Taylor Swift performs Dear John after a decade, asks fans to act with ‘kindness’ on social media

Taylor Swift surprised fans with her performance of one of the tracks from her Speak Now album. The singer, who performed at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Saturday, played Dear John, a ballad that she hasn’t performed since 2012 in Auckland, New Zealand. Before the performance, she also requested her fans to act with ‘kindness and gentleness’ on social media ahead of the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) on July 7. (Also read: Taylor Swift’s ex Taylor Lautner reacts to re-release of Speak Now, prays for John Mayer)

About Taylor Swift’s song Dear John

The song Dear John is believed to be about her relationship with John Mayer. Taylor and John dated briefly between 2009 and 2010, when she was 19 and he was 32. The lyrics of the song goes: “Dear John, I see it all now it was wrong / Don’t you think nineteen is too young / To be played by your dark twisted games, when I loved you so? / I should’ve known.”

Taylor’s request for her fans

A small clip captured by a fan from her concert went viral on Twitter, where Taylor said on stage, “I’m putting this album out because I want to own my music and I believe any artist who has a desire to own their music should be able to.” Before playing the song, she also requested her fans to act with ‘kindness’ and added, “I’m 33 years old. I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19 except the songs I wrote … I’m not putting this album out so you should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about.”

This message comes after the widespread media attention and fan uproar that had occurred when Taylor had released an extended 10-minute version of her song All Too Well from the album Red. The song, which is believed to be based on her relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal, gave rise to intense fan anger and disappointment with the actor. The actor had to disable his comment section on Instagram as a result.

Meanwhile, Taylor unveiled the international tour dates for her Eras Tour recently, on her Instagram. She will be performing in Japan, Australia, Singapore and Europe.