Taylor Swift Performs ‘Coney Island’ Live for the First Time — Without The National

Taylor Swift performed “Coney Island” live for the first time in Atlanta Friday night (April 28). But the Evermore highlight, a heart-wrenching track that features The National‘s Matt Berninger trading vocals with Swift, was a solo performance at the city’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Swift carefully chose her words in introducing “Coney Island” to the stadium bursting with zealous fans, clarifying that she had something special up her sleeve but the surprise would be delivered by her alone.

“Any time I’m gonna talk about or even reference another artist, I feel inclined to tell you that if they’re not here, they’re not here,” she told the crowd. “No one else is here. You are stuck with me. It’s only me.”

She continued, “But I am gonna talk about another artist. I just feel like, you know, stadiums are huge and it’s important to really communicate, so that’s what I’m doing. I’m gonna talk about another artist who has an album that just came out that is so incredible. The National just had an album come out. This band has influenced me beyond my ability to verbalize how much they’ve influenced me — just lyrically, their ability to set a scene, their ability to tell a story. And obviously, Aaron Dessner is in The National and he has completely changed my life.”

Swift took a moment to promote the band’s new album and her own contribution to it, her new National collab “The Alcott,” which was released the same day as her first of three Atlanta. Sitting at the piano, she then sang “Coney Island,” which Swifties have been eager to hear live during the surprise songs segment of her Eras Tour set.

“I was lucky enough to be able to write a song with them for their new album, which is called the First Two Pages of Frankenstein. Check it out, stream it, buy it on vinyl. I love them so much. They’ve been so kind to me. So, I’m not gonna sing the song that we have on this new album — it’s called ‘The Alcott’ — check that out, though. But I am gonna sing ‘Coney Island.’”

Watch a fan-capture video of Swift’s solo version of “Coney Island” live in Atlanta below.