Watch Taylor Swift perform for 40 people at club where she got her start

Taylor Swift performed for approximately 40 people last night (March 31) when she made a surprise appearance at the club where she got her start.

The singer is set to kick off the UK and European leg of her ‘Reputation’ world tour this summer, with dates booked at stadiums like Wembley Stadium. She will be supported on the tour by Camila Cabello and Charli XCX. 

She was invited back to the stage of Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe by country songwriter Craig Wiseman, who was headlining a show there last night. The Tennessean reports the crowd gave her a standing ovation as she made her way to the stage.

“I wanted to say a big thank you to the Bluebird Cafe,” she said, sitting next to Wiseman. “I think any songwriter in town would echo my sentiments and say that this is kind of the only place where this exists – this particular place where you get to come and hear the writer’s take on the songs they’ve put out into the world.”

During the short performance, she played hit single ‘Shake It Off’, ‘Love Story’ and ‘Better Man’, the latter of which she wrote for Little Big Town. Wiseman and Swift also shared shots of Fireball whiskey during her appearance, as the songwriter recalled a CMT afterparty where they did the same. “For the rest of the party, I would go get a shot of Fireball… and snake my hand through the people [on the balcony] in her general direction,” he recalled. “I don’t even know if she took it, but it disappeared.”

The Bluebird Cafe has special significance to Swift and her career. The club is where Big Machine’s Scott Borchetta saw the musician perform as a teenager and offered her a publishing deal. Her performance last night was filmed for a documentary celebrating the venue’s 35th anniversary.

Meanwhile, Swift may have been inadvertently responsible for the cancellation of Donald and Stephen Glover’s planned Deadpool animated TV series. In a now-deleted tweet, Stephen wrote: “There really was a Taylor Swift episode. It was HILARIOUS. And it definitely was the last straw lol.”