Watch a reporter drop over 20 references to Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ during traffic update
A reporter known for dropping references to popular artists’ songs during her traffic updates has once again gone viral, with a recent road report heavily drawing on titles from Taylor Swift‘s new album ‘Midnights’.
The feat took place during a live broadcast on Friday (October 21), the same day that ‘Midnights’ was released.
After weather reporter Marvin Gómez kicked things off by saying there would be no ‘Midnight Rain’, NBC Philadelphia’s Sheila Watko said there was “no ‘Snow On The Beach'” by the shore, but that she had to bring some bad news. That was, she explained, ‘The Great War’ of being a traffic reporter, describing herself as the “traffic ‘Anti-Hero'”.
Warning viewers of potential delays due to construction work, she advised drivers to give themselves extra time, as they didn’t want to be thinking ‘Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve’ while stuck in traffic. She then dropped a string of other titles in quick succession: “This is not a ‘Glitch’,” she said. “Looking great out there. ‘Sweet Nothing’ in both directions. This is our ‘Karma’ for dealing with that earlier construction.”
“Most of our map is actually ‘Bejeweled’ with these green roads,” she continued. “But this map is very fickle. After six o’clock, we’re getting a lot of ‘High Infidelity’. Right now, a camera shot like this, looking clear, that just ‘Hits Different’, it looks great. But give this about 20 minutes, delays are going to be ‘Bigger Than The [Whole] Sky’. This map is going to be looking so red, it’ll almost be ‘Maroon’.
Watko proceeded to namedrop ‘Labyrinth’, ‘You’re On Your Own, Kid’, ‘Dear Reader’, ‘Vigilante Shit’ and ‘Question…?’ before saying she was in a ‘Lavender Haze’ because the ‘Mastermind’, Swift, released her new album.
Watko also gave a shoutout to Carly Rae Jepsen, who also released latest album ‘The Loneliest Time’ last Friday. “I am so excited for this whole weekend. All I’m going to be doing is listening to these two albums from two of my songwriters. Swifties, Carly Rae fans all around the globe, from Philly to ‘Paris’, we’re going to be ‘Making The Most Of The Night’, it’s going to be ‘So Nice’,” she said.
It’s far from the first time Watko has gone viral for her pop-inspired traffic reports. In August, she snuck 15 Beyoncé song titles into a live broadcast to celebrate the release of the R&B titan’s seventh album, ‘Renaissance’.
As a matter of fact, it’s not even the first time Watko has dropped Swift songs into an update. In November last year, the reporter managed to rattle off 17 references to ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ to celebrate its release. Watch that below:
Less than 24 hours after arriving, ‘Midnights’ broke streaming records on Spotify, Amazon and Apple Music, smashing Spotify’s record for the most-streamed album in a single day. It was also recently reported that the album sold over one million units within three days of its release, with more than 955,000 units coming from digital downloads, CD, cassette and vinyl sales.
In a four-star review of ‘Midnights’, NME said that after Swift’s “foray into a different sonic world” on 2020 albums ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’, she “still shimmers” on her “return to pure pop”.
So far, Swift has released music videos for two tracks on ‘Midnights’, with a video for ‘Anti-Hero’ arriving shortly after the album’s release, and another for ‘Bejewled’, featuring cameos from Haim, Laura Dern and more, arriving earlier this week.
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Alex Gallagher
NME
