The lead vocalist of a band has commented on Taylor Swift being called ‘cringe’ after she was seen singing along to one of his tracks.
As a millennial grappling with aging and a growing sense of bewilderment about the world, my understanding as a thirty-something is that ‘cringe’ tends to have a negative connotation.
Take, for instance, the sentence above. It is likely considered cringe-worthy. Meta jokes? Those are so last decade—they definitely did NOT get the memo.
So, Taylor Swift being branded with this term for singing along to The Darkness’ song, “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” can’t be seen as positive.
People took to Twitter after noticing Swift and her companion at the US Open. One tweet read: “Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are pure cringe at the US Open, this looks completely forced and unnatural.”
It seems we might need to call off the rest of The Eras Tour, even though it has been a great run.
That might have been the case if Justin Hawkins, the lead singer of The Darkness, had not responded with a TikTok video appreciating the pair singing his song.
In the video, Hawkins mentioned that he had attended one of Swift’s concerts and praised the warmth he experienced.
He described how the concert made him ‘dad of the year,’ stating: “To make matters even more spectacular, Taylor Swift actually sent me a lovely letter which was waiting for me in the VIP section talking about how much she loves the song ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’.”
“I was just dad of the year, maybe dad of the century.”
Hawkins added: “I woke up this morning and everybody’s forwarded me footage of ‘I Believe in a Thing Called Love’ being played at the US Open and Taylor Swift and her partner Travis dancing along to it and really enjoying the music.
“It was a really heartwarming moment for me and my little girl can’t wait to tell her friends at school, so thanks Taylor, thanks Travis!”
In the comments, many Swifties invoked what can be referred to as ‘Swift’s Law’—when Taylor Swift openly likes something that was once popular, her fans make it popular again.
One fan wrote: “Don’t underestimate the power of the Swifties. We may just put I believe in a thing called love back in the charts because Mother has summoned us.”
Another commented: “Get ready, Justin, the Swifties have been summoned.. you’re about to get A LOT more plays.”
Meanwhile, a third simply stated: “Alright Swifties. Time to get this song on the chart.”