Taylor Swift’s favorite songs in her catalog revealed on Colbert
Taylor Swift made her first appearance on “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert. She was the only guest of the night.
Hey Stephen, Taylor Swift is on the late show and she has some advice for whatever comes next.
The superstar served as the only guest for the Dec. 10 episode of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” her first-ever in-person sit-down with the host.
Colbert introduced her with a flourish: “Ladies and gentlemen, my guest tonight is a 14-time Grammy Award-winning global superstar. You know her because everyone does.”
Swift walked out in a burgundy off-the-shoulder velvet David Koma dress, her hair swept up with soft bangs and her signature red lip. She waved to the crowd and mouthed “Whoa” as the crowd’s decibels peaked.
From the top, the tone was affectionate and a little starstruck. Colbert compared her entrance to the Beatles’ 1964 arrival at the Ed Sullivan Theater. Swift deflected his praise with warmth and a little self-deprecation, telling him, “I think they had a whole thing going… but you’ve been so supportive over the years… I’m so glad to be here.”
Shake, shake, shaking the Eras Tour
Colbert kicked things off with a 2023 headline from the Eras Tour when Seattle Swifties generated a 2.3 magnitude “Swift Quake.” The singer met the moment with an “it’s off the charts” quip.
“It’s insane,” she said. “The entire tour, there were these just sort of out of control, out of body experiences we would have on stage. And I’ve had the same band, most of my band has been with me since I was 16 years old. And we just kind of look at each other and be like, this isn’t normal.”
That energy, she said, is exactly why she’s excited for Dec. 12, when fans will see “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour | The Final Show” and her six-part docuseries.
“I’m really glad we get to relive it,” she said, noting the project provides an intimate look at the tour’s emotional architecture.
Advice for Colbert as he heads into his final months
Colbert segued into how Swift transitioned off a massive tour, because he has only six months left as CBS host.
“Any advice for me?” he quipped.
“I mean, for this specific situation, no,” she said, laughing and shifting to their shared passion of being “workaholics.” She told Colbert that even on her days off, she can’t help but stay in motion, calling them both “passionate, hyperactive people.”
She added: “I’m never gonna be a chill person.”
Fame, pressure and who she talks to
Out of the first commercial break, Colbert asked who Swift, with supersonic fame, turns to for guidance.
“I try really hard not to do the whole like, my God, there’s no one that can believe what I’m going through,” she replied. She does have anchors, she said, naming singing legend Stevie Nicks, producer Max Martin and her fiancé Travis Kelce.
“I can talk to him about any of this,” she said.
Colbert congratulated her on her engagement. The Kansas City tight end got down on one knee in August following the taping of his “New Heights” episode featuring Swift.
How she unwinds
Swift spent the past two years circling the globe, 21 countries in all, for her record-shattering, three-hour Eras Tour. And when the stadium lights dropped each night, she shifted straight into her signature recovery ritual: a hot bath (“mermaid time,” as she put it), the most indulgent room-service spread she could order and hours of signing roughly 2,000 CDs.
“I got to power up for the 3 1/2 hour show,” she said.
Books — or rather, audiobooks — are another escape. Swift gravitates toward whodunit, twist-heavy thrillers: crumbling British estates draped in ivy, mysterious husbands, ghosts or almost-ghosts and family secrets festering on remote islands off the coast of Maine. The more eerie, unhinged and unreliable the narrator, the better.
Even with the chaos of global travel, her three cats travel with her. Colbert held up a photo of the youngest called Benjamin Button sleeping on her head.
“He’s really, really attached to my pillow, wherever that may be, in whatever country that is,” she replied.
Swift’s favorite top five songs
Colbert closed by asking for her top five tracks from her own catalog, a question she immediately protested was too soon to answer.
But did give him a starting point:
“I think No. 1 is ‘All Too Well (10 Minute Version),'” she said and was met with cheers from the crowd. And then she mentioned “Mirrorball” from “Folklore.” She promised to give an update.
Nominated for the 2026 class of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the singer did submit five songs last month that showcased her songwriting talent: “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” “Blank Space,” “Anti-Hero,” “Love Story” and “The Last Great American Dynasty.”
What should Colbert do next?
At the summation of the nearly half hour conversation, Swift looped back to Colbert’s next endeavor and tied everything together with a bow.
“You’re going to be podcasting,” she said.
“Legally, I have to get a podcast,” he replied.
“You’re going to be an influencer,” she continued before predicting he’d eventually write a thriller pulled straight from her favorite audiobooks.
“There’s like a house and it’s covered in Ivy… maybe off the coast of Maine,” she said. “Then somebody falls off a cliff. Oh no, it was a ghost.”
Swift joined ‘Colbert’ in 2021
The singer’s last “Colbert” visit happened in April 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Swift appeared virtually to promote her “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” album which included the song, “Hey Stephen.” Colbert insisted the song was written about him but Swift shot that down (tongue-in-cheek), reminding him, “I recorded that song in 2008, I think I was, like, 18.”
Even after showing a mood board full of photos of the late night host, Swift insisted the song wasn’t about Colbert, joking that “1989” also wasn’t about his time waiting tables in Chicago and ultimately revealing, deadpan, that “Hey Stephen” is about Stephen King.
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