Jewish a cappella group celebrates Hanukkah with Taylor Swift medley

Six13, a six-man a cappella vocal group known for making parodies of popular songs by incorporating Jewish-themed lyrics, released a Taylor Swift-inspired Hanukkah medley to honor the festival of lights and the biggest pop star in the world.

The New York-based group releases a music video in honor of Hanukkah and Passover every year - a popular tradition amongst Jewish a cappella groups. Their past Hanukkah songs include "Bohemian Chanukah," a parody of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," and “A Star Wars Chanukah,” which featured traditional Jewish songs set to the Star Wars soundtrack. 

This year has been the year of Taylor Swift; She was the most streamed artist in the world, Speak Now (Taylor's Version), a re-recording of her third album Speak Now, became her twelfth album to top the Billboard 200 chart, 1989 (Taylor's Version), a re-recording of her fifth album 1989, became her sixth album to sell over one million copies in its first week, she became the woman with the most No. 1 albums in Billboard history.

Her impact in 2023 was so huge that she was named Time magazine's Person of the Year, and the Eras Tour, her ongoing concert tour described as "a journey through the musical eras of her career," is the second highest-grossing musical tour of all time. 

Hanukkah (Taylor's Version) 

Six13's music video, entitled "Era-lution of Taylor Swift (Hanukkah's Version)", is inspired by the Eras Tour and uses music from across Swift's two-decade-long career, including some of her biggest hits such as "Love Story," "Blank Space," "Cruel Summer," and "Anti-Hero," to celebrate the history and traditions of Hanukkah. 

The video is divided into 14 sections and incorporates 14 different songs from 5 of Swift's albums while using original Six13 lyrics to tell the story of Hanukkah, share the joys of eating latkes and playing dreidel, and embrace Jewish pride.

"As a Swiftie and a Jewish [person] who LOVES Chanukah this is the best way to start the holiday!" one YouTube commenter said. 

"It's such an incredible, proud-to-be-a-Jew, loving Taylor, just having fun song!" said another comment. 

The "Era-lution" video also references Six13's previous Taylor Swift Hanukkah parody, which was based on her hit song "Shake It Off".