During her last album cycle in late 2017, Taylor Swift returned to the Saturday Night Live stage for the first time in almost a decade to perform songs off her darker pop project, Reputation. And for her bright, loved-up new era of Lover, she returned to the iconic late night show joining a couple of other pop bookings — including Camila Cabello and Billie Eilish — in a wave that seemed to be shifting the show toward both poptimism and higher production value.
But in typical Swift fashion, she turned expectations on their heads, and opted for a simple, sweet and stunning performance of two new songs — the album’s title track, seen above, and the saxophone-infused, jazzy “False God.” As a veteran of the SNL stage who was returning for her fifth time as a performer, Swift incorporated simple but effective visual elements like hanging music sheets throughout the set of her “Lover” performance, and taking the time to draw the audience’s attention to her guest saxophone scene-stealer, Lenny Pickett. Check out both performances below, and look for more announcements from Taylor about her new tour, which is sure to be coming very soon — and these performances bode well for her next round of live shows.
Catch her performance of “False God” below:
