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Taylor Swift Returns to the Opry for Stripped-Down Performance of 'Betty' at the ACM Awards

CBS Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift returned to her country roots on Thursday to sing “betty” at the Academy of Country Music Awards in her first performance of the song since the surprise release of folklore in July.

Accompanied by her guitar, Swift — who did her own hair, makeup and styling for the awards show — was all smiles while singing her latest hit.

The superstar made her awards show debut at the ACMs in 2007 when she performed her first hit "Tim McGraw," and the last time she made an appearance at the ACM Awards was in 2015.

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She teased her ACMs appearance on Twitter earlier in the week, writing “Bout to show up at your party” alongside a preview video for the awards show.

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Ahead of the show, Swift shared photos of herself "back home" at the Grand Ole Opry wearing a maroon sequin top and high-waisted khakis.

In August, the two-time ACM entertainer of the year winner introduced "betty," which appears on her chart-topping album folklore, on country radio. She shared the meaning behind the song, which revealed the name of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds' third daughter Betty, who was born in October 2019.

"[James] has lost the love of his life basically and doesn't understand how to get it back. I think we all have these situations in our lives where we learn to really, really give a heartfelt apology for the first time," Swift explained at the time.

Beth Garrabrant Taylor Swift

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She continued, "Everybody makes mistakes, everybody really messes up sometimes and this is a song that I wrote from the perspective of a 17-year-old boy. I've always loved that in music you can kinda slip into different identities and you can sing from other people's perspectives. So that's what I did on this one."

The 2020 ACM Awards are airing live from Nashville at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.