Taylor Swift promised a star-studded affair for her You Need To Calm Down music video, and she definitely hasn’t disappointed.
Four years (four years!!) after debuting her celebrity-heavy Bad Blood music video, Taylor has once again recruited a load of famous faces for her new song, the majority of whom are either from the LGBTQ+ community or are known allies for it, in keeping with the song’s lyrics.
In case there were a few that passed you by, here’s our guide to all of the celebrities Taylor managed to sneak into the clip, in order of appearance…
Taylor Swift
You know who she is. It’s her song.
Hanna Hart and Dexter Mayfield
Internet personality Hanna is known for hosting the YouTube series My Drunk Kitchen (the name of which is pretty self-explanatory), while Dexter is a plus-size model who won plaudits online when his La Fashion Week runway walk went viral.
Laverne Cox
Groundbreaking actress and transgender rights activist, Laverne is best known for playing Sophia Burset in Orange Is The New Black.
Her role made her the first trans star to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy in any acting category.
Chester Lockhart
Another star best known for his work on YouTube, Chester is also an actor and dancer, who has worked on several of Todrick Hall’s past projects. He’s seen clutching a scarf adorned with the trans flag colours as he swoons over Laverne.
Todrick Hall
Multi-talented YouTube star, choreographer, musician and Broadway performer Todrick frequently crops up during creative challenges on RuPaul’s Drag Race, to offer the queens his critiques.
He’s also the executive producer of the You Need To Calm Down video, and previously appeared in the background of Taylor’s Look What You Made Me Do clip.
Hayley Kiyoko
Singer/songwriter, known to her fans as the “lesbian Jesus”. Hayley released her debut album Expectations in 2018, and is a friend of Taylor’s, performing on stage with her during the Reputation world tour last year.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson
You probably know him for his role as Mitch in Modern Family, here he is with his husband Justin Mikita. Shortly before the You Need To Calm Down video debuted, Taylor made a guest appearance during Jesse’s cabaret show at the Stonewall inn.
Ciara
And yes, that’s Ciara officiating. Ciara released her seventh album Beauty Marks earlier this year, and previously won a Grammy for her Lose Control music video. In 2004, she topped the UK singles chart with her debut single Goodies.
Tan France
Queer Eye’s resident Brit, Tan is one of the new Fab Five, offering fashion advice in the Netflix lifestyle series. Here he is repping the UK by… drinking tea straight from the teapot.
Bobby Berk
Another of the Queer Eye Fab Five, best known for essentially remodelling an entire house in the time it takes the others to make an avocado salad and dish out a bit of moisturising advice.
Karamo Brown
The culture expert on Queer Eye, he’s also been refreshingly honest about his own history with addiction and mental health issues struggles away from the show. Karamo also looks brilliant in a neckerchief.
Adam Rippon
Bronze medal-winning Olympian Adam is a world famous figure skater and fashion icon, who constantly speaks out about issues relating to the LGBTQ+ community.
Antoni Porowski
Another star from Queer Eye, Antoni offers food and nutrition advice, and apparently loves a biscuit.
Jonathan Van Ness
The final of the Fab Five to be featured, Jonathan is the show’s grooming expert. A week before the music video’s debut, he came out as non-binary in an interview with Out magazine.
Adam Lambert and Ellen Degeneres
Adam shot to fame on American Idol and has since launched a successful solo career, as well as serving Queen frontman on their recent tours. Ellen Degeneres is quite literally Ellen Degeneres, the stand-up comedian, actress and talk show host. The tattoo she’s receiving says ‘Cruel Summer’, which we can only assume is a reference to a track on Taylor’s upcoming album Lover.
Billy Porter
Truly the man of the hour, Billy rose to global fame playing Praytell in Pose, but has also caused many a stir on the red carpet in 2019, with everything from his stunning tuxedo dress at the Oscars to his all-out approach at the camp-themed Met Gala.
Jade Jolie
A contestant on the sixth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Jade portrayed Taylor in the Snatch Game challenge. More recently, she appeared as Reputation-era Taylor in fellow Drag Race star Alaska Thunderfuck’s Snaked music video.
Tatianna, Trinity The Tuck, Delta Work, Trinity K Bonet, Adore Delano, Riley Knoxx and A’keria C Davenport
Portraying Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Adele, Cardi B, Katy Perry, Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj respectively, they appear as Taylor sings the line about not pitting female artists against one another.
The vast majority of these artists have been swept up in some fan war or another over the years, and several have beefed with Taylor herself.
RuPaul
Drag queen extraordinaire and host of the multiple Emmy-winning reality series RuPaul’s Drag Race. Here she is presiding over a crowning, before ultimately throwing the headpiece in the air, declaring that everyone’s a winner (a mindset she’s grumbled about plenty of times in the past, but we’ll let that slide on this occasion).
Katy Perry
A very, very famous pop singer that Taylor was involved in a very, very famous feud with.
The whole beef became public when Taylor released the track Bad Blood, written about Katy, the music video for which saw her recruiting an A-list squad together to take into battle. It seems fitting, then, that now their feud is over, Taylor has marked the reconciliation with yet another cameo-heavy music video, this time with much more positive undertones.
Ryan Reynolds
The star of Deadpool and Detective Pikachu, Ryan’s wife Blake Liveley is a close friend of Taylor’s. In fact, her song Gorgeous opens with a sample of Blake and Ryan’s daughter James’ voice.
Watch the You Need To Calm Down music video in full below:
