Taylor Swift took to the stage at the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York City on Thursday, her voice hoarse from rooting for the Knicks at MSG the night before.
“The quality of my speaking voice is a product of two things that I’m not sorry about…One is that I was lucky enough to go to the Knicks game last night,” the “Shake It Off” icon squeaked, explaining in a rattling tone after accepting an award from presenter Steven Spielberg, whose latest film is due to be released in a few hours.
“I screamed 100%,” she said of the Knicks game. “And then I went home and thought, ‘I have to stop screaming’…and then I saw the incredible performance that I saw tonight. I never stopped screaming, so this is what you get.”
Swift did not mention that she arrived at Zerobond earlier in the day, around 1 a.m. He was flanked by Este and Alana Haim, both wearing T-shirts that read “Stevie Nicks.” The pop star trio were seen leaving around 3am.
Performers at the Songwriters Gala included contemporary crooner Sombre, who performed Swift’s 2020 classic “Cardigan” and her ballad “Dear John.” (Sombre had also gone to Zero Bond the night before.)
Director Spielberg said he immediately became nervous after accepting Swift’s appearance as host of the show. “What can you say about Taylor Swift that hasn’t already been said? It’s crazy just thinking about how much has been said about you, true, false, and just plain crazy!”
So the filmmakers of “AI Artificial Intelligence” ironically asked the AI if it could tell them how many words had been written about Swift, and how many words Swift had written. Both queries seemed to confuse the bot. “The depth of her accomplishments is so powerful that it defies AI,” said the Director of Disclosure Day.
The Songwriters Hall of Fame gala also recognized Alanis Morissette, Kenny Loggins, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, Kiss rockers Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, Walter Afanasyev, Terry Britten and Graham Lyle.
