"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Swift, a 23-time Billboard Award winner, is nominated for top female artist and top touring artist at the show, which will air live on NBC. (File Photo<\/a>: @taylorswift\/Instagram<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2013 Taylor Swift will open next week’s Billboard Music Awards with a performance of her new single \u201cME!\u201d<\/p>\n

Swift released the colorful, upbeat song Friday morning, ending the weekslong search the pop star set off when she teased fans with clues about a new project.<\/p>\n

She will kick off the May 1 awards show at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, where Mariah Carey, Madonna, Maluma, Kelly Clarkson, Paula Abdul and BTS are also performing.<\/p>\n

Swift, a 23-time Billboard Award winner, is nominated for top female artist and top touring artist at the show, which will air live on NBC.<\/p>\n

Swift released \u201cME!\u201d \u2013 featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco \u2013 on streaming services and also dropped its eye-popping music video Friday. It’s the first single from her upcoming seventh album \u2013 the follow-up to 2017’s \u201creputation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with Robin Roberts on Thursday \u2013 during the 2019 NFL Draft on ABC \u2013 Swift said the song is about \u201cembracing your individuality and really celebrating it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that with a pop song we have the ability to get melodies stuck in people’s heads and I just want it to be one that makes (people) feel better about themselves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The video for \u201cME!\u201d starts with a slithering snake hissing \u2013 an ode to Swift’s \u201creputation\u201d campaign \u2013 but then explodes into dozens of butterflies. Pastel colours are all over the video, which includes Swift and Urie happily dancing around.<\/p>\n

Panic! at the Disco released its debut album in 2005. It featured the hit \u201cI Write Sins Not Tragedies\u201d \u2013 a song Swift said she loved as a teenager. The band has downsized over the years, and now includes only Urie (a touring band accompanies him on the road).<\/p>\n

Urie will play double duty at the Billboard Awards: The Grammy-nominated Panic! \u2013 who had a huge hit in the last year with \u201cHigh Hopes\u201d \u2013 will also perform at the show. Panic! is also nominated for four awards, including top duo\/group, top rock artist, top rock song (\u201cHigh Hopes\u201d) and top rock album (\u201cPray for the Wicked\u201d).<\/p>\n

Swift wrote \u201cME!\u201d with Urie and co-producer Joel Little, the New Zealander best known for producing Lorde’s 2013 debut album, \u201cPure Heroine.\u201d He has also worked on hits for Imagine Dragons and Khalid.<\/p>\n

Swift dropped clues about a new project for several weeks on social media, and her fanatic fans deciphered them and predicted Urie would be featured on the song.<\/p>\n

She surprised a few hundred of those fans Thursday when she visited a mural she commissioned in Nashville and thanked them for showing up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve never been more proud of your FBI level detective skills,\u201d she wrote Thursday on Instagram.<\/p>\n

She told Roberts that she couldn’t \u201cbelieve how dedicated\u201d her fans are.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can’t believe how much they care \u2013 so it makes it more fun for me to create music, to create music videos,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2013 Taylor Swift will open next week’s Billboard Music Awards with a performance of her new single \u201cME!\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":211633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106,54365],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","category-instagram","mauthors-mesfin-fekadu","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211630"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211634,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211630\/revisions\/211634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}