Bon Iver took the stage in London at OVO Arena Wembley on Wednesday night (Oct. 26), and he surprised the crowd when he had Taylor Swift join him onstage to perform their song “exile” for the first time.
The track was featured on Swift’s 2020 album, Folklore, which Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and The National‘s Aaron Dessner both contributed too. Dessner was also onstage during the “exile” performance.
Dessner recently collaborated with Swift on the 3am Edition of her freshly released 10th studio album, Midnights. Of the seven additional songs to the original 13 tracks, Dessner co-wrote and co-produced “The Great War,” “High Infidelity,” “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” and “Hits Different.”
“The most talented person in the world, Taylor Swift,” Vernon told the OVO Arena Wembley crowd following the performance, to which Swift sweetly replied, “The most talented person in the world, Justin Vernon. Also, the most talented person in the world, Aaron Dessner.”
“Alright, good night everybody,” Vernon joked as Swift left the stage. “We don’t know what to do now.”
Released as a surprise on July 24, 2020, Folklore represented a surprise pivot towards indie-folk that proved a critical and commercial blockbuster for Swift, earning the album of the year Grammy and topping the Billboard 200 albums chart for eight nonconsecutive weeks.
Swift followed up with Folklore‘s folky sister album, Evermore, in December of the same year. The album spent four nonconsecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200.
Watch the “exile” performance in London, captured by a fan and uploaded to Twitter, below.
