Taylor Swift addresses virtual graduation ceremony: "Expect the unexpected, but celebrate anyway"

Taylor Swift has offered some much needed positivity for 2020 graduates after the coronavirus outbreak forced the cancellation of physical graduation ceremonies.

Taking part in YouTube’s virtual ‘Dear Class of 2020’ series, Swift explained how she was unable to attend her own graduation but still went on to hold her own celebrations.

She told graduates: “I wanted to say congratulations to all of the graduates this year. I know this probably wasn’t the kind of graduation you thought you were going to be having.

“I relate to that in a lot of ways. When I was younger, I used to fantasise about high school graduation and, you know, being with all of your friends and cap and gown and the whole thing.”

The singer went on to explain how she missed out on her own graduation as she rose to fame as a teenager.

She said: “Then when I got to that point in my life, when graduation was coming up, I found myself on radio tours with my mom in rental cars sitting on the floors of airports, and I ended up getting mailed my diploma.

“So it wasn’t exactly what I pictured, but I was still really proud of it. I guess one good lesson to come from it is expect the unexpected but celebrate anyway.”

She concluded: “I’m so proud of you guys, and I hope you have a wonderful time and are proud of yourselves.”

Other notable commencement addresses this summer have come from Beyoncé, who spoke on the recent “worldwide expression of outage” over the killing of George Floyd.

BTS and Lady Gaga also penned their own messages for the ceremony.