Taylor Swift made a surprise appearance during Bon Iver’s Oct. 26 concert at London’s OVO Arena Wembley, during which she and frontman Justin Vernon sang their duet “Exile” together in person for the first time.
They were also joined on stage at Thursday’s show by “The National” musician Aaron Dessner, who produced Swift’s 2020 albums “Folklore” and “Evermore.”
While Swift and Vernon collaborated on “Exile,” they had only previously performed it together virtually for Disney+ documentary concert film “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions.”
They again collaborated on the title track from “Evermore” later that year, but still hadn’t officially met in person. During her acceptance speech for Album of the Year at the 2021 Grammys, Swift thanked Vernon for his contributions, saying, “I’m so excited to meet you someday.”
Over rapturous applause at the end of their duet on Thursday, Vernon quipped, “The most talented person in the world, Taylor Swift,” to which she responded, “The most talented person in the world, Justin Vernon,” before adding, “Also the most talented person in the world, Aaron Dessner!”
It’s been a busy week for Swift, who released her tenth studio album “Midnights” on Oct. 21. The release made history almost immediately, breaking the Spotify record for the most-streamed album in a single day.
“Midnights” has been met with critical fanfare, with Variety‘s Chris Willman writing: “Worth noting is that “Midnights” marks her 10th grand slam in a row (not counting re-recordings), a record you’d be hard-pressed to find matched among the singer-songwriter greats that influenced or otherwise came before her, almost any one of whom had their duds by this point. The rest of the charting music sphere isn’t often rising to the same occasion, to the point that you’re often thinking this is anything like pop’s golden age. But the arrival of each new Swift album as a bona fide musical event can lull you into thinking we’re living in the good old days, or nights, after all.”
