THE NEXT HIT: Taylor Swift Releases ‘Fortnight’ Acoustic Version — and a Cults Remix — Featuring Post Malone

Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight” is the gift that keeps on giving.

On Tuesday, July 9, the 34-year-old pop superstar released a stripped-down acoustic version of her The Tortured Poets Department recording featuring Post Malone. The updated track trades in the original’s synth sounds for mellow guitar strums as Swift and her duet partner trade hushed vocals throughout the arrangement.

Along with the “Fortnight” acoustic version comes a special, upbeat remix with New York indie pop duo Cults, too, which speeds up the production with some bright instrumentation.

The pair celebrated the remix’s release in an Instagram post captioned, “Honored to have been given the opportunity to remix legend @taylorswift song Fortnight. Streaming everywhere now ❤️.

Fortnight” was first released on April 19 as the lead single off of Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, which also arrived as a surprise double album the same day. The song debuted with a black-and-white visual starring the “Down Bad” singer and Malone as lovers in the middle of a dystopian romance. Dead Poets Society actors Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles also starred.

Shortly after its release, Swift explained the vision behind the cinematic music video in a lengthy Instagram post that read, “When I was writing the Fortnight music video, I wanted to show you the worlds I saw in my head that served as the backdrop for making this music. Pretty much everything in it is a metaphor or a reference to one corner of the album or another.”

For me, this video turned out to be the perfect visual representation of this record and the stories I tell in it,” she continued. “@postmalone blew me away on set as our tortured tragic hero and I’m so grateful to him for everything he put into this collaboration. I’m still laughing from getting to work with the coolest guys on earth, @ethanhawke and @mrjoshcharles (tortured poets, meet your colleagues from down the hall, the dead poets)… The entire crew made this a dream to shoot. Thank you to everyone involved and everyone who has watched it!!”

The latest variation of “Fortnight” follows a dreamy remix that was released in collaboration with DJ BLOND:ISH on May 21 amid Swift’s international Eras Tour run. The Grammy-winning icon is currently on the road in Zürich, Switzerland, for two shows happening on July 9 and 10. She has several more stops scheduled in Italy and Germany throughout the rest of the month before she heads to Poland at the top of August.

During her 100th show in Liverpool, England, Swift announced that her Eras Tour would come to an end later this year. “The celebration of the 100th show for me means this is the very first time I’ve acknowledged to myself and admitted that this tour is going to end in December,” she told the crowd.

“That feels so far away from now, but then again, it feels like we just played our first show on this tour because you have made this so fun for us,” she added. “… Just know that I appreciate every single ounce of effort that you’ve put into being with us when this tour reaches triple digits of shows — so thank you.”