Taylor Swift Joins YouTube Shorts and Launches #TSAntiHeroChallenge, Inviting Fans to Share Reactions to First ‘Midnights’ Music Video

Todd Spangler
·3 min read
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Taylor Swift has joined YouTube Shorts as part of a multistage launch for her new album “Midnights,” unveiled the #TSAntiHeroChallenge — designed to push the platform’s TikTok-like short-form video feature.

For the first time, Swift is inviting fans to share their anti-heroic traits to the soundtrack of the newly released track “Anti-Hero” — which she’s described as “a real guided tour throughout all the things that I tend to hate about myself” — exclusively on YouTube Shorts. According to YouTube, the #TSAntiHeroChallenge is “all about acknowledging and celebrating the traits that make each of us truly unique and showcasing one’s true self in a FUN way.”

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“Anti-Hero,” the third track on “Midnights” and the first music video from the album, takes an inward journey as Swift delves deep into her insecurities as an artist and as a person, ultimately sharing how to show up as one’s true and authentic self. Variety‘s Chris Willman, in his review of the album, wrote that “possibly the finest moment in ‘Anti-Hero’ is the subtle delivery she lends to the last stanza, where she repeats the refrain, ‘It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me,’ sounding out of breath, as if she’d just had to rush through the door to make this random, bald admission. It’s the quirky little vocal touch you only get out of someone who’s been at this game long enough to become a master of tragicomic dramaturgy as a singer as well as songwriter.”

In explaining YouTube Shorts’ #TSAntiHeroChallenge, YouTube says an anti-heroic trait “could be as simple as always grabbing the last slice of pizza, clapping at the end of movies, always putting your feet on the car dashboard, using the same word to start your daily Wordle, leaving your clean laundry in the basket until the next time you do it, pretending you didn’t already watch the next episode of the series you watch with your pals, or even treating your cat like a human. Anything goes!”

To participate in the #TSAntiHeroChallenge, YouTube encourages fans to first watch the newly released music video for “Anti-Hero” and then reflect on “your own anti-heroic traits.” Then, on the YouTube mobile app, hit the ‘+” sign followed by “Create a Short”; click “Add sound” and search for “Anti-Hero”; tap the red circle to record your video; add the hashtag #TSAntiHeroChallenge as part of the caption; then hit the publish button.

For YouTube, teaming with Swift is yet another bid to boost engagement with YouTube Shorts, as it fights for share against ByteDance’s popular TikTok app. Starting in early 2023, YouTube Shorts-focused creators can apply to be part of the platform’s revenue-sharing program if they meet certain criteria; YouTube will share 45% of revenue with Shorts creators allocated based on views, which is lower than the 55% it doles out for the core YouTube Partner Program.

Swift is one one of the 10 most-subscribed artists on YouTube, which 47.8 million subscribers on her official channel (and counting). In the past 12 months, her channel has generated more than 3.95 billion views, according to YouTube.

Swift’s music has charted on YouTube’s Top Songs chart in more than 50 markets, and her recent release of “All Too Well [10 Minute Version] (Taylor’s Version)” peaked at No. 1 on the Global and U.S. charts. Swift also has five music videos in YouTube’s Billion Views Club, two of which (“Shake It Off” and “Blank Space”) are part of an elite group of videos to have crossed the 3 billion views mark.

Watch Swift’s YouTube Shorts videos announcing the #TSAAntiHeroChallenge:

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