Electronic realm favorite Blond:ish got a major global profile boost yesterday (May 21) with the release of her official edit of Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight.”
Her driving house take turns the BPM up significantly on the The Tortured Poets Department opener, turning the solemn Post Malone duet (which debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100) into pure dancefloor fuel that gets progressively richer, brighter, more blissed out and more club-focused as it goes on. (Regarding this sunshine mood, the producer herself wrote “Taylor Swift, but make it summer,” when sharing the track.)
This isn’t the first time an artist from the electronic world has put their touch on a Swift song. Here are five other times that electronic producers have remixed her work.
“Anti-Hero (Illenium Remix)”
Dropping a month after the release of Midnights‘ lead single “Anti-Hero”, Illenium’s edit pushed Swift’s work further into the bass realm than ever before. The remix from the Colorado-based producer married the song’s shimmering melody with his signature future bass style, with his fingerprints especially evident in the soaring final third of the remix.
“Our teams had randomly talked about ‘Anti-Hero,’ the producer told Billboard of the remix in March. “They sent me stems… I finished it in like 36 hours and I sent it to them on like, a Monday night. They responded on Tuesday night like, hey this is coming out tomorrow.’ I was like, ‘okay! you do whatever you want’ …. I love Taylor Swift. Back in high school, one of her songs was in my top 25 on iTunes most played.”
Alongside this Illenium remix, Swift also dropped “Anti-Hero” edits by Canadian-born, London-baed house producer Jayda G, French artist Kungs and German singer/songwriter/producer Roosevelt.
“Cruel Summer (LP Giobbi Remix)”
Coming towards the end of the 2023 U.S. Eras Tour (and four years after the release of the original), this official edit by Oregon-born, Austin-based producer LP Giobbi dials up the BPM of the synth pop original and transforms it into a slow-build, blissed out house jam custom-build for a peaktime dancefloor singalong. (Also consider Giobbi’s extended remix, which extends the original by a full minute.)
“I didn’t know when it was coming out actually,” Giobbi told the iHeartRadioCA podcast last October, “and when I woke up I had hundreds and hundreds of text messages and I was like, ‘What happened?’ and then I saw that Taylor Swift posted about me and tagged me, and I realized what had happened. It was a wild moment…I knew she was wildly powerful, but it was wild to see up close just how powerful she is.”
“Lavender Haze (Snakehips Remix)”
British duo Snakehips built their early fanbase with bootleg remixes of artists including Banks and The Weeknd, getting a hot invite into the official remix fold when Swift had them deliver their take on Midnights‘ “Lavander Haze.” Their buoyant, house-oriented take on the song is as light as sunshine burning off haze itself, with the cool outro that makes up the 20 seconds of the edit adding a dose of club thump.
Taylor Swift – …Ready for It? (BloodPop® Remix)
The pre-chorus of 2017’s Reputation opener “..Ready For It” gets beefed up courtesy of producer BloodPop®, who strips the song of its original booming bass and replaces it with layers (and layers) of cotton candy synth.
“Love Story” (Four Tet Remix)
While not an official edit, Four Tet put himself into the Swift remix ouevre when he debuted his take on her 2008 classic “Love Story” during his set at Madison Square Garden with Skriillex and Fred again.. in February of 2023. The minimal take puts Swift’s “Romeo, save me” on a loop, turning the vocal into a hypnotic build that eventually gives way to Swift singing about “the lights, the parties, the ball gowns” over a spare, galloping beat.
In a 2023 interview with The Guardian, the producer born Kieran Hebden said he made the edit for (and with instruction by) his young daughter. “She ran up and her and Fred were dancing together,” Hebden said of the MSG show. “She knew I’d made it for her.” The bootleg also roused a crowd singalong when the trio dropped it during their 2023 Coachella headlining set. Hear it at the 38:12 minute mark in the officially released video of the set above.
