"Bejeweled" is a song by American singer-songwriter

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bor ...

, taken from her tenth studio album, ''

Midnights ''Midnights'' is the tenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 21, 2022, via Republic Records. Announced at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, the album marks Swift's first body of new work since her 2020 ...

'' (2022), which was released on October 21, 2022, through

Republic Records Republic Records is a New York City–based American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). It was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially an ...

. Written and produced by Swift and

Jack Antonoff Jack Michael Antonoff (born March 31, 1984) is an American singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. Antonoff is the lead singer of rock band Bleachers, and is the guitarist and drummer in the pop rock band Fun. He was p ...

, "Bejeweled" is a

synth A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and f ...

-laden

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

, and

bubblegum Bubble gum or bubblegum is a type of chewing gum, designed to be inflated out of the mouth as a bubble. Bubble gum flavor While there is a bubble gum "flavor" – which various artificial flavorings including esters are mixed to obtain – it ...

song about one's recognition of their self-worth. The ninth track on the album, "Bejeweled" was released as a digital

promotional single A promotional recording, or promo, or plug copy, is an audio or video recording distributed free, usually in order to promote a recording that is or soon will be commercially available. Promos are normally sent directly to broadcasters, such as ...

exclusively via Swift's website on October 25 for a limited time period. Critics noted the song's lyricism announcing Swift's return to

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

and lauded its upbeat production and empowering lyrics. It was accompanied by a music video written and directed by Swift—a comic take on the story of

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

—starring Swift, Antonoff, American actress

Laura Dern Laura Elizabeth Dern (born February 10, 1967) is an American actress. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award, and five Golden Globe Awards. Born to actor Bruce Dern and ac ...

, rock band

Haim The name ''Haim'' can be a first name or surname originating in the Hebrew language, or deriving from the Old German name '' Haimo''. Hebrew etymology Chayyim ( he, חַיִּים ', Classical Hebrew: , Israeli Hebrew: ), also transcribed ''Ha ...

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

artist

Dita Von Teese Heather Renée Sweet (born September 28, 1972), known professionally as Dita Von Teese, is an American vedette, burlesque dancer, model, and businesswoman. She is credited with re-popularizing burlesque performance, earning the moniker "Queen ...

, and British make-up artist Pat McGrath. It features several

Easter eggs Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tra ...

that hint at Swift's next project, widely speculated to be the re-recording of ''

Speak Now ''Speak Now'' is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 25, 2010, through Big Machine Records. Swift wrote the album entirely herself within two years, while she was promoting her second studio alb ...

'' (2010). The song peaked within the top 10 in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, and the Philippines, as well as the United States where it landed at number six on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. "Bejeweled" was performed for the first time on

the Eras Tour The Eras Tour (stylized as Taylor Swift The Eras Tour) is the upcoming sixth headlining concert tour by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Having not toured for her studio albums '' Lover'' (2019), ''Folklore'' (2020), and '' Evermore'' ...

(2023).

Background

On August 28, 2022,

announced her tenth studio album, ''

'', set for release on October 21, 2022. The track-list was not immediately revealed.

, a longtime collaborator of Swift who had worked with her since her fifth studio album '' 1989'' (2014), was confirmed as a producer on ''Midnights'' by a video posted to Swift's

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

account on September 16, 2022, titled "The making of ''Midnights''". Beginning on September 21, 2022, Swift began unveiling the tracklist in a randomized order through her short video series on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

, called ''Midnights Mayhem with Me''. It consisted of 13 episodes, with one song revealed in every episode. Swift rolls a lottery cage containing 13

ping pong Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

balls numbered from one to thirteen, each representing a track of ''Midnights'', and when a ball drops out, she disclosed the title of the corresponding track on the album, through a telephone. In the seventh episode on October 5, 2022, Swift announced the title of the ninth track as "Bejeweled".

Lyrics and composition

Music critics described the genre of "Bejeweled" as

, and

. The production incorporates prominent

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

touches, driven by a Juno 6

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

. It contains "plinking" and "shimmery" synth

arpeggio A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...

s that burst "into sparklers" during its hooks. The lyrics are about recognizing self-worth; the narrator cautions a male romantic subject to pay attention to her before it is too late. Swift stated the song also acts as a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...

for her return to

—that she is still "bejeweled" enough for pop—after deviating into

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

with her last two studio albums during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Release

On October 16, Swift posted an itinerary to her social media, detailing the events scheduled for the album, entitled ''Midnights Manifest''. It specified a music video release for the album's lead single, "

Anti-Hero An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero) or antiheroine is a main character in a story who may lack conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism, courage, and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes perform actions ...

", on October 21 and "another track" on October 25. Swift later confirmed the undisclosed track to receive a music video is "Bejeweled". Excerpts from the video were shown in a teaser trailer for the album's visuals during

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

's broadcast of ''

Thursday Night Football ''Thursday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''TNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that broadcast primarily on Thursday nights. Most of the games kick off at 8:15 Eastern Time (8:20 prior to 20 ...

'' on October 20. Besides Swift, the cast of the "Bejeweled" music video—Antonoff,

, the

sisters (Este,

Danielle Danielle is a modern French female variant of the male name Daniel, meaning "God is my judge" in the Hebrew language. Variants *Dana – Czech, German, Romanian Polish *Danette – English *Daniela – Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, English, Germ ...

, and Alana),

, and Pat McGrath—also appeared in the trailer. ''Midnights'' was released on October 21, 2022 at 12:00 EDT, on which "Bejeweled" appears as the ninth track. On October 25, the song was issued for digital download on Swift's website, as a

off the record, for a limited time. An instrumental version followed two days later on October 27, in the same format, also for a limited time.

Critical reception

"Bejeweled" received critical acclaim from critics. Brittany Spanos of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' dubbed "Bejeweled" an "absolute knockout" of a song, "presenting herself as the ultimate prize."

Rob Sheffield Robert James Sheffield (born February 2, 1966) is an American music journalist and author. He is a long time contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'', writing about music, TV, and pop culture. Previously, he was a contributing editor at ''Blen ...

said the song is an "anxious dance-floor poseur of ' Mirrorball' grown up, but it also feels like the wife from ' Tolerate It' finally breaking free", featuring Swift both boast and be needy. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' journalist Jason Lipshutz said a "perfect" song like "Bejeweled" conveys Swift's years of experience as a songwriter. Lipshutz added that song is "a story of refusing to settle into early-thirties ennui". Helen Brown of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' wrote, Swift "warns a guy that she has the capacity to light up rooms (and all the boys in the band) if he doesn't pay more attention". Carl Wilson of ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

'' appreciated the song's lively synths reminiscent of works by Italian record producer

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer, songwriter, and record producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering euro disco and electronic dance mu ...

and the lyrics about "living well". Saloni Gajjar of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' described it as an unapologetic, "feel-good melody meant to be played loudly".

Music video

The music video, written and directed by Swift, premiered on her

Vevo Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, di ...

channel on YouTube at 00:00 EDT on October 25. It contains many

Easter egg Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tr ...

s referencing her previous work, particularly the 2010 album ''

''. The storyline references and provides an ironic twist on the fairy tale

. In the video, Swift portrays the Cinderella character, only named as "House Wench". She endures mockery from the wicked stepmother character, played by

, and the evil stepsisters, played by the members of the band

, one of whose vomit Swift is cleaning up. As they leave for the ball, Swift opens a fob watch and becomes transformed into a cloaked queenly figure in a ball gown. She sings the second verse in a golden

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

-inspired elevator on her way to the ball on the third floor of a skyscraper. The elevator contains an Easter egg wherein the color of each elevator button represents every album Swift has released as of the music video's release, with the thirteenth and last button, which is purple, possibly representing ''Speak Now'', hinting that it may be Swift's next re-released album. Swift then passes through an environment filled with falling gemstones before taking her cloak off, revealing a black

American burlesque American burlesque is a genre of variety show derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall and minstrel shows. Burlesque became popular in America in the late 1860s and slowly evolved to feature ribald comedy and female nudity. By th ...

-inspired dance outfit. The gems fall into place on her bodysuit and boots, and a bracelet and necklace attach around her wrist and neck. Exiting the elevator on a higher floor, Swift meets her " fairy goddess" (

), both wearing silver burlesque-style outfits. After peeling off their stockings they perform a dance number in a pair of giant

martini glass A cocktail glass is a stemmed glass with an inverted cone bowl, mainly used to serve straight-up cocktails. The term ''cocktail glass'' is often used interchangeably with ''martini glass'', despite their differing slightly. Today, the glass ...

es and pour water over themselves from a pair of giant

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

s. Finally, Swift reaches the thirteenth floor and takes the stage at the ball in a clockwork-inspired setting surrounded by showgirls, wearing a black jewelled two-piece outfit and silver heels. Her act stuns the wicked stepmother and stepsisters, and impresses "Queen Pat" ( Pat McGrath). Queen Pat forces Swift to entertain the

Prince Charming Prince Charming is a fairy tale stock character who comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress and must engage in a quest to liberate her from an evil spell. This classification suits most heroes of a number of traditional folk tales, incl ...

character (

), but Swift turns the Prince's marriage proposal down, with a caption specifying that she

ghosts A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

him. The music video ends with the Prince shrugging off and accepting Swift's rejection while she enjoys the view from her newly-acquired castle as three dragons fly around it. The music video features orchestral versions of two other Swift songs from ''Speak Now'': " Enchanted" in the beginning and "

Long Live ''Viva'', ''vive'', and ''vivat'' are interjections used in the Romance languages. ''Viva'' in Spanish (plural ), Portuguese, and Italian (Also . in plural is rare), ''Vive'' in French, and ''Vivat'' in Latin (plural ) are subjunctive forms ...

" at the end.

Commercial performance

In the United States, tracks from ''Midnights'' occupied the entire top 10 of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100; "Bejeweled" debuted at number six on the chart with 35.5 million streams, 16,100 digital downloads sold and 1.6 million in radio audience. Swift became the first artist to simultaneously occupy the top 10 spots of the Hot 100; the female artist with the most top-10 songs (40); and the first act to occupy the entire top 10 of the Hot 100,

Streaming Songs The Streaming Songs chart is released weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists each week's top streamed radio songs, on-demand songs and videos on leading online music services in the United States. The chart represents one of the three component ...

, and

Digital Songs The Digital Songs or Digital Song Sales chart (previously named Hot Digital Songs) ranks the best-selling digital songs in the United States, as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published by '' Billboard'' magazine. Although it originally sta ...

charts simultaneously. ''Midnights'' also became the first album in history to contain ten top-10 songs. The song spent a second consecutive week inside the top 10 of the Hot 100, alongside fellow tracks "

", "

Lavender Haze "Lavender Haze" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her tenth studio album, ''Midnights'' (2022). It was written by Swift, Jack Antonoff, Jahaan Sweet, Sounwave, Zoë Kravitz, and Sam Dew, and produced by the first four in ...

" and " Midnight Rain".

Accolades

Credits and personnel

Credits are adapted from ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

''. ;Recording * Recorded at Rough Customer Studio (Brooklyn) and

Electric Lady Studios Electric Lady Studios is a recording studio in Greenwich Village, New York City. It was commissioned by rock musician Jimi Hendrix in 1968 and designed by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie Kramer by 1970. Hendrix spent only ten ...

(New York City) * Mixed at MixStar Studios (

Virginia Beach Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...

) *

Mastered Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via meth ...

at Sterling Sound (

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) * Mikey Freedom Hart's performance was recorded by David Hart at Big Mercy Sound (Brooklyn) ;Personnel *

– vocals, songwriter, producer *

– songwriter, producer, programming,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

, Juno 6,

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, OB1,

kalimba Mbira ( ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and p ...

, Moog,

acoustic guitars An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, bass, background vocals, recording * Evan Smith –

s, recording * Mikey Freedom Hart – keys * Megan Searl – assistant

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

* John Sher – assistant engineer * John Rooney – assistant engineer *

Serban Ghenea Șerban Ghenea (born October 13, 1969) is a Grammy award-winning Romanian-Canadian audio engineer and mixer. Early life and education Ghenea was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1969. In 1976 he moved to Montreal with his family. He later attended ...

– mix engineer * Bryce Bordone – assistant mix engineer * Randy Merrill – mastering engineer * Laura Sisk – recording * David Hart – recording

Charts

Certifications

Release history

Notes

References

{{Authority control 2022 songs American disco songs Taylor Swift songs Songs written by Taylor Swift Songs written by Jack Antonoff Song recordings produced by Taylor Swift Song recordings produced by Jack Antonoff American synth-pop songs Bubblegum pop songs Works based on Cinderella