Narrator: Whether or not you were ready for it,
Taylor Swift is finally back with new music.
At midnight on Friday, April 26,
Taylor released the presumed lead single
for her seventh album and an accompanying music video.
The song, titled "Me!," is an energetic anthem
featuring Panic! at the Disco's Brendon Urie.
Here are all the hidden details, references,
and meanings you may have missed
in Taylor's "Me!" music video.
The video opens with a slithering snake,
but it's not the darker-toned snakes
of the "Reputation" era.
Instead, this snake is pink and white.
Suddenly, it bursts into a cloud of butterflies.
It may appear obvious, but there's a lot of meaning
packed into this one transformation.
The snake is slithering on what looks
like chalk drawn on pavement,
which could be referring to how Taylor wrote
that she,
in her "Reputation"-era poem, "Why She Disappeared."
The imagery also brings to mind
the ending of that same poem:
The snake, of course, represents both Taylor
and her past "Reputation" era,
which we now see as coming to an official end.
The butterflies here symbolize rebirth
and have been featured heavily in the song's promo.
They're also returned to what feels like Taylor's true self.
After all, butterflies were featured
on Taylor's very first album cover.
Lastly, the sequence seems to directly refer
to lyrics from Taylor's "Reputation"-era song "End Game,"
where she sings,
This line ended up being
a pretty literal description of the order
in which her album and single were released.
We see Taylor and Brendon Urie in a pretty apartment,
arguing in French.
This is Taylor's first time collaborating with Brendon Urie,
though she's been a longtime fan of his.
In her February essay on pop music for Elle UK,
Taylor may have hinted at the pair's upcoming collab,
directly naming "I Write Sins Not Tragedies"
as a special song to her at age 16.
In the video, Brendon appears to be playing
the role of her love interest.
Behind Taylor, you can see a sparkling Christmas tree.
This is a nod to her childhood spent
growing up on a Christmas tree farm.
You can also spot the bar cart teased
on her Instagram countdown.
We see Taylor's cats Olivia and Meredith
make a quick appearance,
one of the other many video teasers
she posted on Instagram.
Taylor's first dress resembles the one she wore
while performing "Treacherous" throughout "The Red Tour"
but with flowers added.
They look like the same flowers that decorated her
"Why She Disappeared" poem
and her "Reputation" merch calendar,
which we'll get to later.
Taylor's style here also looks similar
to her iconic "Blank Space" music video.
Her mascara-teared, golf-club-wielding
"Blank Space" persona is given a further nod,
as Taylor screams in French,
Narrator: As Taylor exits the apartment,
the song begins.
"Me!"'s opening line sounds just like
the opening of "Delicate,"
the result of both using a vocoder effect.
The opening lyrics call back
to several classic Taylor songs.
First, she sings,
echoing the lyrics
of her song "Jump and Fall" and a line from "Shake it Off."
We're able to spot another image
Taylor teased on Instagram as she sings,
Framed photos of chicks wearing sunglasses
surround a portrait of the Dixie Chicks.
This could be hinting at a future collab
with the country group.
The Dixie Chicks also tweeted a pair of eyes at Taylor
after the song dropped, adding fuel to the fire.
As the video continues,
the grand staircase and towering arches
Taylor glides through resemble the throne room
from the "Look What You Made Me Do" music video,
showing the contrast between her past and present self.
Taylor sings that,
Likely referencing her monologue
in "Look What You Made Me Do" when she announces:
We see Taylor touch a pink phone,
one that only her oldest fans may recognize.
The old-fashioned phone looks nearly identical
to the one used in Taylor's "Our Song" video
from back in 2007.
The color scheme in "Our Song" seems
to be making a comeback in "Me!"
She follows the line with:
Referencing an iconic "Reputation"-era
lyric from "End Game."
Snake-shaped clouds float her way
and try to attack her, but she walks through them unscathed.
After walking out the door,
Taylor is dancing in a pastel yellow suit
and joined by more and more dancers.
We can spot two clues from Taylor's Instagram countdown:
the colorful tiled pavement and briefcases.
The yellow-and-white-striped sidewalks
are also reminiscent of the Yellow Brick Road
from "The Wizard of Oz."
"Me!" seems to be a tribute to both Taylor's career
and classic childhood movies.
There's another clear movie reference to "Mary Poppins,"
as Brendon Urie jumps out of a window
and floats down with an umbrella.
We get a view of a glass-like sky,
suggesting this video is taking place in its own bubble.
In her "Ready For It?" music video,
we saw a robot Taylor doppelgänger trapped in a glass box
trying to get out.
But in "Me!," it's clear Taylor's
in control of her own world.
We get a glimpse of Brendon's new suit.
It's the same flower print as Taylor's first dress,
the poem, and the calendar.
In the distance, a pink neon sign saying "Lover"
stands out against the rooftops.
Fans think "Lover" could be the title
of Taylor's next single or another track on TS7.
We get yet another past-music-video reference
when we see Taylor sitting on what appears
to be a rooftop in Paris.
The scene looks just like one from Taylor's music video
for "Begin Again."
Her reference to "Begin Again" also looks like
it relates to the selective all-caps words
she dropped in her Instagram captions
starting back in October.
Together, the all-caps words read, "Begin Another Me."
Brendon is joined by umbrella dancers on the roof,
which are a reference to the dancers
who performed with Taylor during "How You Get the Girl"
on her "1989 World Tour."
Brendon offers Taylor flowers, which she refuses,
and then offers her an engagement ring,
which she also turns down.
She only accepts a kitten.
Fans took a lot away from this exchange.
Before the premiere, Taylor told fans
that there was a surprise she'd been hiding
for months in this video.
Fans were convinced this meant she was engaged
to her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn.
However, Taylor rejects the proposal,
similar to the empty engagement ring box
that caused commotion
in her "Look What You Made Me Do" video.
Instead, the only way you get this girl is with a kitten.
This left fans thinking that perhaps
the surprise announcement was a new kitten.
This theory would add up with the three cats present
in the mural she commissioned
in Nashville to promote the song.
Taylor then confirmed the theory the following morning
with a post about her newest kitten.
There are some other small Easter eggs in this scene.
We see both the heart-shaped earrings
and the pink ruffled dress Taylor teased on Instagram
before the release.
We transition into the next scene
through what looks like a kaleidoscope
of loud heartbeats under coats,
bringing to life lyrics from Taylor's song
"Welcome to New York."
We find Taylor and Brendon dancing
to a crowd of cheering fans.
Taylor's wearing a '60s-inspired heart dress,
another countdown clue from Instagram.
The scene also draws contrast to one
in "Look What You Made Me Do,"
where we saw Taylor on a stage in front of
a sea of robot-model "friends."
In "Me!," the fake friends are replaced with adoring fans.
Taylor next appears in a marching-band outfit,
which is a callback to her "You Belong With Me" video.
The outfit is also another Instagram clue.
The dancers then lift her up into the same position
she was held in during "I Did Something Bad"
on the "Reputation" tour.
As she and Brendon run to what looks like
a mansion melded from townhouses,
we can view iconic London structures in the distance.
There's Big Ben, St Paul's Cathedral, and Tower Bridge.
The structures could be a nod to Joe's British roots
and that Taylor herself may be moving across the pond.
It's been reported that Taylor is interested
in a permanent home in London,
so this could be her way of telling fans
that her move is in progress.
Taylor and Brendon dance together on a rainbow platform.
Taylor's wearing white cowboy boots,
perhaps a nod to her country roots.
Their cheeky dance is reminiscent
of the dance from "The Parent Trap,"
another classic movie.
The video's final scene shows Taylor
and Brendon dancing around as colorful rain splatters down.
This could be a reference to
Taylor's "Delicate" music video
where she dances in the street in the middle of the rain.
In "Delicate," a song widely believed to be about Joe,
she sings:
In "Me!" we see Taylor's lover
joyously dance around in the mess with her.
The tips of her hair are colored blue.
The look is similar to the pink tips
Taylor rocked in "I Knew You Were Trouble"
and the pink hair she's been sporting
to promote this new era.
In the background, we can spot the last Instagram teaser,
a blue bike.
As the song comes to an end,
Taylor gives us one last extra detail
that only she would create.
The song is 3 minutes and 13 seconds long,
while the video is 4 minutes and 9 seconds.
Four plus 9 equals, yeah.
Taylor's lucky number.
The video for "Me!" is a triumphant tribute to Taylor
full of subtle references to past songs and their videos.
She gives us color, nostalgia,
and perhaps most significantly,
a celebration of self.
While Taylor's previous era showed her
literally killing and burying her past selves,
this new era begins by celebrating them.
She sings,
Accepting that all Taylors past,
present, and future are just really the one, true Taylor.
Fans first started speculating that Taylor had new music
to release as far back as October 2018
when she posted a photo of herself playing Scrabble
with the caption, "Let the games BEGIN."
Swifties were quick to notice that Taylor's Scrabble tiles
added up to seven points,
taking the number as a clue towards TS7.
Anticipation for a new album resurfaced in February
with another Instagram post, this time of seven palm trees.
Fans got their biggest clue on April 13
when Taylor posted a photo of a heart-shaped earring
with the caption, "4.26"
as well as updated her official website
with a mysterious countdown set to end on,
you guessed it, 4/26.
Fans lost it when they realized
that April 13 just so happened
to be National Scrabble Day,
tying back to their original theories and seeming to confirm
that the countdown would end with TS7.
Even more, the day April 13 was also marked
on Taylor's official "Reputation"-era calendar
released back in July 2018.
This signaled to fans that her new music release
had been planned for quite some time.
Taylor followed her initial 4.26 post
with a series of aesthetically similar photos
with the same caption,
leading fans to believe the images were
a sneak peek to the video we finally got
as the countdown came to an end.
The next marked dates on Tay's calendar
are 5/13 and 7/13.
Could these be hinting at future single-
or even album-release dates?
Only time will tell.
Did you notice any other details
from Taylor's "Me!" release?
Make sure to let us know in the comments below.