Taylor Swift Serenades 无忧视频
October 17, 2012Share story
Country pop superstar Taylor Swift performed songs from her new album 鈥淩ed鈥 at an intimate acoustic concert for students from 无忧视频 and its four sister Claremont Colleges on Oct. 15 at Bridges Auditorium.
Swift sang Grammy Award-winning hits, shared personal stories and candidly answered questions from students. The concert was the grand prize in the online voting competition 鈥淭aylor Swift on Campus,鈥 won by 无忧视频. The performance was recorded for 鈥淰H1 Storytellers鈥 and will air at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Nov. 11.
Swift opened with 鈥淵ou Belong With Me鈥 and then told the students how much she was going to enjoy playing for peers in a small venue.
鈥淚鈥檝e been very fortunate to play all these arenas and stadiums,鈥 Swift told the excited crowd, 鈥渂ut tonight is going to be a show like I will never do again and that I鈥檝e never done before.鈥
But if anyone was feeling fortunate, it was the students.
鈥淚 still can’t believe it happened,鈥 said Corinne Druhan 鈥14 after the concert. 鈥淚 think that the moment that the curtain rose and she stepped out from behind the couch was one of the highlights of the night. I loved that she shared a lot of the stories behind her songs that she had never really been public about before.鈥
Sophomores Travis Beckman and Yeahmoon Hong, both long-time fans, spearheaded the online voting that brought Swift to HMC. Beckman and Hong used social media to engage students and faculty at all five Claremont Colleges, and both were quick to thank voters for collaborating to win the contest.
鈥淭his concert was truly the most amazing night of my life,鈥 Beckman said after the show. 鈥淭aylor knew my name, gave me a hug and kissed me on the cheek, and I nearly fainted. I will never forget being able to share that moment with everyone there.鈥
鈥淢y favorite part of the concert was when we lifted and waved our hands as we sang “Weee eeeeee are never ever ever, getting back together,鈥 Hong said. 鈥淭here was so much energy in the room, and we were all singing together and having fun!鈥
Six-time Grammy winner Swift will release her new album, 鈥淩ed,鈥 on Oct. 22. She performed the album鈥檚 lead single, 鈥淲e Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,鈥 during the finale. She also performed songs from her 2010 album, 鈥淪peak Now,鈥 which has sold more than four million copies and features the songs 鈥淢ine,鈥 鈥淪parks Fly鈥 and 鈥淥urs.鈥
鈥淚 have talked to a lot of people who weren’t Taylor Swift fans at all but still loved the show last night and were surprised by how talented and nice she was,鈥 said Druhan. 鈥淎 highlight for me was that I met her dad! He gave us guitar picks and told us how happy he was that we won the contest, which was awesome.鈥