“You Need to Calm Down”: All the Easter Eggs in Taylor Swift’s New Video
On Monday morning, Taylor Swift released her latest polychrome music video, this time for “You Need to Calm Down,” a rebuke of both homophobia and haters in general. The setting for her latest, however, couldn’t be more different from that of the video for “Me!,” her previous release from her upcoming album, Lover; rather than Paris, it takes place in a rainbow-drenched trailer park that is home to Swift and an expansive roster of famously LGBTQ celebrities, from Ellen DeGeneres and RuPaul to Tan France and Billy Porter. (Of course, this being Swift, there just so happen to be exactly 13 trailers.)
And yet, one cameo in particular easily manages to stand apart: that of Katy Perry, who graciously accepted a plate of cookies to officially end her longtime feud with Swift last week. Once again, they turned to food to make amends: The video, which Swift co-directed with Drew Kirsch, finds Perry wearing what appears to be the same hamburger suit that she wore to the Met gala this past May. Swift, on the other hand, donned a suit of McDonalds-like french fries to match. In case you didn’t get the reference, shortly after the video premiered Swift Instagrammed a photo of their embrace with the caption “a happy meal.” (Much more straightforward than the one she used to promote the single: “Gxgjxkhdkdkydkhdkhfjvjfj.”)
In the hours before the video’s premiere, a rumor began circulating that it would feature a scene in which Swift and Perry kissed—one that Swift promptly shut down via her platform of choice: Tumblr. “Guys. That is ABSOLUTELY false,” she wrote. “To be an ally is to understand the difference between advocating and baiting. Anyone trying to twist this positivity into something it isn’t needs to calm down. It costs zero dollars to not step on our gowns.” Not everyone was pleased with the end result, but their embrace was enough to inspire declarations along the lines of “BREAKING: World War III (2013~2019) has officially ended.”
As with the video for “Me!,” this video has provided Swifties with a whole new slew of Easter eggs to parse. And, like clockwork, they immediately got to work—particularly those who’ve been avidly collecting what they suspect is evidence that Lover marks Swift’s coming out. None, it seems, failed to notice that Swift’s multicolored hair in several scenes just so happens to match the bisexual pride flag.
But Swift’s rainbow-filled trailer park isn’t utopia; there are also anti-LGBTQ protesters carrying misspelled signs like “homasekulty is sin!” and “get a brain morans!” Swift is apparently unbothered, however, as showcased in a scene that appears to be a throwback to another of her music videos, for her song “22.”
Whether or not those theories will turn out to be true, there’s no denying that Swift has been increasingly vocal in her support of LGBTQ+ rights—and celebrations of Pride Month—as of late. The premiere comes just a couple of days after she gave a surprise appearance at Stonewall Inn, a legendary landmark of the movement for LGBTQ rights. Stonewall also turns up in the video—this time on a canvas being painted by none other than…Ryan Reynolds?
Of course, Reynolds is one of just many, many, many celebrities who join Swift in activities such as drinking tea—Laverne Cox, Ciara, Haley Kiyoko, Adam Labert, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Dexter Mayfield, and the stars of Netflix’s Queer Eye, including Tan France and Jonathan Van Ness, to name a few. Easter eggs appear to be hidden in many of the cameos too, from a potential collaboration with Hayley Kiyoko to a track that might take its name from DeGeneres’s tattoo.
Even Cher managed to squeeze her way in there, via an Instagrammable reference to one of her most famous quips.
Oh, and there’s also the all-star lineup of Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, and Adele—who, upon closer inspection, are actually stars from RuPaul’s Drag Race. Cardi B, for one, has already expressed her pleasure at being a part of this narrative.
On the heels of the song’s lyric video prompting an influx of donations to the pro-LGBTQ nonprofit GLAAD, Swift made a more explicit call to action to cap things off. “Let’s show our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treat all of us citizens equally,” asking viewers to sign her Change.org petition for Senate support of the Equality Act, which aims to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination.
Related: Taylor Swift, Who Famously Declared “Spelling Is Fun,” Made a Typo on Her Merch
