Taylor Swift’s re-recorded ‘Wildest Dreams’ out-performs original on UK charts

Taylor Swift has outperformed herself on the UK charts with a re-recorded version of her hit song, “Wildest Dreams”.

The pop artist surprise-released the new version of her 1989 single earlier this week. On Friday (24 September), Official Charts confirmed that the song had debuted at No 25, compared to the original’s peak at No 40 in 2015.

Swift has been re-recording all of the albums previously released with her former label, Big Machine Records, after a clause in her old contract that prevented her from doing so expired last year.

She has so-far released a new version of her 2008 album, Fearless, which The Independent praised for “wisely not trying to re-write history”.

She is now planning to release a re-recorded version of Red, the 2012 album that marked her major shift from country to pop music, in November this year.

However, the release of “Wildest Dreams” has some fans speculating whether she will surprise-release 1989 before then.

Elsewhere in the UK Singles Chart, Swift’s close friend Ed Sheeran remains at No 1 for a second week with his latest single, “Shivers”.

Sheeran managed to fight off fierce competition from another friend, Elton John, who sits at No 2 with the Pnau Remix of his Dua Lipa collaboration, “Cold Heart”. This marks John’s highest-charting single as a lead artist since his re-release of “Are You Ready For Love” hit No 1 in 2003.