Matty Healy shoots down rumours of Taylor Swift collaboration
Online chatter suggested The 1975 would appear on 'Midnights'
By Joe Goggins
Matty Healy has rubbished rumours that The 1975 will appear on Taylor Swift’s new record, Midnights, which is out next month.
On Saturday (September 3), a screenshot purporting to show the full track listing for Swift’s tenth studio album began to circulate on social media, with three would-be featured artists on the record referred to by name: Lana Del Rey, who would purportedly appear on a song called ‘Good in the Dark’, Stevie Nicks, who is listed as guesting on ‘Halle’, and The 1975, for an apparent collaboration on ‘In My Dreams’.
However, the image would appear to show a fake track listing for the album, which was revealed when Swift used her MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech to announce it on August 28. The artwork for the record currently lists the songs as merely ‘Track One’, Track Two’, ‘Track Three’ and so on.
Additionally, Healy himself appears to have confirmed that there is no such hook-up between his band and Swift, despite their mutual admiration being well-documented over the years. On what seems to be a new Twitter account for Healy, with the handle ‘@MatthewTHealy’, he responded to a fan inquiry on the apparent track with: “I would love that! But unfortunately FAKE NEWS,” followed by a frowning face emoji.
Healy has had better recent success with another US singer-songwriting heavyweight, with indie sensation Phoebe Bridgers – who provided backing vocals on four tracks on The 1975’s 2020 LP Notes on a Conditional Form – again teaming up with the band to make a cameo appearance in the group’s latest video, for ‘I’m in Love with You’. The clip was apparently shot in the UK whilst Bridgers toured the country earlier this summer.
It is the latest single from the Wilmslow outfit’s fifth full-length, Being Funny in a Foreign Language, which is released on October 7. The 1975 will head out on support of it on their extensive ‘At Their Very Best’ UK tour in January of next year – you can see the full dates below, with tickets on general sale from Friday (September 9).
The 1975, January 2023:
8 – Brighton, Brighton Centre
9 – Bournemouth, International Centre
10 – Exeter, Westpoint
12 – London, The O2 Arena
15 – Birmingham, Resorts World Arena
16 – Cardiff, Motorpoint Arena
19 – Glasgow, OVO Hydro
20 – Manchester, AO Arena
22 – Nottingham, Motorpoint Arena
23 – Leeds, First Direct Arena
25 – Newcastle, Utilita Arena
26 – Liverpool, M&S Bank Arena
30 – Belfast, SSE Arena