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Taylor Swift surprises fans with rerecorded Wildest Dreams

The singer-songwriter released the track as the original recording started trending on TikTok. "Thought you should have my version," Swift wrote.

Abrar Al-Heeti Technology Reporter
Abrar Al-Heeti is a technology reporter for CNET, with an interest in phones, streaming, internet trends, entertainment, pop culture and digital accessibility. She's also worked for CNET's video, culture and news teams. She graduated with bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Though Illinois is home, she now loves San Francisco -- steep inclines and all.
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1989 (Taylor's Version) hasn't been announced yet, but Taylor Swift is already giving us a snippet of the upcoming album.

Taylor Swift/Twitter

Taylor Swift gave fans a surprise gift on Friday: her rerecorded version of Wildest Dreams. The original version of the song, released in 2014, has been trending on TikTok lately, with people using it alongside videos in which the camera slowly zooms in on their face. Swift has been rerecording her first six albums following a dispute with her old label.

On Friday morning, Swift posted a clip to TikTok with the new version of Wildest Dreams, along with the caption, "Someone said slow zoom makes you look like the main character I said make it Taylor's Version pls." Two hours later, she posted another video using the rerecording, with on-screen text reading, "You set a date in November with Red but then someone mentions 1989," referencing her two different albums, which are both slated to be rereleased (more on that in a moment). 

@taylorswift

Someone said slow zoom makes you look like the main character I said make it Taylor’s Version pls ##wildestdreamstaylorsversion ##swifttok ##slowzoom

♬ original sound - Taylor Swift

She also posted the update to Twitter, writing, "Hi! Saw you guys got Wildest Dreams trending on TikTok, thought you should have my version."

Swift has been rerecording her first six albums after her old record label, Big Machine Records, sold her master recordings. After signing a new record deal with Universal's Republic Records in 2018, in which she ensured she'd own her future masters, Swift announced she was rerecording her older music in a bid to get her versions of those songs to overtake the popularity of the originals. The rerecorded songs are dubbed "Taylor's Version." 

In April, Swift released her first album rerecording, Fearless (Taylor's Version). Her next rerecording, Red (Taylor's Version), is slated for a Nov. 19 release. A big reason fans were surprised about the release Friday of Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version) is that the track is from the album 1989, which hasn't yet been given a rerelease date.

Variety noted that the rerecorded version of Wildest Dreams quickly surpassed the original song's Spotify record for the most plays in a day. Around four hours after Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version) was released, it raked in 2 million plays. The original version hit 750,000 plays in a day earlier this week, which still paled in comparison to Friday's rerelease.

Swift joined TikTok last month and has already amassed 4 million followers.

Here's Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version), along with the original below.