Delicate (Taylor Swift song)

On March 5, 2018, Swift announced that the music video of "Delicate" would premiere on the iHeart Radio Music Awards on March 11. "Delicate" was released the next day onto Hot adult contemporary radio and onto contemporary hit radio before a radio release in Italy and the United Kingdom on April 20, 2018.

A vertical video was uploaded to Spotify on March 30, 2018, which was made available for users in the US, the UK, Sweden, and Latin America.[3] The video was later released on YouTube on May 15. As of September 2019, the vertical video on YouTube has over 6.4 million views.

A remix for the song featuring American musicians Ryan Tedder and Sawyr was released on May 25, 2018. On June 8, a remix of the song featuring musician Seeb was released.

Max Martin (pictured in 2017) produced and co-wrote "Delicate".

"Delicate" was written by Swift, Max Martin and Shellback, and was produced by the latter two. The song runs for three minutes and fifty-two seconds[4][5] and it has a tempo of 95 beats per minute. Swift sings it in the key of C major in a range spanning from G3 to A4.[6] Musically, the track is an "electro-pop love song".[7] The singer used a vocoder to create an "emotional" and "vulnerable" sound for the track. She explains that the song is about "what happens when you meet somebody that you really want in your life and then you start worrying about what they've heard before they met you." Swift went on to call the song "the first point of vulnerability in the record".[8]

The song received widespread critical acclaim. Geoff Nelson of Consequence of Sound coined the track as one of Reputation's strongest moments, along with "Gorgeous" and "Call It What You Want".[9] Zach Schonfeld of Newsweek called it "the album's first real moment of vulnerability", and it succeeds by "peeling back all the bravado and EDM aggression of the opening tracks".[10] Roisin O'Connor of The Independent stated that "Taylor Swift produced some of her most honest and direct songwriting to date", and that "'Delicate' was one of the best examples of that".[11] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone named it the best song of 2017,[12] and went on to rank it fourth in his list "All 153 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked".[13] The song was also included in Vanity Fair's The 17 Best Pop Songs of 2017, stating that "even at her most publicly beset, Taylor Swift possesses a secret weapon that separates her from the competition: truly unimpeachable songcraft".[14] In 2018, Billboard ranked "Delicate" as the 35th best song of 2018,[15] and was also named by Slant Magazine as the 9th best single of 2018.[16] Rolling Stone also named it as the 12th best song of 2018.[17] "Delicate" was named one of the best songs of the 2010s by Insider.[18] In 2020, Glamour named it the best song from Swift's catalogue.[19]

The video was filmed at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel (above) and the 7th Street/Metro Center station. (below)

The music video for "Delicate" premiered on March 11, 2018, at the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Awards after Swift accepted her award for "Female Artist of the Year". Directed by Joseph Kahn, the music video was shot in various locations around Los Angeles, including the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, the 7th Street/Metro Center station, the Los Angeles Theater and adjacent St. Vincent's Court, and the Golden Gopher bar.[25] The video features Swift discovering that she is invisible after a mystery man hands her a note, and is a satire and symbolic of Swift being able to be herself for the first time, and not caring about how others view her.[26][27] The video gained almost 13 million online views in the first 24 hours of release.[28] As of January 2020, the music video has gained over 400 million views on YouTube.[29]

In the United States, "Delicate" was a sleeper hit, debuting at number 84 on the Billboard Hot 100 after its release as a single. It rose to number 66 the following week. The song has since peaked at number 12,[31] making Reputation the first album in three years to have five top 20 hits on the Hot 100 with the last album doing so being Swift's own album 1989 in 2015. The song spent twenty-four weeks in the top forty, and thirty-five weeks on the chart in total, becoming the longest charting single from Reputation. After one year released, the song spent its fifty-third week on the Adult Contemporary chart, becoming the longest charting song by Swift and the ninth longest charting song by a female artist on the chart in history. Billboard noted that compared to other singles from Reputation, which peaked high initially and then fell, "Delicate" was a slow growing radio hit which gained popularity the longer audiences stayed with it. It also became the biggest radio hit from the album surpassing "Look What You Made Me Do".[32]

It also debuted at number 24 on the Adult Contemporary chart, eventually reaching the top of the chart where it spent 10 weeks there, becoming the first single from Reputation to do so. The song later become the longest-charting solo female song of the decade on the chart by more than 54 weeks of charting. The song entered at number 32 on the Mainstream Top 40 and number 37 on the Adult Top 40, peaking at the top position on both radio charts becoming the first single from Reputation to do so. "Delicate" was certified double platinum by the RIAA, for moving over 2 million units in the country.[33]

In Canada, following the release of Reputation, the song debuted at number 98 on the Canadian Hot 100 falling off the chart the following week. After its release as a single it re-entered the chart at number 44, moving up to number 38, and later peaking at number 20. The song debuted at number 87 on the UK Singles Chart, before peaking at number 45. In Iceland, "Delicate" reached its peak of number three on the Iceland Singles Chart, becoming the only European country where the song peaked top 5 in the official music chart.[34] In Australia it debuted at number 56, later peaking at number 28. In New Zealand, "Delicate" reached its peak at number 33 on the New Zealand Music Charts.[35]

The song had its debut performance at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on May 8, 2018, as part of the setlist for Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour.[49] On May 27, 2018, Swift performed a stripped-down, acoustic version of the song as part of her performance at BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend in Swansea, where she supported herself on the guitar.[50] On June 30, 2018, Swift performed this song in a secret gig in Chicago.[51] On December 6, 2018, Swift made a surprise appearance at the Ally Coalition Talent Show in New York City and performed an acoustic version of this song with Hayley Kiyoko.[52]

On April 23, 2019, she performed an acoustic version of the song at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts during the Time 100 Gala, where she was honored.[53] Swift performed an acoustic version of the song on June 1, 2019 at the Wango Tango.[54] She then performed the song at the Amazon Prime Day concert on July 10.[55] On September 9, Swift performed the song at the City of Lover one-off concert in Paris, France.[56]

Credits are adapted from liner notes of Reputation.

• Taylor Swift – lead vocals, backing vocals, songwriter
• Max Martin – producer, songwriter, keyboards, programming, piano
• Shellback – producer, songwriter, keyboards, programming
• Michael Ilbert – engineer
• Sam Holland – engineer
• Cory Bice – assistant engineer
• Jeremy Lertola – assistant engineer
• Serban Ghenea – mixing
• John Hanes – mix engineer
• Randy Merrill – mastering

• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 2018 (U.S.)
• List of Adult Top 40 number-one songs of the 2018
• List of Billboard Mainstream Top 40 number-one songs of 2018
• Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 2018

• Music video on YouTube
• Vertical video on YouTube