Taylor Swift knows how to ingratiate herself with skeptics.
As she did in the worlds of country and pop music, Ms. Swift has moved to melt the hearts of cold New Yorkers, this time by donating $50,000 to the city’s public schools. The Department of Education confirmed the gift, which was first reported by Capital New York.
Ms. Swift, always eager to please, had promised in October to make a donation following the release of her I’m-new-here anthem, “Welcome to New York,” which was criticized for its glossy naïveté. (“The lights are so bright, but they never blind me,” Ms. Swift sings.) On “The View,” the pop star said that all proceeds from the track would go to the city schools. She added, “It’s selling really, really well.”
Devora Kaye, a spokeswoman for the Department of Education, said the city was “deeply appreciative of this kind of gesture.” The $50,000 will go toward Sing!, a student-run musical production competition for high schoolers, Ms. Kaye said.
Upon her arrival in the city, Ms. Swift, who bought a $20 million penthouse apartment in TriBeCa, also became the tourism board’s first global welcome ambassador, not to mention a suffering Knicks fan. Her latest album, “1989,” has sold more than four million copies and spent 11 weeks atop the Billboard album chart since its release in October.
An earlier version of this post referred incorrectly to Ms. Swift's $50,000 donation. She will continue to donate proceeds from the sale of her single "Welcome to New York" to the schools; the $50,000 is not a one-time donation.