Taylor Swift fans know they’re in for a good time when the Eras Tour mastermind says from the stage, “I’m gonna do one that I’ve never played live before.” Those were the words from Swift’s red lips Friday night (July 5) in Amsterdam, where she debuted “imgonnagetyouback” live during her acoustic set at Johan Cruyff Arena.
“imgonnagetyouback,” the sexy Anthology track about luring in an old flame (found on the 31-song edition of The Tortured Poets Department) starts off with Swift setting the scene: “Lilac short skirt, the one that fits me like skin.” She soon asserts, “I’ll tell you one thing, honey/ I can tell when somebody still wants me, come clean.”
“Whether I’m gonna be your wife, or/ Gonna smash up your bike, I haven’t decided yet/ But I’m gonna get you back,” goes the “imgonnagetyouback” chorus. “Whether I’m gonna curse you out or/ Take you back to my house, I haven’t decidеd yet/ But I’m gonna get you back.”
“I hear thе whispers in your eyes/ I’ll make you wanna think twice/ You’ll find that you were never not mine/ You’re mine,” sang Swift on the Amsterdam stage, acoustic guitar in hand.
In the surprise song section of Swift’s Friday night show, when the hitmaker played “Imgonnagetyouback” live for the first time ever, she made the song even spicier by connecting it to Reputation slow jam “Dress.”
“Say my name and everything just stops/ I don’t want you like a best friend/ Only bought this dress so you could take it off/ Take it off, ah, ah, ah,” she sang in the flirty mashup, making her way from “Dress” back to the “imgonnagetyouback” bridge: “I can feel it coming, humming in the way you move/ Push the reset button, we’re becomin’ something new/ Say you got somebody, I’ll say I got someone too/ Even if it’s handcuffed, I’m leavin’ here with you.”
Post-guitar performance, Swift followed with a love story on piano.
She sang the delicate “You Are in Love,” a deluxe track from the 1989 era, weaved into the dreamy “Cowboy Like Me,” from Evermore.
“You can hear it in the silence/ You can feel it on the way home/ You can see it with the lights out/ You are in love, true love,” Swift reflected from “You are in Love,” before singing about falling for “a cowboy like me.”
“Now you hang from my lips, like the Gardens of Babylon/ With your boots beneath my bed, forever is the sweetest con,” she mused. “You had some tricks up your sleeve/ Takes one to know one.”
Tying the two moments together, she sang, “But you can hear it in the silence/ You can feel it on the way home/ You can see it with the lights out/ You’re a cowboy like me, and you were in love.”
The pop icon, whose The Tortured Poets Department album holds steady at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, has now debuted most of her latest collection’s tracks live on tour. Which songs from the set have yet to get stage time? “So Long, London,” “Florida!!!” feat. Florence + The Machine, “Cassandra” and “Robin.”
Watch Swift’s July 5 surprise song clips, captured by fans at Friday night’s Amsterdam show, below.