Music

Taylor Swift to Premiere 'Patient Zero' Video at VMAs

Taylor Swift will debut the full 'Patient Zero' video, co-starring Dakota Johnson and Colin Farrell, during Sunday's VMAs. The single arrives Friday, with cinematography by Oscar-winner Emmanuel Lubezski.

Taylor Swift to Premiere ‘Patient Zero’ Video Co-Starring Dakota Johnson, Colin Farrell During VMAs
Taylor Swift to Premiere ‘Patient Zero’ Video Co-Starring Dakota Johnson, Colin Farrell During VMAsAI-generated

Taylor Swift will premiere the full video for her new single "Patient Zero" during the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night, with Dakota Johnson and Colin Farrell co-starring in the clip.

Swift released a 13-second teaser on Thursday. It opens with Swift turning on a faucet in a dimly lit bathroom while orchestral strings play a lilting, almost Irish-sounding melody. The water theme continues as Swift and Johnson dive opposite each other into a pool in an underwater shot, and later stand behind a man on a pedestal as he looks at his phone. The teaser cuts to a cemetery and a coffin on which somebody lays a black rose. Hero shots of Swift, Farrell and Johnson — all alive — follow, leading to what looks like the splash for a movie title.

Emmanuel Lubezki, the cinematographer who won Oscars for The Revenant, Birdman and Gravity, worked on the video. The song itself arrives Friday, ahead of the video's broadcast debut.

Swift enters the ceremony with 11 nominations. She will also receive the inaugural Artist Director Honors, an award that recognizes an artist whose "work behind the camera has expanded the possibilities of music video and advanced the art of visual storytelling." The VMAs air on CBS and MTV at 7:30 p.m. ET on Sunday and stream on Paramount+.

Swift announced the single earlier this week on social media. "I've been impatiently waiting to tell you that my brand new single 'Patient Zero' will out on September 25 (!!!!!!!!!!!!)," she wrote — the message included in her post announcing the track. Her website shifted from glittering orange to dark gray and now offers three new CD single versions of "Patient Zero," each with a different cover showing the singer in black, echoing the black high-neck top she wore in her announcement post on Instagram. She also updated her profile picture across social media — a move that has marked a new era for the singer in the past.

Days after announcing the track, Swift revealed that an extended edition of The Life of a Showgirl will also arrive Friday with four new songs. The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore adds "Cleveland!," "Pink Clouding," "Babylon" and "Patient Zero" to the album.

In her post sharing the release date, Swift wrote that after The Life of a Showgirl achieved the "biggest first week for an album in history," she traveled to Sweden to celebrate with producers and collaborators Max Martin and Shellback.

"Really we just wanted to reflect and take in how grateful we were for the moment we were in, but there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs," she wrote, closing with: "I hope you love them, because they were born out of pure gratitude for your exuberance for and celebration of the album we made."

With a VMA premiere, a new award and four fresh songs arriving within the same week, Swift is staging one of her most concentrated release pushes to date — and the darkened website suggests the "Patient Zero" era is only beginning.

Original: instagram.com

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Daniel Okafor

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News editor covering consumer brands and retail at Arts & Voices.

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