--- title: Taylor Swift Made an Emotional Visit to Jimmy Fallon's Show description: The 'Reputation' singer made a surprise visit to the 'Tonight Show' to perform "New Year's Day," with an unexpected lyrical coincidence. canonical: https://time.com/5023187/taylor-swift-fallon-new-years-day/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-14T16:08:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:48:46.519Z og:title: Taylor Swift Made an Emotional Visit to Jimmy Fallon's Show og:description: She performed "New Year's Day" for Fallon og:url: https://time.com/5023187/taylor-swift-fallon-new-years-day/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8f02d59f2e5b188/6988e5b8196cf41022042b9d/taylor-swift-fallon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Season 4 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Taylor Swift Made an Emotional Visit to Jimmy Fallon's Show twitter:description: She performed "New Year's Day" for Fallon twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8f02d59f2e5b188/6988e5b8196cf41022042b9d/taylor-swift-fallon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Breathtaking Moment Taylor Swift's Surprise Performance on Jimmy Fallon Got Emotional > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Nov 14, 2017 4:08 PM UTC  THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON -- Episode 0768 -- Pictured: Musical Guest Taylor Swift performs "New Year's Day" on November 13, 2017 -- (Photo by: Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON -- Episode 0768 -- Pictured: Musical Guest Taylor Swift performs "New Year's Day" on November 13, 2017 -- (Photo by: Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Nov 14, 2017 4:08 PM UTC On Monday night, [Taylor Swift](http://time.com/5017724/taylor-swift-reputation-explained/) made a last-minute visit to the set of Jimmy Fallon’s _Tonight Show_ to perform her [new ballad “New Year’s Day.”](http://time.com/5017843/taylor-swift-new-years-day-reputation/) It was an emotional performance, due in large part to Fallon’s grief: his mother, Gloria, [passed away](http://time.com/5010618/jimmy-fallon-mother-dies/) unexpectedly last week. “When we were little, my mom would walk us to this store, me and my sister, and we would hold hands, she would squeeze my hand three times and say, ‘I love you,’ and I would squeeze back, ‘I love you, too,'” Fallon remembered, adding that he had tried to use the same tender way to communicate when she was hospitalized. So imagine the entire studio’s surprise when Swift — whose album _Reputation_ was [just released on Friday](http://time.com/5021426/taylor-swift-reputation-tour/) — echoed that very specific gesture in the lyrics of her own song, which she performed while playing piano. “Suddenly she sings the line, ‘Squeeze my hand 3 times in the back of the taxi,'” wrote _Tonight Show_ [producer Mike DiCenzo](https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) in a series of tweets giving the back story on the resonant moment. “I nearly gasped. Tears. I think everyone in the audience started sobbing,” he wrote. “I could see Jimmy silhouetted at his desk dabbing his eyes with a tissue. We all lost it. It was a beautiful coincidence in a beautiful performance. ‘Hold on to your memories, they will hold on to you,’ Taylor sang.” Swift had been in town over the weekend to perform on [_Saturday Night Live._](http://time.com/5014132/taylor-swift-snl/) She’s headed [out west shortly](http://time.com/4977034/taylor-swift-show-2017/) for a string of holiday shows. > [](https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo/status/930295840564043776) > [](https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo/status/930296627474124800) > [](https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo/status/930296737230721029) > [](https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo/status/930296874292178944) > [](https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo/status/930297237099466753) > [](https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo/status/930297348005220353) > [](https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo/status/930297619515170816) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5023187/taylor-swift-fallon-new-years-day/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5023187/taylor-swift-fallon-new-years-day/"},"headline":"The Breathtaking Moment Taylor Swift's Surprise Performance on Jimmy Fallon Got Emotional","datePublished":"2017-11-14T16:08:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:48:46.519Z","description":"\"Hold on to your memories, they will hold on to you\"","url":"https://time.com/5023187/taylor-swift-fallon-new-years-day/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","jimmy fallon","Taylor Swift","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8f02d59f2e5b188/6988e5b8196cf41022042b9d/taylor-swift-fallon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte8f02d59f2e5b188/6988e5b8196cf41022042b9d/taylor-swift-fallon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Season 4","caption":"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Season 4","creditText":"NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5023187/taylor-swift-fallon-new-years-day/","name":"The Breathtaking Moment Taylor Swift's Surprise Performance on Jimmy Fallon Got Emotional"}}]}] ```