A selfless soul. Taylor Swift took The Tonight Show stage on Monday, November 13, with a special tribute performance to Jimmy Fallon’smom.
According to the show’s producer Mike DiCenzo, the Reputationsinger, 27, agreed last-minute to perform on the show Monday night which was Jimmy Fallon’s first show back since losing his mom, Gloria.
DiCenzo wrote a series of tweets recounting the emotional evening. “First, a quick word about Taylor Swift. She was not scheduled to do our show today. But we wanted something special for this first show back, so we asked her on a complete whim, since she had been in town doing SNL. She said yes with zero hesitation,” he wrote.
“She sang ‘New Year’s Day’ No one had heard it. Suddenly she sings the line, ‘Squeeze my hand 3 times in the back of the taxi.’ I nearly gasped. Tears. I think everyone in the audience started sobbing,” he added. “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.”
The lyrics came after the host paid tribute to his late mother in the opening monologue telling a heartfelt story in her remembrance. Fallon, holding tears back, shared: “When we were little, my mom would walk us to this store, me and my sister, and she would squeeze my hand three times and say, ‘I love you,’ and I would squeeze back, ‘I love you, too.’”
“Last week I was in the hospital and I grabbed her and squeezed ‘I love you.’ I just knew we were in trouble, you know?”
Coincidental or planned, DiCenzo went on to recall the raw emotion that came with the performance and praise the 1989 singer. “That hug between Jimmy and Taylor after the song was 100% real emotion. Whatever you think of Taylor, she did something beautiful for Jimmy and our show today, and we’re forever grateful,” he wrote.
As previously reported, Gloria passed away on Saturday, November 4. “On behalf of everyone at NBC, we extend our deepest condolences to Jimmy and all his family at this time of enormous loss,” the network said in a statement to Us Weekly the following day. “Our hearts go out to Jimmy and everyone else whose lives were so touched by Gloria Fallon’s love, kindness and support.”
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