Having not released a second of music or video footage from the album “Midnights” released four nights ago, Taylor Swift is making up for lost time. He released the second music video for a song from the album just days after the first; “Bejeweled” hit Swift-isphere just after “Anti-Hero” on Monday night’s 12 (ET) hit. You can watch the entire clip, starring Laura Dern, Dita von Teese and the three Haim sisters, below.
This is a Cinderella story, although a prince briefly played by producer/writer Jack Antonoff tells it in less time than most versions of the fairy tale. Swift plays “House Wench Taylor,” who appears while cleaning up the “Lady Este” (Este Haim) vomit she left behind after her drunken outing the previous night. “Stepmother” (Dern) and Lady Alana and Danielle are even more vulgarly hostile than the Disney versions of the afflicted star—it’s unclear what Uncle Walt would have thought of the promise of “diamond-tasseled nipples”—before Swift transforms herself into a starfield as many diamonds. He then dreams of Antonoff, who barely appears, perhaps better to go back to the giant cocktail glasses he played with the “Fairy Goddess” von Teese. Pat McGrath, one of the world’s most famous makeup artists, also features a cameo.
Haim mocks Taylor Swift in Swift’s prologue
“Bejeweled” music video
Discussing the video on “The Tonight Show” aired on the east coast around the time the video was released on YouTube, Swift told Jimmy Fallon that there was a “psychotic amount” of Easter eggs embedded in the images. “We have a PDF for Easter eggs in this video because there are so many eggs we can’t keep track of.”
Unlike “Anti-Hero,” “Bejeweled” as a song is all about self-confidence, almost as a programming act against the loudly touted self-deletion of the first single. It’s a breakup song, or at least a song we can break up with, but it’s also really the brightest number on the album, closer to the bright peaks of a “Lover” track like “Me” or “You Need to Calm Down” than any other tune on “Midnights” good. It is the least disturbing of all his songs about troubled relationships. Message: She’s charmed that she dumped you.
But that lyrical content has little to do with the music video, in which Swift finds something even more compelling than a prince: a chance to connect with a story that focuses on the midnight hit theme.
A development fans had hoped for with Swift’s “Tonight Show” appearance didn’t quite materialize. The Swifties had hoped to announce the round of 2023, but only allowed one they wanted to…that may or may not be a code for everything to lock and load. In any case, Swifties who will have to wait a little longer for tour details can keep themselves busy collecting fresh eggs until 3am or later.
A not-so-subtle clue to his future plans: A strong hint that the next “Taylor’s Version” of “Speak Now” will be re-recorded in the video. In the clip, Swift presses a purple elevator button for the third floor and wears a purple dress on the cover of her third album, “Speak Now.” Less popular as a theory, but not entirely impossible, it’s unlikely that the color/number combination could simply mean that “Lavender Haze” will be the third single or video from the new album.
The “Bejeweled” video and Fallon visit closed a day when news broke that “Midnights” had already amassed over a million album-equivalent units, the first album to do so in a week since Swift’s own “Reputation” in 2017. Luminate reported that the album had reached nearly 1.2 million units in just three days and had sold close to half a million copies in vinyl format.