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On 25 February 2015, American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift opened    up the 35th edition of the Brit Awards with a live performance of her hit song "Blank Space"   from her 1989 album.

Background
Taylor Swift was among the first three performers to were announced for the 2015 Brit Awards on 16 December 2014. The other two being Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran.

On 23 February, Swift spoke to Kiss FM UK about her upcoming Brit Award performance. Two days later, Swift surprised a fan named Sinead Murray, who camped out the freezing cold for 20 hours just to catch a glimpse of her as she stopped by BBC Radio 1. Murray later told Buzzfeed that Swift followed her on Tumblr a few months prior. So Murray herself, had been uploading pictures to show her there were lots of people there and that they were excited to see her.

When speaking to BBC Radio 1, Swift revealed that rehearsals had not gone to plan. She said "It's weird I'm your last guest because I am actually opening the show. I am changing into a performance outfit then back into this to watch the show. Rehearsals didn't go well at all, they accidentally started the music before I was on stage, so I was running out shouting 'I can show you." Tyce Diorio would serve as the choreographer for Swift's performance with many of the dancers being employed by Monsterz Crew and Fiya House.

The performance came shortly before its revealed that Swift had won the Brit Awards' prestigious International Female Solo Artist prize. Swift in the process, beat out the likes of Beyoncé, Lana Del Rey, Sia, and St. Vincent. Swift was also presented by Elle their the award for Woman of the Year ahead of her Brit Awards performance.

Performance
For her performance, Swift wore a tuxedo-style black blazer from KaufmanFranco's fall 2014 collection, black satin shorts, fishnet stockings, black Christian Louboutin ankle booties, Lorraine Schwartz jewels, and a classic red-lip look. Her male backup dancers meanwhile, sported starch-white suits with black fedoras, which they used as props throughout.

Swift initially stood in front of seven front of seven silhouettes dancing behind wide, white screens. The graphics on the screen behind them at the O2 Arena, mimicked Swift's moves. Later, Swift paraded across the stage while mimicking stage magic: she simulated making someone's hat levitate; makes her dancers perform in slow motion after pushing them back; and she cracked the stage beneath her and yet glided across it unharmed.

Midway into the performance, Swift made her way down the stage's walkway. Soon, the stage began to shower with silver metallic confetti and flashing lights. Swift then made her way back to the front of the stage, now with just one male accompanying her. She closed her set with a playful shove towards her "male lead" as she sang, "I'll write your name".

Afterwards, Swift wrote on Twitter "I had the best time opening the Brit Awards with this performance!! Honestly, just such an amazing night." When making note of a mysterious lime being on stage during her performance, Swift on Instagram said "I'm still not sure why there was what appears to be a RANDOM LIME on the stage during my Brits performance."

Critical reception
An average of 5.3 million people tuned in to the ceremony on ITV, according to overnight ratings – rising to 5.8 million when ITV+1 viewers are added in.

Chris Rogers of Hollywood Life said that while Swift's performance was much tamer than her performance of "Blank Space" at the American Music Awards from the previous November, there was something really classy about her performance at the Brit Awards.

Ben Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian noted that for perhaps the first time in her career, Taylor Swift was introduced by a pair of Geordies (Ant & Dec ) and Marco Pierre White. Beaumont-Thomas added that the minimalist verses of "Blank Space" made for a rather tempered, non-bombastic opener. Swift according to Beaumont-Thomas, did a perfectly pleasant vocal performance held aloft by big backing vox and strummed guitars. Her dancers meanwhile, channel perhaps the greatest awards show routine of all time, which was Chris Brown’s MTV Video Music Awards routine in 2007.

Michelle McGahan of PopCrush said that Swift's performance totally reminded her of old school Michael Jackson. McGahan added that while there were times she missed Taylor Swift gracing the stage with golden ringlets and her trusty acoustic guitar in hand, she loved this new era of Taylor Swift, which was filled with sleek dance moves and unexpected surprises. And while Swift didn't exactly moonwalk across the stage, McGahan still thought that she still nailed the black-and-white number.

John Walker of MTV News summed up Swift's performance by comparing it to glitter-bombing minus the political context, where activists explode a buttload of glitter all over an opponent of same-sex marriage. This is in reference to Swift capping off the performance with an explosive downpour of glitter. Walker added that Swift looked like some kind of terrifyingly alluring CEO whose definition of "casual Friday" translates to "no pants."

Mehera Bonner of Teen Vogue said that Swift's performance was a sparkly explosion of girl power. More to the point, Bonner observed that Swift not only strutted around London's giant O2 Arena in what could only be described as a feminist power blazer, she finger-wagged at the audience and then danced (more like angry-stomped) in a rain of glittery confetti with a bunch of men in bowler hats.

95-106 Capital FM reacted to Swift's performance by asking questions that ranged from how long was the catwalk that she utilized, to whether or not the dancer who appeared on camera with her during the final few months of her performance was the same man from the "Blank Space" music video, to what were the backing dancers wearing on their heads. For the record, Swift's love interest in the video was played by Sean O'Pry while the dancer in question's name is Glenn Ball.

Suzannah Ramsdale of Marie Claire said that Swift's performance was Cabaret-themed. Ramsdale in particular noted that from her vantage point, Swift happily chatted with anyone who approached her and even took the selfies herself. Mark Sutherland of Rolling Stone also praised Swift by saying that her "brilliant opening performance seemingly channeling Cabaret" and it confirmed "her current queen of pop status".

Junkee's Courtney Fry wrote that Swift opened the Brit Awards with a bunch of really talented backup dancers who popped and locked and breakdanced around her as she strutted across the stage with all the sass in the world.

Louise Bruton of headstuff.org considered Swift's performance of "Blank Space" to be very tame. Bruton followed this up by saying that if Swift wanted to open up a show with some pow-pow, maybe she should've watched some Spice Girls videos for inspiration.

Creation.com called Swift's opening set fantastic as she owned the stage with her slick, professional performance. Meanwhile, the monochrome set with dancers in white suits and bowler hats was in the eyes of Creation, very dramatic.

Billboard's Richard Smikre called the performance feisty with Smirke noting that Swift strutted down the runway while wearing a revealing trouser suit as bowler-hatted male dancers pirouetted in the background.

Caroline Ellis of Her Campus already considered Taylor Swift to be a show stealer and that her "Blank Space" performance in the first ten minutes was no disappointment. Between Swift utilizing her dancers, the stage space, and the lengthy catwalk to strut while glitter cannons went off around her to close her performance and officially kick off the show, Ellis said that Swift's performance was a hard one to beat.