Taylor Swift may have been an international phenomenon before but she's now gained some new cred after a video on YouTube surfaced of Swift and the Chinese piano-playing sensation, Yundi Li.
The song is "Wildest Dreams" from Swift's latest disc 1989. In the video, the 32-year-old Li is shown alongside Ms. Taylor promoting, interestingly enough, the Japanese motor-brand Toyota.
If you aren't in the know, Yundi Li competes with fellow Chinese pianist Lang Lang for the center seat as the nation's premiere classical musician. As of late, Li has accrued 17 millions followers on Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter) and just went platinum with his latest disc of Beethoven sonatas.
This summer, Yundi, also, is scheduled for a tour with Charles Dutoit and the National Youth Orchestra (U.S.), an initiative courtesy of Carnegie Hall and that will also be broadcast via the wonderful people at WQXR on July 11.
It's true, perhaps American celebrities starring in commercials overseas is not a new concept, but throwing in a classical pianist definitely changes the tide.
This wouldn't be Ms. Swift's first approach to shed light on and help out classical musicians either. She recently donated $100,000 to her local orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, to help it avoid foreclosure in 2013.
Talk about a true American.
As of now, the video has been hard to locate via YouTube but has surfaced on some third-party video streaming sites.
For now, get down with Yundi Li below.
Correction: It was reported that Lang Lang has accrued 17 million followers when it is actually Yundi Li.
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