During her Dublin concert on Sunday (June 30), Taylor Swift played Clara Bow live for the first time – and notably, Stevie Nicks, who is name-checked in the song, was in attendance.
Clara Bow, which details the lives of female stars and how they are often forced to compare themselves, has a verse centred around the Fleetwood Mac member: “You look like Stevie Nicks / In ’75, the hair and lips / Crowd goes wild at her fingertips / Half moonshine, a full eclipse.”
Introducing the track from The Tortured Poets Department as part of her “surprise song” portion of the night, Swift said, “The reason I want to play this tonight is because a friend of mine is here who is watching the show, who has really been one of the reasons why I – or any female artist – get to do what I get to do.”
Continuing on, Swift said, “She’s just become friends with so many female artists, just to be a guiding hand. I can’t tell you how rare that is. She’s a hero of mine, I could tell her any secret and she wouldn’t tell anybody. She’s really helped me through so much over the years… I’m talking about Stevie Nicks.”
Encouraging the crowd to cheer for Nicks, the hitmaker finally said, “So I’m going to play Clara Bow for the first time for you.”
Playing the song on acoustic guitar, she also included a few lines from her 2012 track The Lucky One, which explains the perils of being in the public eye.
Her second surprise song was also a nod to Nicks, with Swift playing You’re On Your Own Kid on piano. Nicks previously thanked Swift for writing that song, mentioning that it helped her mourn the loss of fellow Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie in 2022.
Swift has made a trend of surprising fans as of late, bringing Paramore’s Hayley Williams on stage to perform Castles Crumbling, and having boyfriend Travis Kelce make a cameo during the introduction of I Can Do It With A Broken Heart.
The hitmaker was recently defended by Charli xcx after the brat singer’s fans began chanting “Taylor Swift is dead” at various concerts.
