Vigilante Shit

On August 28, 2022, Swift announced her tenth studio album, Midnights, set for release on October 21, 2022. The track-list was not immediately revealed.[4] Jack Antonoff, a longtime collaborator of Swift who had worked with her since 1989 (2014), was confirmed as a producer on Midnights by a video posted to Swift's Instagram account on September 16, 2022.[5] On September 21, 2022, Swift began unveiling the track-list in a randomized order through her 13-episode short video series on TikTok, called Midnights Mayhem with Me.[6] In each episode, Swift rolls a lottery cage containing 13 ping pong balls numbered from one to thirteen,[7] each representing a track of Midnights, and when a ball drops out, she disclosed the title of the corresponding track on the album, through a telephone.[8][9] In the second episode, released on September 23, 2022, Swift announced "Vigilante Shit" would be track eight.[9][10] The song alongside the thirteen announced tracks and additional surprise-released tracks for the 3am edition of Midnights, was released on October 21, 2022 under Republic Records.[11][12]

In its first 24 hours, "Vigilante Shit" earned over 11.8 million plays on Spotify globally, becoming the seventh-most played song on that day, following six additional songs from Midnights.[13] The song remained on the Spotify Weekly Top Songs globally for six weeks, peaking at number nine.[14]

In the United States, "Vigilante Shit" debuted at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, receiving 32.2 million streams, selling 6,400 digital downloads, and reaching an airplay audience of 424,000 in its first week.[15] During the week of its release, Swift became the first artist to occupy the top-10 spots of the Hot 100.[16] The song remained on the chart for six weeks.[17] It peaked at number nine on the Canadian Hot 100 and was certified gold by Music Canada on November 16, 2022.[18] "Vigilante Shit" entered within the top-25 of various countries, at number nine in the Philippines,[19] at number 10 in Australia[20] and Malaysia,[21] at number 17 in Iceland,[22] at number 18 in Vietnam,[23] at number 20 in India,[24] and at number 24 in Luxembourg[25] and South Africa.[26] It debuted and peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Global 200.[27]

Credits are adapted from Pitchfork and the liner notes of Midnights.[11][28]

Recording

• Recorded at Rough Customer Studio, Brooklyn and Electric Lady Studios, New York City
• Mixed at MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach
• Mastered at Sterling Sound, Edgewater, New Jersey
• Evan Smith's performance was recorded by herself at Pleasure Hill Recording, Portland, Maine
• Dominik Rivinius' performance was recorded by Ken Lewis at Neon Wave Studio, Pirmasens, Germany

Personnel

• Taylor Swift – vocals, songwriting, production
• Jack Antonoff – production, engineering, programming, synths, percussion, juno 6, wurlitzer, Moog, recording
• Evan Smith – engineering, synths
• Dominik Rivinius – drums
• Laura Sisk – engineering, recording
• Ken Lewis – engineering
• Megan Searl – assistant engineering
• John Sher – assistant engineering
• John Rooney – assistant engineering
• Jonathan Garcia – assistant engineering
• Serban Ghenea – mixing
• Bryce Bordone – assistant mixing
• Randy Merrill – mastering