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Taylor Swift adds live recording of 'Dear John' from Minneapolis to her new 'Speak Now' mix

The pop star dusted off the 2010 kiss-off song at U.S. Bank Stadium, and now the world can hear it.

By Chris Riemenschneider

July 14, 2023 at 4:28PM

Taylor Swift performed to nearly 130,000 concertgoers over two nights at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis in June as part of her Era Tour. (Aaron Lavinsky/Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

After making national music-news headlines when Taylor Swift dusted off her old kiss-off song "Dear John" during one of her U.S. Bank Stadium concerts in June, Minneapolis has also now made it onto a deluxe digital edition of the pop megastar's newly remade album.

Swift announced Thursday that her "Dear John" performance was added to a downloadable, deluxe version of her latest makeover album, "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)," which was released last week. She also offered a second "Speak Now" live track, "Last Kiss," from a Kansas City performance that followed Minneapolis.

The album featuring the two songs was available to purchase and download on July 13 until midnight. Swift has not announced plans for the song to be available on streaming services.

The new version of the 2010 album — part of Swift's ongoing campaign to take back ownership of her music from her former record label — already included six never-heard bonus songs "from the vault." Swift added yet more hype for the new edition with these two live tracks, even though the album has already racked up major sales and streaming numbers. Spotify reported that the re-recorded "Speak Now" had the biggest single streaming day of 2023 on Friday.

In her introduction of "Dear John" in Minneapolis, Swift essentially asked fans not to start another cancellation campaign against her former boyfriend, musician John Mayer (though she never actually said his name and has never formally confirmed the song is about him).

"Only because I'm proud of it am I going to play it," Swift told the crowd. "Please don't feel like you need to go on the internet and defend me from anyone."

She opened up more about the song in a "prologue" she posted with the new "Taylor's Version" re-release:

"It was an album that was the most precious to me because of its vast extremes," she wrote. "It was unfiltered and potent. In my mind, the saddest song I've ever written is 'Last Kiss.' My most scathing is 'Dear John' and my most wistfully romantic is 'Enchanted.'"

about the writer

Chris Riemenschneider

Critic / Reporter

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.