By Tomás Mier
Baby, this Rihanna cover was not what Taylor Swift fans in Liverpool came for — but it sure was a treat. Swift serenaded the crowd with a performance of “This Is What You Came For,” Calvin Harris‘ song with Rihanna that Swift co-wrote.
Swift did a mashup of the Rihanna cut — which she co-wrote under the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg — with her own song “Gold Rush” and then mashed up “The Great War” with “You’re Losing Me.”
“Every single time I have an acoustic set, I’m always trying to think of things you might want to hear — maybe things that might be a little bit unexpected,” the pop superstar told the crowd. “Let’s see how we did tonight.”
🚨| Taylor Swift performing a mashup of "This Is What You Came For" and "gold rush" FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER at today's show! #LiverpoolTSTheErasTour
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Swift has talked about writing the song for Rihanna and Harris, whom she dated at the time of writing the track, before. In a Musicians on Musicians interview with Paul McCartney for Rolling Stone, the singer opened up about her decision to keep her writing credit private for a while.
“I wrote under the name Nils Sjöberg because those are two of the most popular names of Swedish males. I wrote this song called ‘This Is What You Came For’ that Rihanna ended up singing,” she said at the time. “And nobody knew for a while. I remembered always hearing that when Prince wrote ‘Manic Monday,’ they didn’t reveal it for a couple of months.”
Swift has only performed “This What You Came For” two other times: once at a Formula 1 concert in 2016 and another time at Super Saturday Night before the 2017 Super Bowl.
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