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Taylor Swift Could Surprise Fans At The 2018 Grammys

The Grammys moved its 2018 broadcast up this year to Jan. 28 in order to avoid conflicting with the Winter Olympics around its traditional mid-February time slot. It'll also take place outside of Los Angeles for the first time in 15 years, set instead at Madison Square Garden in New York. And while the bench of performers is deep, many fans are wondering, given her lack of nominations: will Taylor Swift perform at the 2018 Grammys? She isn't officially slated to appear, but there are a couple of opportunities for her to sneak in a surprise performance.

Despite releasing a record-shattering album last year with Reputation, Swift only garnered two nominations, and neither of them for the album. That's because Reputation dropped on Nov. 10, and the cutoff for Grammy eligibility was Sept. 30. Her single "Look What You Made Me Do" released in August and was eligible, but it's not clear whether it was submitted and didn't get nominated, or whether she chose not to submit it at all, and just wait for her album to be considered next year. But Swift does still have two nods under her belt this year: one for Best Country Song with "Better Man," which she wrote for Little Big Town, and one for Best Song Written for Visual Media for her duet with Zayn Malik, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever," which is featured on the 50 Shades Darker soundtrack.

The official slate of performances for the 2018 Grammys includes Cardi B, Rihanna, SZA, Lady Gaga, P!nk, Miley Cyrus, Kesha, Patti Lupone, Alessia Cara, Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars, Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, Childish Gambino, Sam Smith, Elton John, Dear Evan Hansen's Ben Platt, Logic, Khalid, Little Big Town, and U2. But there will also be a group performance by the stars of country music (with Maren Morris confirmed as one of them) in tribute to the victims of the Las Vegas shooting, which occurred at the Route 91 Harvest music festival. It's possible Swift will appear in this special number.

Also, Little Big Town is set to perform "Better Man," and Swift has been known to perform the song in the past. She played it last February, for example, at DirecTV's pre-Super Bowl concert Super Saturday Night. So it's reasonable to expect that Swift may join Little Big Town on stage for a verse or two of the song. She reportedly handed the song over to the group to record after writing it about a breakup of hers because of the harmonies in it, which made her think of them. She thought they'd better be able to perform the song as a group than she could as a solo artist.

Taylor Swift is a 10-time Grammy winner and she has been nominated 31 times. She was the first female artist ever to win Album of the Year twice, for Fearless in 2010 and again for 1989 in 2015. (Adele tied her record with her Album of the Year win for 25 last year.) With her win for Fearless, Swift officially became the youngest artist ever to win Album of the Year.

She's expected to garner multiple nominations for Reputation next year, however, in a surprise move this year, the Grammy nominations pool heavily favored rap artists in the major categories after years of pop dominance. This, coupled with the criticism Swift received for her silence during the 2016 elections may indicate a surprise shutout for her album next year.

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