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John Mayer shocks with first performance of Taylor Swift duet “Half of My Heart” in years

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Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for VEVO

John Mayer hasn’t performed his 2009 Taylor Swift duet “Half of My Heart” in years — but that changed this week.

John and Taylor dated after recording the duet when they were respectively 31 and 19, but broke things off a few months later. Their relationship is said to have inspired several songs by both artists, which fans wouldn’t necessarily describe as cordial.

For Taylor, it’s believed “Dear John” and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” are about their relationship, age gap and eventual breakup.

Conversely, John appeared to return fire in the 2013 song “Paper Doll.” He also called out Taylor’s “Dear John” when speaking to Rolling Stone, saying in part, “I think it’s kind of cheap songwriting … I think it’s abusing your talent to rub your hands together and go, ‘Wait till he gets a load of this!'” 

John has since removed “Half of My Heart” from his set lists, despite its commercial success — it earned Platinum certification from the RIAA and peaked at #2 on the Billboard Adult Top 40 list.

But the hitmaker did a surprise performance of the song during his Wednesday night acoustic show at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan. 

Several concertgoers have shared videos of the moment on their social media accounts, which show the audience singing along with him.

While we may never know why John decided to dust off his 14-year-old hit, he did ask fans ahead of his Wednesday show to hit him up with song requests. He then tweeted after the concert, “It’s an open source show.”

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