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The ‘Swifties’ of Bahrain came together last weekend for a pop-up listening party as they celebrated the launch of Taylor Swift’s newest album.
To celebrate the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), one of Taylor’s biggest fans in Bahrain, Mashael Yusuf Al Shuail, decided to have a listening party and created an Instagram page to see how much interest she would get.
Within three days, the account had got more than 800 followers, of which more than 50 showed up for a pop-up listening party at a local coffee shop.
“The experience was so overwhelming because I was taken by surprise about the number of people who showed up keeping in mind that I planned it all last minute!” 21-year-old Mashael told GulfWeekly.
“My favourite part is that everyone was singing every song word for word and it will forever be a core memory to me and everyone who attended.”
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) was released last Friday, and is the American singer-songwriter’s third re-recorded album.
Because she does not own the master tapes to her old recordings, Taylor has been re-recording her music from her back catalogue as a way of taking back control of her music, packaging it with songs from her vault.
Mashael has been listening to her since the age of 12, when she first saw the music video for the song Picture to Burn.
“I found her storytelling was distinctive and fun to listen to and keeps you hooked to find out what happens next in the story,” the ‘Swifty’ who works as an enterprise developer by day, added.
“It’s honestly hard to choose which song is my favourite but right now, it would be Sparks Fly and Castles Crumbling, though let’s not forget Long Live.”
Alongside a collective listening of the album, there a trivia, which quickly stopped being a competition because “everyone knew the right answers,” Mashael added.
“We also did a giveaway of a Speak Now cup that was made by one of the attendees and the winner was the loudest person in the room who sang Haunted (Taylor’s Version) which was really epic to witness.
“We also passed around notes in an envelope during Enchanted (Taylor’s Version), inspired by one of the lyrics that says “passing notes in secrecy” and we were writing lyrics from the songs as they were playing on balloons and passing them around.”
When asked if she plans to keep bringing the Swifties of Bahrain together, Mashael was enthusiastic and even hopes that one day, the pop legend herself visits the kingdom.
In the meantime, follow @swiftiesinbahrain.bh to find out when the next listening party is happening.
