Zohran Mamdani is the mayor of the largest city in the United States, he has shaken the Democratic Party establishment, and he has become the face of a national progressive movement.<\/p>\n
In private, he is also a Swiftie \u2014 or he was, for at least a year.<\/p>\n
Like so many other millennials, Mayor Mamdani, 34, went through a Taylor Swift phase. In 2021, a dozen of the singer-songwriter\u2019s tunes were in his playlist of \u201cTop 100\u201d songs.<\/p>\n
The mayor\u2019s office revealed his little-known fandom and his playlist to The New York Times after I inquired about his mention of one of her songs at a news conference last month, when he told reporters he would not be attending Ms. Swift\u2019s wedding celebration on Friday at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish them a lovely wedding,\u201d he said at the conference, referring to Ms. Swift and her fianc\u00e9 Travis Kelce. \u201cI\u2019ll listen to \u2018Only the Young\u2019 at home on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly the Young\u201d is a 2020 deep cut with political overtones featured in a documentary from the same year, \u201cMiss Americana.\u201d You have to have more than a passing knowledge of Ms. Swift to know that song. I have been listening to her music for 15 years and had not heard it.<\/p>\n
I had questions.<\/p>\n
Could the mayor, known primarily for his love of hip-hop and quoting rapper Jadakiss in his inaugural speech, really be deep into Ms. Swift\u2019s music?<\/p>\n
Of course, Ms. Swift\u2019s catalog is broad, and it seems, can resonate with everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly the Young\u201d caught Mr. Mamdani\u2019s attention in 2020 during the pandemic as he ran for office for the first time<\/a> for a state assembly seat in Queens. The next year, he met his wife<\/a>, the artist Rama Duwaji, on the dating app Hinge.<\/p>\n That year, Mr. Mamdani found himself listening to 11 other songs regularly, according to the mayor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the rest of his playlist:<\/p>\n \u201cLove Story,\u201d her classic hit about a modern Romeo and Juliet (with a happier ending)<\/p>\n \u201cmy tears ricochet,\u201d a haunting song about lost love that includes the lyrics \u201cI swear I loved you \u2018til my dying day.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI Forgot That You Existed,\u201d a fun pop track about moving on from a feud with an enemy<\/p>\n \u201cDress,\u201d one of her more lustful songs that describes \u201cpining and desperately waiting\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCruel Summer,\u201d a chart-topper<\/a> basking in the highs and lows of summer love<\/p>\n \u201cDelicate,\u201d a vulnerable song that asks \u201cis it cool that I said all that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI Know Places,\u201d a flirtatious song about love in the shadows<\/p>\n \u201cI Don\u2019t Wanna Live Forever,\u201d a song with the musician Zayn about how love can make you feel crazy<\/p>\n \u201cI Think He Knows,\u201d a catchy tune about a suitor with what she calls a \u201cboyish look\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLondon Boy,\u201d a song about falling in love with a British man who shows her the sights<\/p>\n \u201caugust,\u201d a song yearning for a lover who she says was \u201cnever mine\u201d<\/p>\n The spectacle surrounding Ms. Swift\u2019s wedding has revealed that New York\u2019s political scene is full of fans of her music. Bill de Blasio, the former mayor, said that he too had a favorite song: \u201cthe 1,\u201d a wistful song that ponders how \u201cit would\u2019ve been fun if you would\u2019ve been the one.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. de Blasio said the song was \u201cvery emotionally powerful and honest\u201d and made him \u201cthink of the way past lovers linger in our memories for years or even decades.\u201d<\/p>\n The police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, traveled to another city to attend Ms. Swift\u2019s blockbuster Eras Tour<\/a>, according to a police spokeswoman, Delaney Kempner, who also happens to be a Swiftie.<\/p>\n Ms. Kempner, who has been involved in the city\u2019s security and logistical preparations for the wedding event, said her favorite song is \u201cDancing With Our Hands Tied,\u201d a song about giving love a chance even with \u201cdeep fears that the world would divide us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll Too Well (10 Minute Version)\u201d is a favorite song of Dora Pekec, a spokeswoman for Mr. Mamdani who has been fielding requests about the wedding events. The extended tune, rumored to be about the actor Jake Gyllenhaal, is about a love that was a \u201cmasterpiece \u2019til you tore it all up.\u201d<\/p>\n Gov. Kathy Hochul, a moderate Democrat who has been an ally to Mr. Mamdani, has previously expressed an affinity for Ms. Swift, calling the musician a \u201cphilosopher\u201d<\/a> and playing one of her songs<\/a> at the governor\u2019s 2024 \u201cState of the State\u201d address.<\/p>\n A spokeswoman for Ms. Hochul, Jen Goodman, whose favorite album is \u201cfolklore,\u201d sent the following analysis from the governor.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Welcome to New York\u2019 is obvious, but also when I first was running statewide in New York, it made me feel anyone can make it in New York City,\u201d Ms. Hochul said.<\/p>\n The governor added that she \u201cfirst fell in love with Taylor long ago\u201d with the song \u201cYou Belong With Me,\u201d which laments how a girl sitting in the bleachers at a football game might feel invisible next to the cheer captain.<\/p>\n \u201cEntirely relatable to a former bleacher sitter in sneakers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zohran Mamdani is the mayor of the largest city in the United States, he has shaken the Democratic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75,265013,122177,167,236921,12409,12408,122178],"class_list":["post-777157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-fans-persons","tag-mamdani","tag-new-york-city","tag-pop-and-rock-music","tag-swift","tag-taylor","tag-zohran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}