Taylor Swift needs us to calm down, but we just can't!
The singer released her new single, "You Need to Calm Down," on Thursday night, and Swifties everywhere went wild for the track.
In the upbeat single, Swift rails against social media haters and internet feuds, while at the same time seemingly throwing a little shade of her own with the lyric, "Snakes and stones never broke my bones."
However, it ultimately feels like a rallying cry for civility in an age of rage and trolling, all set to a catchy beat that will likely make it a favorite for radio play.
Swift also released a video where she explained the background behind her new single.
"I’ve observed a lot of different people in our society who put so much energy and effort into negativity and it made me feel like, ‘you need to just calm down,'" Swift reflected. "'You're stressing yourself out. This seems like it's more about you than that you're going off about.'"
The song is the second single off of Swift's upcoming album, Lover, which she officially announced earlier in the day after months of fan speculation.
"There's a lot that I've been so excited about for so long and I just wanted to wait for the right time to tell you things," the singer told fans on Instagram Live. "I've been so, so, so honored by your dedication to discovering Easter eggs. The fact that you care about that still astonishes me."
Of her seventh studio offering, which drops on Aug. 23, Swift teased that the album -- which will include 18 tracks and a slew of special perks available on four unique Target editions -- is "very romantic." "Not just simply thematic, like it's [not] all love songs... you can find some romance in loneliness or sadness, going through a conflict or dealing with things in your life."
And while fans can hear the new song now, the "You Need to Calm Down" music video won't drop until Monday, June 17, during Good Morning America.
"I wanted you to hear the song first," Swift explained. "There's a lot going on in the video."
The singer's Instagram announcement went live to hundreds of thousands of followers, and the social media platform went down shortly after she wrapped up her video. Later in the day, Swift couldn't help but cheekily call back her feud with Kim Kardashian when a fan on Tumblr accused her of breaking Instagram, writing back, "I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative. ?."
