Taylor Swift has gone wild.
The pop star introduced the world premiere of her music video for “Wildest Dreams” during the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards pre-show. The clip, for the fifth single off of Swift’s global-hit 1989 album, features Scott Eastwood as Swift’s love interest and lots of wild animals, including one prominent appearance by a lion, with whom Swift shares a few moments. Horses, birds, zebras and giraffes are also shown roaming free during the safari-themed clip. A note at the end of the video announces that all proceeds from the video will be donated to wild animal conservation efforts through the African Parks Foundation of America.
The video comes just weeks after famous lion Cecil was killed by a hunter, igniting an online firestorm.
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The clip was directed by Joseph Kahn, who also directed Swift’s clips for “Blank Space” and “Bad Blood.” In the video, Swift sports black, curly, short hair along with the song’s “red lips.” The video features the pop star and Eastwood as actors in an old Hollywood production, set against a safari backdrop. They lock lips a couple of times and act out several of the song’s memorable lyrics, including staring at the sunset and having Eastwood’s hands in her hair and clothes in her room, as the two get intimate in a bedroom.
Later, the duo are shown fighting on set, flying around in a plane, with Eastwood decked out in pilot gear and Swift sporting a scarf around her head. She’s also intermittently shown singing in a gold dress.
Swift teased the video, and announced its VMA pre-show debut with an Instagram post last Sunday, and a few days ago tweeted the below photo of herself and Eastwood from the clip.
Say you’ll remember me Standing in a nice dress Staring at the sunset, babe #WildestDreamsMusicVideo @ScottEastwood pic.twitter.com/0IIxp1WSnz
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) August 29, 2015
Swift, who’s also in the middle of her 1989 tour, went into Sunday night’s VMAs nominated for eight awards, including video of the year for “Bad Blood.” She won best pop video for “Blank Space” during the pre-show and was presented with her Moonman for that award before introducing the “Wildest Dreams” clip, joined by the “Bad Blood” cast.
Kelly Osbourne, MTV’s Sway and Girl Code Live stars Carly Aquilino, Nessa Diab and Nora “Awkwafina” Lum hosted the VMA pre-show from 8-9 p.m. ET, leading into the Miley Cyrus-hosted VMAs from L.A.’s Microsoft Theater.
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