If Taylor Swift wanted Stravinsky to conduct The Firebird with her live in Los Angeles, the dead composer would probably gladly disinter himself from his San Michelle grave to join her onstage. For at this point, it seems that with the drop of a name and the booking of a stadium, Swift has the power to bring anyone onstage with her. Yesterday, news circulated that she’d been joined by St. Vincent and Beck at her Tuesday concert. On Monday, it was Ellen DeGeneres. Last night, the guest was even more unexpected, and arguably her most exciting yet: Lisa Kudrow came onstage, and the two sang a duet version of the Phoebe Buffay’s infamous ode to a putrid feline, “Smelly Cat.”
Not only can Swift convince these people from vastly disparate cultural realms to perform with her — they also seem to come out of the experience thoroughly liking her. Kudrow tweeted, following the performance:
And here’s a picture of them thoroughly liking each other backstage:
And here’s footage from the actual performance, which Swift introduced, saying, “This singer, she’s only ever played in coffee houses before. She’s never played in a big venue like this, so we’ve got to please make her feel welcome. Her name is Phoebe Buffay.”
Valerie Cherish would surely be seething with envy over Buffay’s Comeback gig. And as if it weren’t enough for Swift to revive Friends‘ pervasive 90s coffee-shop-accoustic-music-spoof, Justin Timberlake also showed up:
…as did Selena Gomez:
And so, Swift ensures that every concert of hers is seen, not just by her tens of thousands of attendees, but by the whole Internet. It’s a pretty genius way of internationalizing each performance during a tour — and it also happens to be rather fun for everyone else.