Taylor Swift’s Surprise Guest Performances Are Planned Months in Advance

Taylor Swift is known for covering local acts in the cities in which she performs and for having big name guests show up on stage to perform with her at her concerts. It's a communal affair that has seen everyone from Ellen Degeneres to Nicki Minaj to Jason Mraz sharing a few live moments with her. These events are hardly spontaneous or last minute. In fact, our girl Taylor plans them months in advance.

"What I’ll do is I’ll look forward, really forward in my schedule," Swift told The Tennessean. "The first time it really happened was when I saw that we had four shows in L.A. I have a lot of friends in L.A., and I wanted to give every single crowd that came to see us over four nights a very different experience." Swift really loves her fans so she puts careful thought into her shows.

Swift also said her dream was to duet with Minaj on 'Super Bass' and that Minaj kindly turned that dream into a reality. "It started out with, I really wanted Nicki Minaj to come out," Swift recalled. "I knew the VMAs were the same week. I really wanted to sing 'Super Bass' with Nicki Minaj. For the last year, it’s been like my top dream. And so I just got her number and called her and we worked it out. She was so kind to come straight from the VMAs right to our show. It was just magical how that happened."

As for Jason Mraz? Well, he sings one of Swift's "favorite songs in the world called 'I’m Yours.' He lives in L.A., so I invited him out for one night."

The only one that wasn't the product of some pre-planning? When Justin Bieber, the boyfriend of her bestie Selena Gomez, took the stage with her. "Justin Bieber called me the day of the show, and said ‘Hey, I’d love to come out,'" Swift said. Oh, really, it's just like that when it's The Biebs?

Swift had actually texted the singer prior to see if he was in town and he let her know at last minute. "He called the day of and said ‘Hey, I’ll be there. I’m bringing my dancers.’ I was so excited. My crowd was very excited," Swift said.

In addition to her covers and guest stars, Swift is also a fan of rapping on stage, which is very different than being filmed while rapping in the studio. Swift said, "Well, you know, things are very different when you’re on stage, and then when you’re doing something a cappella just randomly, you know? If someone says, ‘Hey! Hey! Sing ‘Love Story,’’ I’m going to be a little reluctant to just start singing, but if it’s during my show, I’ll sing anything. I think that, for me, when I busted out a rap song in my acoustic set, that’s because I love the song that much that I think my fans would like hearing it during the show, and I really don’t have a problem with doing that."

She was able to get over any apprehension of rapping on stage because "there were 15,000 people rapping along with me." There's no better cure for stage fright or nervousness than 15,000 rabid fans getting your back.