If you’ve taken an NYC Taxi of late, you’re very, very aware that none other than Taylor Swift has been named New York City’s Global Welcome Ambassador for 2014-2015. Just last week, NYC & Company, the city’s official tourism organization, appointed the pop superstar to the post and launched an inescapable Welcome to New York PR blitz featuring Swift’s song of the same name off her smash album 1989. It will culminate with a performance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest broadcast live from Times Square.
“The new Welcome To New York song is a perfect anthem for New York City and captures the energy and spirit of our world-class destination,” said Emily K. Rafferty, Chairman of the Board of NYC & Company and President of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. “Through this unique collaboration with Taylor Swift and the launch of this exciting new global tourism campaign, we will inspire more visitors to come here to experience the rich offerings of the five boroughs.”
NYC & Company included a one-minute video on its website featuring Swift discussing the City of New York and defining terms like “stoop” and “bodega.” In it, Swift discusses how the city served as artistic inspiration for 1989, signaling a new, exciting chapter in the 24-year-old’s life.
“New York kind of pulled me here like a magnet,” said Swift. “I was intimidated by the fact that it was bright and bold and loud. And now I know that I should run towards things like that.”
The move was met with some criticism by native New Yorkers, since Swift has been living in the city for less than a year, was raised in rural Pennsylvania on a Christmas tree farm, and recently left her adopted home of Nashville, Tennessee—as well as the Country genre—swapping her boots, spurs, and guitar for Louboutins and addictive pop ditties.
One person who doesn’t have a problem with the move is The Daily Show host Jon Stewart whose show operates out of a studio in Midtown West.
“They probably like her better than the rest of us, so why not?” Stewart told The Daily Beast. “Yeah, man! Listen: If you got off a double-decker bus to come to New York, who would you rather see waiting for you? Taylor Swift, or me? I think we made the smart choice.”
Better than Donald Trump.
You can read the rest of our interview with Stewart on Nov. 9, and his critically acclaimed directorial debut, Rosewater, is in theaters now.