Taylor Swift and Shonda Rhimes' TGIT are a match made in heaven.
During a break in ABC's Scandal, Swift debuted "New Year's Eve," the closing track off her new album Reputation (available Friday). It marked her first performance of a new song in three years, and it was her first TV appearance promoting her new music, a follow up to 2014's 1989. The performance was pre-taped during one of Swift's Secret Sessions in her Rhode Island home.
"There's glitter on the floor after the party / Girls carrying their shoes down in the lobby / Candle wax and Polaroids on the hardwood floor / You and me from the night before but / Don't read the last page / But I stay when you're lost and I'm scared and you're turning away," Swift sang. "I want your midnights / But I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year's Day."
After the second verse, in the post-chorus, she sang, "Hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you / And I will hold on to you." And at the end of the piano-driven ballad, the 27-year-old musician lovingly pleaded, "Please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere / Please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere."
Freeform will air an extended version of Swift's performance at 9p.m. ET Friday during The Duff. "New Year's Eve" is the fifth pre-release single from Reputation, following "Look What You Made Me Do," "...Ready for It?," "Gorgeous" and "Call It What You Want." Twelve hours before its Nov. 10 release, Swift's album leaked online. Of course, filing sharing links were swiftly killed.
Swift will give her first live TV performance from the Reputation era during Saturday Night Live.