Taylor Swift Grateful Sugarland Fans Love ‘Babe’

Taylor Swift fans received a delightful surprise when it was revealed that the singer had written and sung on a track on Sugarland‘s upcoming album, and that song, “Babe,” was officially released last week.

Though the song was made public on Friday, Swift actually wrote the track six years ago, with the help of Train frontman Pat Monahan.

In a video shared on Instagram, Swift thanked fans for supporting the song, revealing that she had written it while creating her 2012 album Red.

“I just wanted to say thank you so much for all the nice things you’ve been saying about ‘Babe,’” she said in the clip. “It’s a song that I wrote with Pat Monahan when I was making the Red album. And I’m so happy that it gets its own life. I’m so happy that Sugarland wanted to record it, and has done such a great job with it. And I’m so stoked I get to sing on it, too.”

Sugarland spoke about the song backstage at the ACM Awards in April, with member Jennifer Nettles explaining that Swift reached out after she heard Nettles and bandmate Kristian Bush were reforming the duo.

“She was excited that we were getting back together. She said ‘Hey, I have a song…’ and we said ‘Yep!’” Nettles recently shared with PopCulture.com and other reporters. “We’ve obviously known each other for many years when she was just getting started. We just had our first EP out called Premium Quality Tunes. She still has a copy of it that we signed for her.”

Bush shared that the song is the first track written by another artist that Sugarland has included on a record.

“We didn’t tell anybody about it until we got finished, and she liked it, thank God,” he said. “It’s a really good song.”

The song will appear on Sugarland’s album Bigger, which is slated for release on June 8. “Babe” is the second song Swift has given to a country artist in recent years. Swift also penned Little Big Town’s “Better Man,” which was nominated for a slew of awards, including a GRAMMY.

Swift is currently in the midst of rehearsals for her Reputation Stadium Tour, which kicks off May 8 in Glendale, Arizona. The trek will take Swift all over the world, playing stadiums in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

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