"Fortnight" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift featuring the American rapper and singer Post Malone. It was written by the artists alongside Jack Antonoff,who produced it with Swift. "Fortnight" is a 1980s-inspired downtempoelectropop,synth-pop,and new waveballad built around a steady,pulsing synthbassline,leading to a concluding bridge featuring Swift and Malone's vocal harmonies. The lyrics describe an emotionally impactful romance that lasts for two weeks:a woman in an unhappy marriage rekindles with a married ex-lover,and the two vow to escape to Florida.
Taylor Swift developed her eleventh original studio album,The Tortured Poets Department,immediately after finishing her previous album Midnights (2022). She continued working on The Tortured Poets Department while embarking on the Eras Tour in 2023,amidst media reports on her personal life including a breakup after a long-term relationship with Joe Alwyn and a short-lived romantic linking with Matty Healy.[1][2]
Swift announced The Tortured Poets Department at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on February 4,2024,[3] and unveiled the track listing via social media the following day. "Fortnight" is the opening track on the album,and Post Malone is the featured artist.[4] Swift brought the track to Malone's home studio in Los Angeles,and he recorded his background vocals and additional hooks for the bridge.[5] During an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1 in February 2024,Malone said that he had not heard the full song.[6]
"Fortnight" was released as the lead single of The Tortured Poets Department on April 19,2024,concurrently with the album's release.[7][8] Swift unveiled the cover artwork via social media;it is a grayscale photograph of Swift resting her cheek on a closed fist and Malone gazing into the camera with his hands clasped.[7]Republic Records sent "Fortnight" to contemporary hit and hot adult contemporary radio in the United States,[9] and Universal Music promoted it on radio airplay in Italy.[10] The track was made available for purchase as a limited-time CD single through Swift's online store in the United States,Ireland,the United Kingdom,Germany,and Switzerland.[a] A remix by Blond:ish was released on May 21,[14] and an acoustic version and a remix by Cults followed on July 8,2024.[15]
Starting from the Eras Tour shows in May 2024 in Paris,Swift revamped the set list to include songs from The Tortured Poets Department,including "Fortnight".[16][17] For the performance of "Fortnight",the stage featured a "TTPD"-emblazoned bed and dancers dressed as nurses. Swift sang the song as she sat on a typewriter,across from a dancer,[18] and the bed,which also resembled an office desk,moved across the stage.[19]
Music
Swift and Malone wrote "Fortnight" with Jack Antonoff,who programmed the track and played acoustic guitar,electric guitar,the Juno,the M1,drums,and percussion. Sean Hutchinson played additional drums,which were recorded by himself and Michael Riddleberger at Hutchinson Sounds in Brooklyn. Malone's vocals were recorded and produced by Louis Bell at Electric Feel Studios in Los Angeles. "Fortnight" was produced by Swift and Antonoff;recorded by Laura Sisk and Oli Jacobs at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles and Electric Lady Studios in New York City;and mixed by Serban Ghenea at Mixstar Studios in Virginia Beach.[20]
"Fortnight" is a downtempoballad combining electropop, synth-pop, and new wave. It is driven by a pulsing synthbassline and Swift's monotonous vocals, echoed by Malone's subdued backing vocals in lyric, "I love you, it's ruining my life."
At 3 minutes and 48 seconds,[20] "Fortnight" is a 1980s-influenced downtempoballad.[21][22] Critics described its genre as electropop,[23][24]synth-pop,[25][26][27] and new wave.[28] Its subtle electronic production is instrumented by a pulsing synthbassline generated by 8-bit synth plucks[29][30] that repeat every eight bars.[31] Swift sings the verses in a monotone[32] and the refrain's lyric, "I love you, it's ruining my life", features her vocals being echoed back by Malone's subdued singing.[33][34] Towards the concluding bridge, Malone and Swift deliver vocal harmonies.[32][34] According to Annie Zaleski, Swift sounds "seething and resigned", while Malone adds a sense of longing with his "earnest, buttery-smooth melodic counterpoints".[23]
The lyrics of "Fortnight" are about the strong impacts of a two-week romance that leaves behind fleeting emotions:[23] Swift's narrator is a woman in an unhappy marriage, and she becomes a neighbor of an ex-lover, who is now married to another woman.[21][42] They encounter each other on a daily basis in a suburban American town, watering the flowers in their garden and chatting about the weather.[23] That she lives next-door to her ex-lover makes her fantasize about killing the wife[38] and resort to alcoholism to cope with her misery.[23] In the double chorus that follows the second verse, Swift's character finds out about her husband's infidelity and desires to kill him also.[38] In the conclusion, Malone's character, representing the ex-lover of Swift's character, fantasizes about escaping to Florida with her to escape the torturous reality that they are in.[38]
Some publications highlighted that the title is a British English noun meaning two weeks, possibly referencing Swift's previous romances with British men;[c]Google searches for the definition of "fortnight" in the United States surged after the song's release.[46] Swift said that the track features many characteristics that define The Tortured Poets Department, including themes of "fatalism, longing, pining away, lost dreams"[47] and hyperbolic and dramatic lyrics ("I love you, it's ruining my life").[48] Explaining her songwriting perspective to Amazon Music, she said that she imagined the setting of "Fortnight" as an American town where one's American Dream never materialized: "You ended up not with the person that you loved and now you just have to live with that every day, wondering what would’ve been maybe seeing them out."[49]
Several journalists suggested that "Fortnight" is autobiographical in nature, but it also blends confessional and fictional elements.[50][51][52] The short-lived yet emotionally impactful romance in "Fortnight" becomes the subject of many other album tracks, and its imagery of violence and death (such as the narrator fantasizing about murdering the ex-lover's wife and her own cheating husband) also recur on them.[53][54][55]Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone opined that the "1950s bad-marriage theme" of unhappy suburban marriages with cheating husbands and dutiful housewives "on the verge of nervous breakdowns" was reminiscent of Swift's songwriting for her past albums Folklore, Evermore, and Midnights.[27] Donovan described the scenario of "Fortnight" as a "suburban nightmare".[38]The New York Times' Lindsay Zoladz thought that the track is "chilly and controlled" until it "[thaws] and [glows]" after the lyric, "I love you, it's ruining my life."[56]USA Today's Melissa Ruggeri dubbed the lyrics mentioning alcoholism as "darkly funny".[57]
Critical reception
Critics praised Post Malone's guest vocals.
Upon its release, "Fortnight" received mixed reviews from music critics. The track was picked as a highlight on The Tortured Poets Department by Alli Rosenbloom of CNN[33] and Mesfin Fekadu of The Hollywood Reporter.[37] In PopMatters, Igor Bannikov lauded "Fortnight" as the best opening track of Swift's career for featuring a "delicate and cunning" songcraft with a "buoyant" synth-pop production, Swift's vocal harmonies, and self-referential lyricism.[29]NME's Laura Molloy thought that the track hinted at an interesting musical direction for Swift,[58] and The Irish Times' Finn McRemmond praised the "impossible catchy hook" despite the dreary theme.[59] Zoladz highlighted the lyrics for portraying "how viscerally Swift can summon the flushed delirium of a doomed romance".[56]
Many critics praised the vocal chemistry between Swift and Malone. John Meagher of the Irish Independent highlighted Malone's performance as more restrained compared to his usual "melodramatic" tendencies,[60] and Ed Power of The Daily Telegraph wrote: "His breathy singing voice dovetails surprisingly with Swift's angsty coo."[61]Billboard's Jason Lipshutz ranked "Fortnight" fifth out of the 31 tracks on the double album edition of The Tortured Poets Department, praising how Malone's appearance suits well with Swift's vocals and gives the bridge "subtle power and hangdog charm".[32] Bianca Gracie of Grammy.com also praised Malone's "melancholic harmonies" for giving "more emotional weight" to Swift's storytelling lyrics.[62]
Less enthusiastic reviews considered "Fortnight" a compositionally unmemorable song. Callie Ahlgrim of Business Insider and deemed it uninventive and argued that it was too similar to Antonoff and Swift's previous collaborations, specifically calling it a derivative of Midnights.[36] Mark Richardson of The Wall Street Journal deemed it mediocre,[22] and Paste and Our Culture Mag's Konstantinos Pappis criticized the sound as empty and bland.[63][64]Variety's Chris Willman regarded the single as a good choice for pop radio, but he contended that it was "not much of an indication of the more visceral, obsessive stuff" for the album's remainder.[35] Alex Hudson of Exclaim! wrote that he was "genuinely shocked" that "such a dreary, unmemorable song" was released as a single.[65]
In the United States, "Fortnight" debuted at number 9 on Adult Pop Airplay and number 13 on Pop Airplay. It tied her own "Shake It Off" (2014) as the highest debut on the former chart, and "Bad Blood" (2015) as the second-highest debut on the latter chart.[70] On the Adult Pop Airplay chart dated June 22, 2024, the single reached number one to become Swift's record-extending 13th chart topper and Malone's second.[71] On the Billboard Hot 100, "Fortnight" debuted at number one on the chart dated May 4, 2024, with first-week figures of 76.2 million streams, 31.1 million radio airplay audience impressions, and 19,000 copies sold. It registered as the second highest first-week streaming figure since Billboard removed YouTube song user-generated content from its chart metrics in 2020. As Swift's 12th number-one single and seventh number-one debut, it tied Swift with Ariana Grande for the most number-one debuts for a female artist. "Fortnight" also marked Malone's fifth number-one single and first number-one debut.[72] The single spent two consecutive weeks atop the Hot 100.[73]
"Fortnight" debuted at number one and was Swift's fourth number-one single in the United Kingdom[74] and 12th in Australia.[75] The single also topped the charts in Canada,[76] Singapore,[77] and the United Arab Emirates,[78] as well as Billboard'sHits of the World charts for Hong Kong,[79]Malaysia,[80] and the Philippines.[81] Across other European territories, "Fortnight" reached the top five in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Belgian Flanders, Norway, Sweden,[82] Portugal,[83] Latvia,[84] Lithuania,[85] and Iceland.[86] The track peaked at number two on the chart for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.[87] In Asia-Pacific, "Fortnight" peaked in the top five of Billboard's Hits of the World charts for Taiwan[88] and Indonesia.[89] It received platinum certifications in Australia (double platinum),[90] New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom.[d]
Music video
Development
Swift wrote and directed the music video for "Fortnight", whose cinematography was handled by the Mexican filmmaker Rodrigo Prieto.[96] According to Swift, the music video for "Fortnight" was the visual representation of The Tortured Poets Department: "Pretty much everything in it is a metaphor or a reference to one corner of the album or another."[97]
Four hours prior to the album's release, Swift posted a teaser for the music video on social media.[98] The music video was released on April 19, 2024.[99] It has a black-and-white cinematography and features Swift and Malone as ex-lovers, and Dead Poets Society's co-stars Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles as mad scientists carrying out tests on Swift.[96][100] Malone recalled that Swift had to hide under an umbrella and drapes "over the golf cart so drones and a helicopter couldn't get footage" during filming of the video.[5]
Synopsis
Swift's black Victorian-gothic ensemble gown from the music video, designed by Elena Velez (dress) and UNTTLD (top)
The video starts with Swift seen in a white dress and choker, chained to her bed in a mental facility;[102][103] the bed is suspended on the wall.[26] After a faceless person gives her a "Forget Him" pill, Swift is seen wiping her face to reveal tattoos.[102][104] She then walks into a room filled with typewriters with black-masked figures typing them,[101] donning a black mourning Victorian dress.[61] She sits and begins typing with Malone across the room.[102][104] The video then shows scenes of Swift and Malone lying on top of a pile of papers, reading a book titled Us.[101][105] They embrace on a lone highway before being caught up in a tornado that causes loose papers to swirl around them.[102][106]
Back at the mental facility, Swift is seen strapped to a gurney, in a laboratory.[100][106] The doctors (Hawke and Charles) perform electroshock therapy on her as Malone watches from the side.[100][107] In the final scene, Malone calls from a telephone booth that Swift, in a sparkling flapper dress,[108] is on top of in the pouring thunderstorm rain, on an isolated cliff. He ultimately comes out of the booth and grabs Swift's hand.[104] The video ends with silent-film credits.[97]
Interpretations and reception
According to many publications, Swift's character in the video evokes the protagonist of the 2023 movie Poor Things[e] and the scene of her being experimented on by mad scientists resembled Mary Shelley's 1818 gothic novel Frankenstein.[f] In the French film magazine Première, Anthéa Claux compared the black-and-white cinematography and certain scenes to those of early-20th century German expressionist silent films: the close-up scene showing Swift's face and makeup evokes Metropolis (1927), and the mental facility setting with its bed suspended on the wall and distorted interiors resembles the settings of the The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).[111]
Analyses of the video identified themes of mourning and reliving memories of a past relationship.[g] Fashion magazines examined Swift's fashion relating to Victorian and gothic styles that channeled poets and writers like Mary Shelley or Emily Dickinson.[h] Ed Power of The Daily Telegraph thought that the video portrayed a haunting version of Swift that "gets under our skin like never before" and complimented the acting chemistry between Swift and Malone.[61] According to the literature professor Matthew J.A. Green, the video of "Fortnight" was one of Swift's foray into literary gothic, which was an important artistic endeavor that represented womanhood and critique of the self.[114]
↑ "ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 30. týden 2024 in the date selector. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
↑ "ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 17. týden 2024 in the date selector. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
↑ "Media Forest Week 21, 2024". Media Forest. Archived from the original on July 12, 2024. Retrieved May 28, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
↑ "ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 28. týden 2024 in the date selector. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
↑ "ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 17. týden 2024 in the date selector. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
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