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ME!

Feat. Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco | Lead Single | Lover (2019)

“ME!” is the lead single from Taylor’s seventh studio album, Lover (2019). It was released on April 26, 2019, which made it the first song Taylor released under her new record label, Republic Records. It features Brendon Urie of the band Panic! at the Disco.

With “ME!”, Taylor highlights themes like self-love and confidence. It’s a stark turn from the sound of her sixth studio album, reputation (2017), which is known for its dark visuals and mature topics.

Background and Production

On April 13, 2019, a countdown to midnight on April 26 appeared on Taylor’s website, leading to speculation about the release of new music. On April 25, various news outlets reported that fans suspected that a mural of a butterfly in The Gulch neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee, painted by street artist Kelsey Montague, was connected with the upcoming release. A crowd of several hundred gathered at the mural as the word “ME!” was added to it by Montague. While Montague was initially told that the mural was commissioned as promotion for ABC, ESPN and the 2019 NFL Draft, Taylor appeared at the mural and revealed that it was in fact part of her countdown promotion and that she would be interviewed by Robin Roberts during the NFL Draft broadcast with further information that evening. At the interview she confirmed the release of a new song and music video at midnight, sharing the title as well as the feature from Urie.

Lyrical Theme and Production

“ME!” is a bubblegum pop song written by Taylor, Brendon Urie and Joel Little, and produced by Joel and Taylor. Introducing the song to her fans, Taylor said: “With a pop song, we have an ability to get a melody stuck in people’s heads, and I just want it to be one that makes them feel better about themselves, not worse.”

«This song is such a celebration and it’s so playful. When I thought of this melody, I was like, ‘It’s so catchy. What do we want to get stuck in people’s heads?’ And what I wanted was to make people happy about themselves because I think everyone is so neurotic, and insecure, and anxious about things. I think there should be a way for us to have a song stuck in our heads that reinforces the fact that we’re different. And obviously there are a lot of songs about, ‘I’m special,’ but I hadn’t heard one recently that was about, ‘I’m special because of who I am.’»

Taylor Swift

Music Video

The colorful music video for “ME!” is a symbolic departure from the previous dark aesthetic of reputation, welcoming fans into the Lover era. It has been described as a “phantasmagorical delight” that induces an instant “sugar rush” in a “bubblegum psychedelia”. She told The Independent in May 2019:

«I watch a lot of films and I’ve always loved musicals. With this video, I wanted it to be sort of a love letter to romantic, epic musical films, but always with a weird eccentric twist. Some of it was inspired by big Disney films, or classics like Singin’ in the Rain (or in this case, singing in a monsoon of fluorescent pastel paint). The love story between the two main characters in these films tends to be very performative, and that’s exactly what I wanted Brendon and my dynamic to be. Demonstrative and showy. Dramatic, but never taking itself too seriously.»

Taylor Swift

The video amassed over 65.2 million views within its first day of release, breaking the 24-hour Vevo record previously held by Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next”, also surpassing Taylor’s personal record set in 2017 with the “Look What You Made Me Do” music video, which garnered 43.2 million views in its first day. The video scored several accolades; it won a VMA for “Best Visual Effects” at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, the “Best Video” at the 2019 MTV Europe Music Awards and the “Best Female International Artist Video” at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards Japan.

Upon the music video’s release, Taylor teased that there are multiple Easter eggs in the video, one of them being that she adopted her third cat, Benjamin Button. Additionally, there were three levels of Easter eggs in the video, from most obvious to least obvious, which point to clues about the upcoming album, single, and tour. It was revealed that “You Need to Calm Down“, a line Urie says to Taylor at the beginning in French, would be the second single, and an “old-timey, 1940s-sounding instrumental version” of the song plays in the background in the same scene. The album title Lover was correctly guessed in advance. Other potential titles that were speculated of being on the album were “Kaleidoscope”, “Home” and “Awesome”. The portrait of The Chicks was later revealed to be a reference to a collaboration for the song “Soon You’ll Get Better” on the album.

Live Performances

On May 1, 2019, Taylor and Brendon Urie opened the 2019 Billboard Music Awards with a performance of “ME!”. On May 21, 2019, they also performed the song at the finale of the sixteenth season of The Voice. On June 1, 2019, at the 2019 Wango Tango they once again performed the single as a duet. Taylor sang a solo version of the song at the finale of the fourteen season of Germany’s Next Topmodel on May 23, on The Graham Norton Show in the United Kingdom, and at the eighth season of the French version of The Voice along with “Shake It Off” on May 25, 2019. On July 10, 2019, Taylor performed “ME!” at her headlining Amazon Prime Day concert along with “You Need to Calm Down” and a number of songs from her previous albums.

Around the time of the album’s release, Taylor performed the song along with “You Need to Calm Down” and “Shake It Off” at a Good Morning America concert in Central Park on August 22. On September 9, she sang the song at the “City of Lover” one-off concert at L’Olympia in Paris, France. She released this live version on digital music platforms on May 17, 2020. On October 19, she performed the song at the “We Can Survive” charity concert in Los Angeles, on the Sukkiri Morning Show in Tokyo, Japan on November 7, and the Alibaba Singles’ Day Gala in Shanghai, China on November 10. On December 8, Taylor performed the song at Capital FM’s “Jingle Bell Ball 2019” in London. On December 13 (her 30th birthday), she performed the song at iHeartRadio Z100’s “Jingle Ball” in New York City.

Despite being the lead single from Lover, “ME!” isn’t a popular song within the fandom. That’s probably why the song was excluded from the set list for Taylor’s sixth headlining tour, “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024). Taylor first performed “Afterglow” during her sixth headlining concert tour, “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024). Eventually, Taylor chose it as the first surprise song during her show on November 20, 2023, in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). She performed it acoustically on guitar.

Critical Reception

“ME!” received polarizing reviews from music critics. Rolling Stone‘s Rob Sheffield called the song “campy”, “bubbly” and “a totally canonical Taylor Lead Single”, noting similarities to past lead singles such as “Look What You Made Me Do“, “Shake It Off” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and commenting that all of these songs differed sonically from their respective albums. Rob Harvilla of The Ringer opined “‘ME!’ is a cloyingly goofy Disney-pop confection with an earworm chorus and a certain try-hard insidiousness to it”. Writing for Billboard, Jason Lipshutz stated that it “is similarly shiny, and the tongue-in-cheek self-assessment of ‘Blank Space‘ shows up in the verses, but it’s also much more broad, way more cheerful and delivered without an ounce of sarcasm or snark”.

«I wanted [fans] to see that I’m heading in a different direction musically than they’ve seen in the past few years. This song was to change expectations and be a bit of a palette cleanser before they heard more of this new project. Plus, the chorus just makes me happy and lifts my mood when I sing it. I never want to be presumptuous, but I hoped it might do the same for someone who’s having a shitty day.»

Taylor Swift

Commercial Performance

During the week ending May 4, 2019, “ME!” debuted at No. 100 on the Billboard Hot 100, only accounting for four days since its initial release. During the week ending May 11, the song peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100. It had the highest jump in Hot 100 history with 98 spots jumped from its debut to the consecutive week.

Lyrics

[Intro: Taylor Swift]
I promise that you’ll never find another like me

[Verse 1: Taylor Swift]
I know that I’m a handful, baby, uh
I know I never think before I jump
And you’re the kind of guy the ladies want
And there’s a lot of cool chicks out there
I know that I went psycho on the phone
I never leave well enough alone
And trouble’s gonna follow where I go
And there’s a lot of cool chicks out there

[Pre-Chorus 1: Taylor Swift]
But one of these things is not like the others
Like a rainbow with all of the colors
Baby doll, when it comes to a lover
I promise that you’ll never find another like

[Chorus 1: Taylor Swift]
Me, ooh
I’m the only one of me
Baby, that’s the fun of me
Me, ooh
You’re the only one of you
Baby, that’s the fun of you
And I promise that nobody’s gonna love you like me

[Verse 2: Brendon Urie & Taylor Swift]
I know I tend to make it about me
I know you never get just what you see
But I will never bore you, baby
And there’s a lot of lame guys out there
And when we had that fight out in the rain
You ran after me and called my name
I never wanna see you walk away
And there’s a lot of lame guys out there

[Pre-Chorus 2: Taylor Swift & Brendon Urie, Brendon Urie]
‘Cause one of these things is not like the others
Living in winter, I am your summer
Baby doll, when it comes to a lover
I promise that you’ll never find another like

[Chorus 2: Taylor Swift & Brendon Urie, Brendon Urie]
Me, ooh
I’m the only one of me
Let me keep you company
Me, ooh
You’re the only one of you
Baby, that’s the fun of you
And I promise that nobody’s gonna love you like me

[Bridge: Brendon Urie, Taylor Swift & Both]
Hey kids!
Spelling is fun!*
Girl, there ain’t no “I” in team
But you know there is a “Me”
Strike the band up, 1, 2, 3
I promise that you’ll never find another like me
Girl, there ain’t no “I” in team
But you know there is a “Me”
And you can’t spell awesome without me
I promise that you’ll never find another like me

[Chorus 1: Brendon Urie, Taylor Swift & Both]
Me, ooh (And I want you, baby)
I’m the only one of me (I’m the only one of me)
Baby, that’s the fun of me (Baby, that’s the fun of me)
Me, ooh (Oh)
You’re the only one of you (Oh)
Baby, that’s the fun of you
And I promise that nobody’s gonna love you like me

[Outro: Brendon Urie, Taylor Swift & Both]
Girl, there ain’t no “I” in team
But you know there is a “Me”
I’m the only one of me
Baby, that’s the fun of me (Me, ooh)
Strike the band up, 1, 2, 3
You can’t spell awesome without “me”
You’re the only one of you
Baby, that’s the fun of you
And I promise that nobody’s gonna love you like me

*The lyric “Hey kids! Spelling is fun!” is not included in the album version of the song.