Taylor Swift brought out Gracie Abrams for a version of their collaboration ‘Us’ in Toronto on Saturday (November 16) – see footage below.
The song was first released in June, as part of Abrams’ second album ‘The Secret Of Us’, with the two artists writing the song together, alongside The National’s Aaron Dessner, who also produced the song along with them both, as well as Jack Antonoff.
At the third of Swift’s six shows at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, the superstar invited her collaborator, who is opening for her on this last leg of the Eras Tour, onto the stage for a performance of the song, which was mashed up with ‘Out Of The Woods’ from ‘1989‘.
See the rendition here:
“A lot of life can happen in the phase of that tour, a lot of art can happen over the course of that tour, and I think you’ll remember the genius, brilliant young lady you saw earlier tonight,” Swift said as she introduced Abrams.
“So, story time, Gracie was opening up for me like a year ago on the Eras Tour and we had so many fun memories during that tour, one of which was we were celebrating her getting nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys, we went out, we had like eleventy-hundred cosmos.”
The performance comes on the week that the song was nominated at the Grammys for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, where it will be up against the likes of Beyoncé and Post Malone’s ‘Levii’s Jeans’ and Charli XCX and Billie Eilish’s ‘Guess’.
Swift picked up a total of six Grammy nominations this time around, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year, for which she gave all the credit to her fans at the previous Toronto show.
It is the second time that Swift and Abrams have joined forces on stage at the Eras Tour to play the song, after they gave it a live debut at London’s Wembley Stadium on June 23.
In a four-star review of ‘The Secret Os Us’, NME noted that ‘Us’ “wouldn’t sound out of place on the superstar’s twin records ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ – two albums that Abrams’ regular collaborator Dessner, who co-produced ‘The Secret of Us’, also famously worked on.”
NME also reviewed one of Swift’s Edinburgh shows in June, awarding the show a full five stars: “Despite being an arena show, in a huge, cavernous venue, Swift and her fans have managed to cultivate a community. Strangers swap friendship bracelets, laugh and cry together, and embrace the tour’s in-jokes and lore (for example shouting “one, two, three, let’s go bitch” during ‘Delicate’).
“It’s the power of Swift, an artist who’s inspired not only the renaming of a Scottish Loch, but also countless fans to come out and embrace being a part of the Eras family. With The Eras Tour, then, Swift’s managed to craft a marvel of a show that comes with a beating heart.”
