There were plenty of headlines about singer Taylor Swift’s last-minute performance on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” on Monday night, as it was a truly emotional moment.
But it’s the backstory surrounding the lyrics that Swift sang that is perhaps most compelling. As you might know, Jimmy Fallon’s mom, Gloria, died on Nov. 4, and the comedian has been distraught; Monday was his first day back on the job.
So, his staff decided to ask Swift to perform in an effort to prepare something special for him.
What ended up happening, though, was a scenario that Fallon’s producer Mike DiCenzo called a “beautiful coincidence,” and it left his staff and the audience in absolute tears.
It all started when Fallon was paying tribute to his mom during Monday’s show. The comedian shared a story he had never previously told his staff about how, when he was a kid, his mom would squeeze his hand three times and say, “I love you” — and he said he would then squeeze back and say, “I love you too.”
He then shared how last week in the hospital, he grabbed his mom’s hand and, once again, told her that he loved her shortly before she died. Watch his touching remarks below:
Swift decided to debut her new song, “New Year’s Day” on the show.
Again, prior to Fallon’s on-air remarks she hadn’t heard the story about Fallon’s mom squeezing his hand three times, nor had Fallon’s staff. But once she started singing, she belted out a lyric that went as follows: “You squeeze my hand three times in the back of the taxi, I can tell that it’s gonna be a long road” — an astounding lyric considering what Fallon had just revealed about his mom.
The song goes on to encourage people to “hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you.” Watch Swift’s performance below:
The lyrics took Fallon’s staff as well as the audience by total surprise.
“I nearly gasped. Tears,” DiCenzo wrote of the moment. “I think everyone in the audience started sobbing.”
DiCenzo later took to Twitter to explain the story in its entirety:
https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo/status/930295840564043776
https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo/status/930296002002726917
https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo/status/930296109540544512
https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo/status/930296281133707265
https://twitter.com/mikedicenzo/status/930296437170204672
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
DiCenzo is right: no matter what you think about Swift, this was a pretty cool moment. Some might also say it’s more than a “beautiful coincidence,” but that’s up to you to decide. Either way, it’s moving.