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The Inspiration Behind Taylor Swift's "New Year's Day"

'Reputation'’s Closer Is Her New Country Radio Single

Last week, she won the CMA song of the year as the sole writer behind Little Big Town's No. 1 hit "Better Man."

But "New Year's Day" marks Taylor Swift's official return to country radio. Her label Big Machine Records sent the song to country radio programmers nationwide on Wednesday night (Nov. 15).

Co-written with Jack Antonoff (fun.), the piano ballad was inspired by the day after a New Year's Eve party at her London residence.

"I was thinking about how everybody talks and thinks about who you kiss at midnight," Swift said during a Secret Session, which was reported on by iHeartRadio. "And I think that is very romantic.

"But I think there's something even more romantic about who's gonna deal with you on New Year's Day. Who's willing to give you Advil and clean up the house? I think that states more of a permanence."

Swift went on to say that she had been saving two lines in the song for the right moment.

"I'm really excited about them," she said. "The first one is, 'Please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere.' And the other one is, 'Hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you.'"

She performed the song on Wednesday's (Nov. 15) Late Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. On Tuesday (Nov. 14), she visited a Nashville Target to buy Reputation in person.

According to Billboard, the collection has already sold 1.05 million copies within the first four days of its debut week. Since 2012, the only artists to sell a million copies of any album in a week have been Swift and Adele.

Swift's Reputation stadium tour launches May 8 in Glendale, AZ.

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