Taylor Swift is a city girl at heart.
Since moving to New York City's Tribeca neighborhood last year, the pop star has written a song, titled "Welcome to New York," and she was recently named the city's Global Welcome Ambassador. "When I love something, I'm very, very vocal about it," Swift explained on CBS' The Late Show Tuesday. "Any time I talk to anyone or any time I do an interview, I'm like, 'You don't understand. You have to go there now. You have to go to New York. Just drop what you're doing, and go there. It's amazing. It's the greatest place ever.' And I guess the city picked up on that. They're like, 'She's the most enthusiastic, obnoxious person to ever love New York. She loves it with like 18 exclamation points afterward, underlined.'"
Swift is happy to promote tourism in Manhattan—so much so that she did it pro bono. "I don't get any money for it," the former Nashville resident told David Letterman. Regarding her move, she said, "I'd been obsessing over moving to New York for a year but I didn't find the perfect place until winter last year. So, I've been there ever since and I had the most amazing summer here. All my friends are here!"
Letterman did a public service by telling viewers, "Let's not give people the wrong impression. There is no perfect place to live in New York City. Just get that right of your heads! That ain't gonna happen!"
Still, Swift said it's "an amazing feeling" to live in the Big Apple.
One of Swift's friends who lives just outside of Manhattan is Lena Dunham, who has a place in Brooklyn. The "Shake It Off" singer then explained how they became BFFs. "I was watching Girls when it first came out about two years ago and I just thought, 'She's so empowering. This person writes, directs and stars in this incredible show.' So I did what you do when you're interested in someone: I Googled her and went to her Twitter and the first thing I saw was her quoting my lyrics. At first I thought, 'She has to be doing that ironically. She's clearly making fun of me.' I have this big loser complex from school. But it turned out she was following me and it was completely unironic and she actually liked my music," Swift, 24, recalled. "She direct messaged me and she said, 'We need to be best friends. I feel like you've been my best friend in my head for months and almost year now, so I need to see you in person and I will lavish you with compliments in person.' And she did do that. And we've been best friends ever since."
Swift and Dunham have more in common than one might think. "I think since we're both writers...we have a lot to relate to each other on, and we're also both way enthusiastic about everything," she said.
Before the episode ended, Swift performed "Welcome to New York."
Of course, her enthusiasm never waned!