Taylor Swift either has too many, or not enough songs. Or simply, not enough spare time.
When Swift dropped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night, Dec. 10, the outgoing host asked the pop superstar to name her top five TayTay songs. Tough call, even for Swift.
With that quiz, Swift joined the esteemed company of Dolly Parton, Elton John, Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen. All of them are inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. For Swift, it’s just a matter of time before she gets the Rock Hall call.
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Swift, however, struggled to complete her task. “This is so much pressure,” she told the Colbert. “You’re already writing five.”
Party pooper alert: the “Shake It Off” singer requested a “little time to get back to” Colbert for the definitive list. “Because I don’t have enough, see,” she continued. “I think I require a little bit of time to like, appreciate my work in a way… and it’s constantly changing, right. It’s a little too soon.”
Swift was able to select her first choice, “All Too Well,” the 10-minute version, which was released as part of the re-recorded Red (Taylor’s Version) from November 2021.
“I’m really obsessed with The Life of a Showgirl right now, the whole album,” she noted.
Swift also selected “Mirrorball” from 2020’s Folklore album, but admitted she “can’t really do any of the others.”
Given some time, “we could do an update at some point,” Swift asked.
Colbert, with the type of delivery that was so sharp and fast, he could hurt a person, remarked: “You’ve got all the time you need between now and May.” That timeframe is a firm one, after which the award-winning host is set to be taken off CBS’ airwaves.
Watch Taylor Swift’s top 5 challenge with Stephen Colbert below.
For her first return to The Late Show since 2021, Swift made an adorable TikTok video with Colbert backstage.
As previously reported, the clip begins with a close-up of Swift in a fuzzy winter jacket vibing to the humming intro of her 2008 Fearless album cut “Hey Stephen.” When the camera pans out, we see that the host is there too, and he even lip-syncs the first word of the song: “Yeah.” Swift then breaks her so-far straight face to give a big goofy smile and wave at the funnyman and mouth, “Hey, Stephen!”
The Late Show beamed out Wednesday night at 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
