Taylor Swift flubs lyric on surprise song at Santa Clara Eras concert

For her first surprise song, Swift invited frequent collaborator Aaron Dessner of “The National” for a duet of “right where you left me” from 2020’s  “Evermore,” her second folk-inspired album of the pandemic. 

Before she started, Swift said the song was one of her hardest to play lyrically. She warned the audience that she had never sung it successfully and said that even after practicing, she might not get it right for the show. 

Indeed, she was correct. 

Swift made it about three quarters of the song before slightly flubbing the lyrics. She paused, she sighed, she exasperatedly looked to the sky, and she smiled as the crowd roared their undying support. They weren’t going to let one minor slip-up get in the way of their good time.

Swift and Dressner successfully finished the song on their second try. 

The singer said the mistake wasn’t a bit.

“I had genuinely been rehearsing that for six weeks,” she said after the minor mistake.

For her second surprise song, Swift chose “Castle Crumbling” from her most recent album “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).” 

In the studio version, Swift is joined by Hayley Williams of Paramore. Williams was supposed to have been in the Bay Area last week but had to cancel due to illness. One wonders because of the timing and song choice if a surprise appearance of Williams had been planned before the Paramore cancellation.