Fearless (Taylor’s Version) – Red Album Re-Release Countdown
After debuting Fearless (Taylor’s Version) earlier this year, Taylor Swift will re-release her 2012 Grammy Award-winning album Red on November 19. She revealed this news through social media posts featuring countdown clocks and changing her profile image to pastel clouds.
She announced via tweet on October 22, the day prior to re-releasing, that she will reveal the tracklist of her new release and that Ed Sheeran will feature with a crossword-style hint. Fans have already begun speculating as to which other guests might join Ed on it.
Red was Swift’s pivotal record as she transitioned away from country music into mainstream pop, and has been widely acclaimed. Critics lauded Red as one of the top albums from 2010s decade, as well as one of greatest female artist albums ever. Red also earned numerous publications’ lists of greatest albums of all time; Rolling Stone named Red as number 99 among their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2020 revision. Songwriting from this record earned Swift multiple awards including Grammy for Best Country Solo Performance.
Red was heavily inspired by Joni Mitchell’s 1971 album Blue, with Joni herself describing it as an album about “heartbreak and forgiveness, finding strength even during your darkest hours”. Red has an eclectic sound palette including country, pop, electronic dance music rock R&B elements produced under Christopher Rowe who worked closely with many of the same producers from Blue as well as featuring guest vocalists Gary Lightbody Phoebe Bridgers Chris Stapleton among many more.
Swift undertook her inaugural worldwide tour, The RED Tour, from its release to 2021. As part of this journey she included “Red” as part of her regular set list, performing it live at various television shows as well as including it on her DVD/Blu-ray record of The RED Tour.
Swift performed the song during her final country music performance at the 2013 CMA Awards, an acoustic set where Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Sam Bush on mandolin, and Edgar Meyer on acoustic bass joined in as backing singers and on mandolin/acoustic bass respectively.
Swift also dedicated the song during her acoustic performance to Taylor Lautner, who was filming The Call of the Wild at that time. Swift later released a music video for this song featuring footage from Lautner and co-stars from the film; directed by Joseph Kahn and shot in Utah mountains – its video has received more than 1.3 billion views on YouTube and was nominated for a Grammy Award as Best Country Music Performance.