A video of Taylor Swift grooving to Blackpink’s new single, ‘Pink Venom,’ at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) on August 28 has gone viral globally.
Audiences are so charmed by the fact that the American singer-songwriter enjoys the K-pop girl group’s music that they’ve bestowed the pop icons with a joint name: ‘Taypink.’
Since then, a fan-made TikTok video depicting Swift’s glittery VMAs look coupled with an audio clip from ‘Pink Venom’ has made the rounds online and further fueled the flames of ‘Taypink’ mania.
Swift, whom many Chinese netizens affectionately call meimei 霉霉 (the Chinese character 霉 means ‘mold’ in English, but that’s another story), is currently trending on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo. A hashtag related to her Blackpink moment has been viewed more than 200 million times at the time of writing.
“This connection is a miraculous fantasy. Taylor Swift’s reaction to watching Blackpink’s performance was the same as mine!” gushed one Weibo user.
“Looking forward to a collaboration between the two!” reads another netizen’s hopeful comment.
Eagle-eyed fans have identified another potential connection between Swift and Blackpink: In the lyrics for ‘Pink Venom,’ one line states, “Look what you made us do,” which some have suggested is a homage to Swift’s 2017 hit song ‘Look What You Made Me Do.’
This year’s VMAs ceremony provided a good reason for the celebs to celebrate.
All Too Well, a 10-minute-long film by Swift won a trio of awards: ‘Video of the Year,’ ‘Best Longform Video,’ and ‘Best Direction.’
Meanwhile, Blackpink, the first K-pop girl group to ever perform at the VMAs, was awarded ‘Best Metaverse Performance’ for their virtual concert in PUBG. Furthermore, Lisa, arguably the group’s most famous member, took home the ‘Best K-Pop’ award for her solo single ‘Lalisa.’
Swift also took the opportunity to announce her latest album during her acceptance speech for the ‘Video of the Year’ award. Titled Midnights, the album will consist of 13 tracks and is scheduled for release on October 21.
Many are calling for a collaboration between the 32-year-old star from Pennsylvania and the four-member girl group. Some have even expressed their hope that Midnights will include a Blackpink feature. As one Weibo user dramatically wrote, “Please collaborate! I’ll die without regrets.”
Not everyone is down with ‘Taypink,’ however. Some have tried to subdue the whole affair by pointing out the obvious: “Taylor always dances at award ceremonies. There’s no need to imagine an association [between her and Blackpink]; it’s embarrassing.”
We guess there’s a Debbie Downer for every ray of sunshine!
Cover photo collaged from images via Twitter
