Taylor Swift brought the Eras Tour to her Nashville hometown for the first of three shows Friday night (May 5), and surprised fans by welcoming Phoebe Bridgers to perform their collaborative track “Nothing New” for the first time live. Swift and Bridgers both played acoustic guitars and provided vocals for the performance of the song, which hails from 2021’s Red (Taylor’s Version).
It was Bridgers’ first gig as an opening act for Swift on this tour, and her bandmates in boygenius, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, joined her onstage to perform their song “Not Strong Enough.” Dacus and Baker also provided backup vocals on Bridgers’ songs “Graceland Too” and “I Know the End,” according to Setlist.fm.
Bridgers and Swift have been close for a few years, with Bridgers telling Billboard it was a “dream” working on “Nothing New” with Swift. Earlier this year, Bridgers presented Swift with the Innovator Award at the 2023 iHeartRadio Music Awards, sharing in her introduction speech, “Taylor has always told the truth. She’s written songs from exactly where she is. Her music shifted genre in the same way life does — in the same way being 16 is totally incomparable to being 18, 22, 25, 28. I’m grateful that I’ve grown up in a world with Taylor Swift in it. Or, ‘The World (Taylor’s Version).’”
As previously reported, Swift had another surprise in store last night, sharing that she will release a re-recorded version of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) on July 7. The original came out in 2010 and featured the songs “Mean,” “Ours,” “Sparks Fly,” and “The Story of Us.”
The Eras tour continues tonight in Nashville. In addition to Bridgers’ surprise spot, the outing has featured special guests such as the National’s Aaron Dessner in Tampa, Fla., and Marcus Mumford in Las Vegas.
