Taylor Swift Tweet Sends College Musicians Mashup Viral
For Belmont student Louisa Wendorff and her friends Devin Dawson and Blythe Thomas, taking extra time before heading home for Christmas Break paid off exponentially when Taylor Swift caught wind of their mashup blending Swift's hit songs "Blank Space" and "Out of Style." The video went live on Wendorff's YouTube Channel on December 23. On December 27, Swift reposted the video to her 49.4 million Twitter fans declaring she was "OBSESSED." The following day, Swift shared the video with her 73 million Facebook fans. Needless to say, it's gone viral.
The passion project was conceptualized over Thanksgiving Break.“It came together naturally and easily,” Wendorff said. “Devin’s an awesome friend. He’s a musical genius with writing, singing and everything. I love working with him, and had pulled him in on a previous video we did.”
The video has been viewed over 9 million times and the boost from Taylor Swift has elevated Wendorff's latest single to the number 2 singer/songwriter slot on iTunes. All of the project's participants have tipped their hat to Belmont's creative and collaborative culture as a source of inspiration and motivation to work together.
“We literally all need each other,” said Dawson. “At Belmont there are performers, and there are people in the background like engineers. It’s like a smaller version of the music industry, and we’re a family for four years of our lives. We all grow together and it cultivates collaboration.”
Wendorff agreed, “The community there is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, all the support we’ve received from fellow Belmont students and friends—people we know and don’t know—is so humbling and truly encouraging. I’m so blown away. We’re working hard and it’s definitely going to keep going from here.”
