DISCLAIMER: The following article is an April Fools’ Day article. Though it may relate to real people or events, it is not factual.
UPDATE: Corey Annan did in fact bring Taylor Swift to formal.
Can you imagine how it would feel to take your celebrity crush to your school event? Senior television and digital media major Corey Annan is about to do just that.
At the start of the semester, Annan knew he had to do something memorable for his last few months at Montclair State University. He asked his friends in his fraternity for ideas to help spark something in his brain. One of the brothers asked, “How crazy would it be if we got a celebrity to come to our formal?” And that’s when Annan knew exactly what to do.
As a long-time Taylor Swift fan, he knew there was only one celebrity he’d want to accompany him as his date.
“I’m always listening to her,” Annan said. “In my car, on my walk through campus and especially if I’m on AUX at a party.”
Now that Annan knew who he wanted to ask, he had to figure out how he would ask her. He then realized the best way to do it was through social media.
“I had seen people ask other celebrities to prom on social media and they always got a lot of attention,” Annan said. “That had to be the only way to get to [Swift].”
Annan coerced his friends from The Montclarion to help him create a TikTok to Swift’s song “You Belong With Me.” He ended the video with a sign that read “Will you go to formal with me?”
Corey Annan in his viral TikTok to Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me.”
Photo courtesy of Corey Annan
Within a few days, Annan’s video had reached over 2 million TikTok accounts and racked up 600,000 likes. The comments were encouraging; many people were tagging Swift or saying how much they loved the video.
“I owe a lot of the attention I was getting to my TikTok audience,” Annan said. “They really helped me.”
After a few weeks, Annan almost forgot about the proposal, until he was on Twitter and saw that Swift had retweeted his video with the comment “I LOVE this! #Swifties are the best.”
Annan, naturally, was freaking out. He immediately tweeted back to Swift a thank you message.
Another couple of days had passed when he then received an email from Taylor Nation, Swift’s PR team. He was so surprised when he read the message.
“Taylor’s team basically reached out and said that Taylor would love to accompany me to my formal,” Annan said. “They asked for my school name and the date of the formal. We went back and forth with emails and then they sent me her flight confirmation and a personal note from Taylor saying how excited she was to go and that she’s never been to a dance before.”
In a few short weeks, Annan will be walking into his fraternity formal with his lifelong crush. He’s excited to dance with her, especially to one specific song.
“I’m going to ask the DJ to play [Swift’s] song ‘Lover’ so we can dance to it,” Annan said. “You never know what may come from it.”
