Turns out the old Taylor is not dead, you guys. She’s just invisible atm. Confused? Us too. Because Taylor Swift just dropped the music video to her single Delicate and it’s nowhere near as stressful as we thought it was going to be. Funnily enough, it was actually pretty, erm, delicate.
Taylor debuted the new video at the iHeart Radio Music Awards on Sunday night where she was awarded the Female Artist of the Year award and, save for a couple of tweets and an Instagram post, there was little of the usual manufactured hype teased by the singer ahead of its realise and I think it really paid off.
WATCH NOW: Taylor Swifts Video For Delicate
Already at 3.4 million views less than 24 hours after its arrival on YouTube, the video is kinda sweet. Yes, I said sweet. Maybe it’s the direction, maybe it’s the song itself but here we’ve got a moment or two of Swifty in her OG state. Just endearing and self-deprecating enough to make you feel like you really know what she’s thinking, without any of the faux Bad Blood arrogance that pissed people off before.Consider this the return of goofy, girl-next-door Taylor Swift, you guys. We’re talking serious Shake It Off vibes and less of that Look What You Made Me Dononsense. Here are some of the best bits.
The Debrief Taylor Swift Delicate Video
1. The Tenuous Freak Friday Reference
So while Taylor is being all famous and stuff on the red carpet, surrounded by fans and cameras and the like, she is slipped this little piece of paper. It's a magic piece of paper, much like the little piece of paper inside the fortune cookie that Lindsay Lohan and her film mom find and initiates the body swap in *Freaky Friday. *
2. This Moment With Taylor's Security
Walking into the building, Taylor is of course surrounded by her security team. They walk in time with each other. When she steps forward, they step forward. When she steps backwards, they step backwards without even having to look at here. Gotta love visual metaphors for entrapment.
3. The Freaky Friday Reminder
I'm holding on to this vague Freaky Friday reference, okay? Alone in the powder room Taylor re-finds the little piece of paper she was handed. It's important to the story. Remember the paper.
4. This Face
Taylor has an endearing moment in the mirror when, prior to this great face pulling, she tries her damnedest to cheer herself up amidst the stress of being famous and harassed and bound by the movement of her body guards, by forcing a smile.
5. Invisible Taylor
So she's opened the little piece of paper now and has read whatever it said. The magic piece of paper turned her invisible as demonstrated by Taylor trying to interrupt these women's conversation. It doesn't work. They can't see her.
6. Taylor's Sia Moment
So on discovering that she is now invisible, Taylor breaks past her security team who had been guarding the doors to the bathroom she was in, rips off the bottom of her dress and has a bit of a dance. Some of the moves are very Maddie Ziegler before Taylor breaks in to her more traditional performance of cheesy, awkward, carefree, show dancing.
7. The Heart Tug
Taylor has returned to the fancy bathroom, and she seems to be in conversation with another woman, only to realise that the woman is looking straight through Taylor at herself in the mirror and thus we see the downside of invisibility.
8. Taylors Splits In The Rain
Then Taylor is happy again. She excitedly dances around in the rain without any shoes on (not advisable, she could've caught a chill) before hitting a casual split on a car bonnet. NBD. She's just limbering up before arriving at a restaurant (as seemingly instructed by the magic piece of paper) where she seems to find who she was looking for all along.
READ MORE: The 90s Girl Bands We Wish Were Still A Thing
The Debrief 90s Girl Bands
TLC
The outfit game was so, SO strong with these three. If you don't know all the words to No Scrubs, where you been? TLC were also the biggest selling girl group in the world until the Spice Girls came along...
tATu
Oh, what a moment for one hit wonder duo tATu. I'm pretty sure the music video to All The Things She Said is still firmly etched in your mind. It was back when 'sexy school girl' was the look.
Misteeq
If the words 'so, so, so, scandelous' don't send chills down your spine then you need to revisit the *Eye Candy *album. Fun fact: Tina from S Club 7 was originally in the group until she landed a spot in the band.
Girls Aloud
I have few regrets in life, but one of them has to be not giving Pop Stars: The Rivals the attention it clearly deserved because the creation of Girls Aloud was entertaining as hell. Word on the street is that lead signer Nadine is still angling for a reunion though so, watch this space.
Sugababes
Ten points if you can name, in order, all of the members of Sugababes and which grouping they appeared in. OGs Siobhán Donaghy, Mutya Buena and Keisha Buchanan were the shit, though. And don't pretend that 'Angels With Dirty Faces' wasn't somewhere on your MySpace page.
Atomic Kitten
Is anyone else surprised when they realise that Kerry Katona was only around for about three years? She'd left somewhere between* Whole Again* and Eternal Flame. We all enjoyed their little stint on ITV2 The Big Reunion, though. You know, before Kerry left again.
Cleopatra
If you can't quite put your finger on why you often follow 'Cleopatra' with the words 'comin' at ya', it's down to these girls. Cleo, Yonah, and Zainam Higgins were the coolest sisters around and no, we never really understood the swimming goggles either. But Nelly never had to explain the plaster on his face so, you know...
Spice Girls
No one knows where to start with the Spice Girls these days. And while some sort of reunion has been confirmed, a tour date is yet to be given the go ahead. Might have something to do with Victoria only agreeing to come back if she doesn't have to sing...
En Vogue
If you're not all that familiar with the group, you'll be familiar with the song *Don't Let Go. *There are few songs that quite hit the 90s R&B nail on the head so well. You're gonna want to revisit it.
3LW
Okay we're about to take it way, way back with obscure cultural references here. But anyone who watched Nickelodeon's *Taina might remember the episode where 3LW appeared as super cool girl group Blue Mascara. They performed 3LW's best selling song No More (Baby I'ma Do Right) *and it changed my life. Obviously, if you neither remember this nor know the song, this means nothing too you. But they had another song called *Playas Gon Play *which was kind of involved in that Taylor Swift lyric lawsuit drama.
The Cheetah Girls
Disney kids rejoice, because this was the coolest (yes, coolest) music to come out of that damn channel before High School Musical became a thing. The Cheetah Girls existed beyond their Disney TV films too, you know?
Blaque
Remember N'Sync? Of course you do. But do you remember that gem of a song they featured on with Blaque on? It's called *Bring It All To Me *and the music video is a lot. It has nothing on *808 *though.
Las Ketchup
There's no shame in having attempted to type and translate the lyrics to The Ketchup Song via Google. We all did it in a desperate bid to know what we were singing while wiggling our knees and whaling our hands around to that stressful routine.
The 411
There are two songs to recall here: Dumb (diggi-diggi-di dumb) and *On My Knees. *Their presence may have been fleeting, but they were present. For a bit.
Dream
Dream were pretty much everything you expect from a strategically put together girl group, but even more intense. At least that's my vague memory of them and that overwhelmingly 'pop' single He Loves U Not.
Eden's Crush
We were not first introduced to Nicole Scherzinger via The Pussycat Dolls. No, no. She first entered our lives via Eden's Crush who were formed on the American version of *Popstars. *I honestly couldn't tell you what happened to the others, but Nicole seems quite happy on the X Factor and eating Muller yogurt.
B*Witched
Boys in trees and a hella lot o' denim. Life was so much simpler back then and we still long for those vibes.
Follow Jazmin on Instagram @JazKopotsha
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.