Original release date: May 18, 2020.

Rating: TV-PG

Length: 42 minutes

Background:

To really go with the background here, we have to discuss Tay-Tay herself. You know her. You probably have strong feelings in one direction or another about her. Maybe you love her! (Honesty: She’s really grown on me from guilty pleasure to just “I think I’m a little bit of a Swiftie”… “1989” was a great album and the new one is fun too). Maybe you can’t stand her because she’s been everywhere for the last decade or so!

As far as where you know Taylor from, that could range too. Maybe you remember her as the little country chick singing about boys. Maybe you remember her as the budding pop star singing… well, about boys. Maybe you remember her from that Jonas Brothers concert movie somewhere on Disney+. Maybe you know her from Kanye doing his thing. Maybe you know her from newfound discovery of speaking her mind (which has been great).

Or maybe you know her from “Cats.” I hope not.

That leads us to the almost present and this “City of Lover” concert special. After the 2019 release of her album “Lover,” there were touring plans that were largely destroyed by the Coronavirus.

However, a few overseas stops happened including one on September 9, 2019 in Paris as an album release concert. It was recorded and gave us some video of the first live performances of many of her “Lover” songs. (She also performed some classics but they didn’t make the special.) ABC picked up the special and aired it, followed by immediately tossing it on both Hulu and Disney+.

Review:

I’m going to be honest with you… there isn’t too much to draw out into a huge review here. This isn’t a drawn out concert documentary with intercut segments of Taylor doing things backstage or talking to her cats. It’s just Taylor in front of a crowd. How much you like Taylor will directly influence how much you like the special.

There are a few minor “filmed backstage on an iPhone” cuts of Taylor playing songs that were lead-ins for commercial breaks. Remember those?

The audience is a very pro-Taylor crowd, as you’d expect, and sing along with everything. It helps. It’s a bit of an intimate concert compared to the gigantic stadium show she has on Netflix. There aren’t constant costume changes and it’s mostly Taylor, a spotlight, and a guitar. A lot of it is even acoustic.

We start with a band-included performance of the ultra-sugary “Me!,” missing the usual added energy of the Panic! at the Disco guy but still fun.

Then Taylor throws the band away and goes acoustic for several new album songs, including “The Archer,” “Cornelia Street,” and hit song “The Man.”

She continues her solo performing with a move to the piano, performing “Daylight.” It’s pretty.

We do get a little color at the end, getting some pink and blue graphics, a band, backup singings and a performance of Taylor’s equality anthem “You Need to Calm Down.”

After that, we slow it down for the finale and the title track “Lover,” which is a great song and will probably be played at every prom for the next twenty or so years.

Extras:

Trailer! Just a trailer.

Should you watch it?

I’m going to be biased and say yes, watch it. It’s an enjoyable show and it really spotlights that hey, she’s become a pretty good musician outside of just the pop music thing. Plus it’s under an hour long. Give it a whirl.