Larger than life, multi-talented singer-songwriter Taylor Swift was honored at Yankee Stadium on May 18th, 2022 and delivered the commencement address to New York University’s Class of 2022. Swift was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the institution. She was invited for a multitude of reasons to address the graduating class of 2022. Yet, one of the main reasons was her popularity amongst the students. Due to Taylor’s popularity, NYU had the first ever Taylor Swift course release in January. The excitement at Yankee Stadium was uncontainable!

Notably, after not having an in-person graduation for three years, NYU certainly bounced back from COVID-19 with a bang. As stated earlier, Taylor Swift had her own course at the University. So professor Brittany Spanos from Rolling Stones taught the class, which discussed Swift’s pathway to fame at such a young age. Important topics were also covered, one of them being bringing awareness to young children who are often exploited in the media. The “course objectives” include learning about how the politics of songwriting relate to different cultures around the world. Additionally, the course details how Swift decided to make certain decisions that have had a large impact on her career. Swift was invited to the event shortly after the course was announced as part of NYU’s curriculum. 

Reporters from BillBoard.com who were present at the commencement say the noise erupting from the crowd was “record- breaking,” noting that “if you heard noise on the East Coast at 12:30, then it was coming from Yankee Stadium.” Taylor began her speech with, “Welcome to New York,” a reference from her song titled just that. Taylor mentioned how she 99% believes that she was honored to deliver the speech because of her song “22.” This song connects perfectly with the Class of 2022. Swift gave a heartwarming speech closing with, “I leave you with this: We are led by our gut instincts, our intuition, our desires and fears, our scars and our dreams. And you will screw it up sometimes. So will I. And when I do, you will most likely read about it on the internet. Anyway…hard things will happen to us. We will recover. We will learn from it. We will grow more resilient because of it.” The main takeaway from the speech was that Swift wished success on the NYU Class of 2022.

Something that sparked attention amongst the Swifties (the name of Taylor’s fans) was when her song “Love Story” was referenced and the making of it was explained. Taylor said she dreamed of the song taking place as a Freshman in college, meeting the love of her life. And her fans believe this acknowledgement of the song is an easter egg for an upcoming re-release of the album, “Fearless.” Another hint to the album is the iconic purple color associated that Taylor was wearing on her graduation gown. Taylor Swift is known for dropping little hints for her fans to unscramble, so this has become a widely-accepted theory.

Taylor Swift’s commencement address was one for the history books. We shall see what the future holds for Dr. Taylor Swift!

Click on this link to view the full address.