Post Malone, Taylor Swift‘s duet partner on The Tortured Poets Department opener and lead single “Fortnight” — and the leading man in Swift’s new music video for the track — posted a heartfelt message for Swift on Saturday (April 20).
“It’s once in a lifetime that someone like @taylorswift comes into this world,” Post, also a co-writer on “Fortnight,” wrote alongside a snapshot of the two. “I am floored by your heart and your mind, and I am beyond honored to have been asked to help you with your journey.”
The pair’s “Fortnight” music video premiered Friday night.
A “cinephile in black and white” Tortured Poets Department muse from album track “loml” seems to inspire Swift’s first visual from her new 31-song anthology. The video introduces more color only when it comes to all the creative energy billowing out from the typewriters of two poet protagonists, portrayed by Swift and Malone.
Swift wrote and directed the music video, with Rodrigo Prieto taking lead on cinematography. Primarily a director of photography in film (most recently credited for Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon), Prieto’s resume previously crossed paths with Swift’s for her “Cardigan,” “Willow” and “The Man” music videos.
“Pretty much everything in it is a metaphor or a reference to one corner of the album or another,” Swift wrote of the “Fortnight” video on Instagram, explaining that the artistic clip is representative of more than just the single. “For me, this video turned out to be the perfect visual representation of this record and the stories I tell in it.”
She added, “@postmalone blew me away on set as our tortured tragic hero and I’m so grateful to him for everything he put into this collaboration.”
“Fortnight” on Friday became Spotify’s most streamed song in a single day, while The Tortured Poets Department became Spotify’s most streamed album in a single day in 2024 so far, the only album in Spotify history to see over 300 million streams in just a day.
When Swift announced the first single from The Tortured Poets Department, her 11th original studio full-length that dropped on April 19 and turned out to be a double album, she said, “I’ve been such a huge fan of Post because of the writer he is, his musical experimentation and those melodies he creates that just stick in your head forever. I got to witness that magic come to life firsthand when we worked together on Fortnight.”
