While appearing on the latest episode of the Allison Interviews podcast, queen of burlesque Dita Von Teese praised Taylor Swift for her interest in the art form. When asked about her experience teaching burlesque to other artists, Von Teese singled out the “Karma” singer.
“The best experience was Taylor,” Von Teese told podcast host Allison Kugel. “She’s really a kind girl. She knew everything about what I do.”
Von Teese was initially called upon to teach Swift some moves for “Bejeweled,” the Cinderella-inspired video from Swift’s album Midnights. In the end, the two appeared side by side in human-sized martini glasses.
“She wanted to not just have me be behind the scenes teaching her to be, you know, in my glass,” added Von Teese. “She wanted to showcase what I do.”
In the video, which was released in October 2022, Swift plays an unfortunate Cinderella bullied by her stepsisters, played by HAIM, and Laura Dern (Big Little Lies) as the evil stepmother. Donning a bejeweled one-piece, Swift enters a talent show to win over the prince and gets a burlesque lesson from Von Teese, as her fairy godmother. To end the video, Swift naturally wins the show and ghosts the prince.
“I think it’s really about finding confidence when you feel that it’s been taken away, for whatever reason — you’re feeling insecure, you’re feeling taken for granted,” Swift told iHeartRadio about the track. “One of the things we love to do at night, ‘cause we love to go dancing, we love to put on an outfit that makes us feel good, and we love to feel like we’re still bejeweled.”
Midnights, wrote Rolling Stone at the time, was a noted departure from the more subdued records Swift has shared over the past two years. But her return wasn’t without anxiety.
“I think that there are tiny inflections of me pumping myself up to return to pop music after spending these glorious years writing folk songs and being in this metaphorical forest that I’ve created, which I loved so much,” she explained. “But there was a bit of pumping myself back up to be like, “You can do it, you’re still bejeweled!” I’m still bejeweled? We’ll see.”
Bejeweled she is, indeed. Her Eras Tour movie recently became the highest-grossing concert film and documentary ever. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour has now raked in over $261.6 million globally, just putting it past the previous record holder, Michael Jackson’s This Is It.
Swift is set to resume the Eras Tour in February with a run of shows in Asia and Australia, followed by a European and U.K. that starts in May and runs through the summer. She’ll then close the record-breaking trek out for good with one more slate of shows in the U.S. and Canadain October and November.