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PROVO — Taylor Swift's new album comes out Friday, and one Utah couple is going all out to show the world they are the ultimate Swifties. They're recreating an album cover each day until the new one is released.
Charlie Bird has taken it upon himself to turn his husband, Ryan Clifford, into the iconic singer every day this week, and nearly a million viewers have tuned in for each new release. Clifford said that the idea to do the album covers came from the couple's Halloween costume when they dressed up as Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.
"Halloween is one of, if not my favorite holiday, and so I always go all out every year," Clifford said. A lot of people loved it, because that Halloween post received 8 million views and over 200,000 likes.
"From there, it just generated a lot of interest in Ryan, with his blonde hair," Bird said. "A lot of people thought it was funny that he used his real hair to dress up like Taylor Swift. It's a very silly juxtaposition to have a man with a beard dressing up as Taylor Swift."
To prepare for the April 19 album drop, the two came up with the idea to flaunt the hair, again. "I don't think I knew what I was getting myself into," Bird said, adding the response has been better than he anticipated.
"It's kind of fun because we've created this little subculture bubble, within the subculture of Taylor Swift fandom, where we have these people who are anticipating our release," he said. "Every evening, we bring people on the journey of the photo shoot, dressing up and doing the editing. It's just been really fun. It feels like a really light and happy thing to share."
As for whether the couple hopes the real Taylor Swift sees their recreations, Clifford said he hopes she's "somewhere far away from the internet, relaxing."
"I keep laughing because I'm putting on these ridiculous outfits and posing and it seems to be sparking a lot of joy in people and it's just so silly but it's awesome," Clifford said.
And Bird agreed, adding it has really been the couple's goal, all along, to bring smiles to people's faces.
"We have such a fun and uplifting following on social media," Bird said. "The internet can sometimes be a really stressful and heavy place, but it's so cool to be reminded of how many fun and supportive people are out there. And it's been a really cool way to gather people together and just create a little bubble where we're happy despite everything else that might be going on in the world."
The Utah duo will release their own version of the new album on Friday.
