Taylor Swift‘s buzzy Eras tour continued in Tampa, Florida on Friday night.
The 33-year-old singer-songwriter – who returned to the stage for the first time since her split from Joe Alwyn – surprised fans with an appearance from collaborator Aaron Dessner, 46.
The duo performed their song The Great War, which they worked on together for 2022’s Midnights album.
For the moving rendition of the tune, Taylor was clad in a plunging magenta dress with billowing ruffles.
Aaron joined her in a black shirt covered in white polka dots, black pants, and white sneakers.
Guest: Taylor surprised fans with an appearance from collaborator Aaron Dessner on Friday night in Tampa
Taylor, who moved to Nashville to pursue music as a teen, wore a pair of coordinating magenta ankle boots that were covered in glitter.
Also doused in sparkles wass her microphone stand and the mic itself.
The pop star’s long, blonde hair flowed over one shoulder and down her back with face-framing bangs.
She looked ethereal as she performed alongside her friend and colleague as they both strummed guitars.
The music artist looked typically beautiful in a flawless face of makeup complete with a red lip.
Just last month Ed Sheeran sang Taylor’s praises for introducing him to Dessner, who is a member of the band The National.
Sharing a black and white photo with his over 40 million Instagram followers, Sheeran wrote a heartfelt anecdotal caption.
‘So in 2021, I got a message from @taylorswift to link me up with @aarondessner,’ he began.
Hit song: The duo performed their song The Great War, which they worked on together for 2022’s Midnights album
It continued, ‘She thought he and I would make something great together.’
Then the Shape of You hitmaker said he was hesitant to meet Aaron at first, but not because he didn’t believe in his talent.
‘I have to be honest – I was a bit reticent to work with him that soon after folklore and evermore because I felt that was Taylor’s thing and they had both been done so perfectly,’ he explained.
Ed went on, ‘But we met for dinner, chatted about life and music, and he promised to send me some instrumentals for me to write over whenever inspiration hit.
‘As soon as I got them, I loved the whole overall vibe of it and knew that one day I would write to them, but at the time I was finishing up what I thought was Subtract, so would put them on the back burner for a bit.’
The lengthy story continued, ‘Then, as I said in my announcement post, a lot of things started happening in my personal life that I just felt the need to vent about on song and write diaristically about them.
‘I had Aarons instrumentals, so just started writing, and writing, and writing.’
The musician added, ‘He flew over to the UK and we recorded it in a week by the seaside, and it’s just been the most incredible process, and an album I’m so bloody proud of.
‘Thanks to Aaron and Jon for the insane amount of hard work and dedication you put into this project, and bringing out a side of me I had put on mute for so long.’
He made sure to thank Taylor as he ended the caption by writing: ‘And of course, thanks to Swizzle, as always, you rock x.’
Her look: For the moving rendition of the tune, Taylor was clad in a plunging magenta dress with billowing ruffles
Fashion-forward: Aaron joined her in a black shirt covered in white polka dots, black pants, and white sneakers
Moving forward: Friday’s show marked Taylor’s return to the stage for the first time since news of her split from Joe Alwyn broke
Swift referenced her reported split from longtime love Joe as she hit the Raymond James Stadium stage.
‘Is it just me or do we have a lot of things to catch up on?’ she asked in reference to her headline-making life.
During the performance, the star also cheekily played down the significance of her 2019 song Lover, which is said to have been written about Joe.
Before she began the track, she casually said to the audience: ‘The song we are going to play next, it’s just a love song, you know?’
