Taylor Swift to give debut live performance of ‘Betty’ this week
The star will return to her country roots for the performance
by Rhian DalyTaylor Swift will give the first live performance of her song ‘Betty’ this week, it has been confirmed.
The track featured on her latest album ‘Folklore’, which was surprise-released at the end of July.
Swift will play the track on Wednesday (September 16) when she appears at the 55th Academy Of Country Music Awards in Nashville. The ceremony will be socially distanced and take place at three iconic venues in the city – the Ryman Auditorium, the Bluebird Cafe and the Grand Ole Opry House.
The performance will mark the star’s first appearance at the ACM Awards in seven years. Miranda Lambert, Kelsea Ballerini, Tim McGraw, Florida Georgia Line will also perform, while Keith Urban will host the event.
The ACM Awards will be broadcast on CBS in the US at 8pm ET (1am BST).
In a four-star review of ‘Folklore’, NME’s Hannah Mylrea said of ‘Betty’: “Despite the bold new direction, there are moments of nostalgia for Swift albums gone by, too. ‘Betty’, a sweet tune about high school romance written by Swift and the enigmatic Bowery, fuses this new folk-rock sound with moments of country we’ve not heard for several albums.”
The album recently became the first record in four years to top the Billboard 200 for six weeks in a row. In achieving the feat, Swift scored the most weeks at Number One since Drake’s ‘Views’ held the top spot for 13 non-consecutive weeks in 2016.
Meanwhile, Katy Perry is set to release an all-access documentary inspired by Swift. Perry said she was “really impressed” by Swift’s 2020 Netflix film Miss Americana, saying: “That whole time she’s just been documenting intense amounts of footage and that’s not over one tour or one record cycle.”