Think you could beat the Guinness World Record holder who identified 34 Taylor Swift songs in less than a minute?
“It was very difficult,” Bilal Ilyas Jhandir says via Zoom from his home in Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan, “because you had to listen to another person read the lyrics and they were pronouncing some of the words incorrectly.”
The 20-year-old wore an eye mask in the submission video so he wouldn’t be accused of sneaking a peek. Two verified witnesses looked at a screen of randomly chosen lyrics, one of them read the beginning of songs while a timer counted Jhandir down.
“Elevator buttons and …” the proctor said.
“ ‘Ours,’ ” Jhandir spurted, identifying a 2011 Swift single from her “Speak Now” era.
Jhandir’s video was shot in September 2023 and results were verified this month.
Jhandir practiced for 13 weeks prior to the official test. His victory dethroned Dan Simpson, the 2019 record holder from the U.K. who correctly determined 27 Swift songs.
This isn’t Jhandir’s first world honor. According to Guinness World Records, he holds two other titles, including the most animals identified from animal sounds in one minute (23) and the most Justin Bieber songs identified from lyrics in one minute (29).
“That time I had to skip two songs,” the Belieber says. “But I didn’t have any skips for Taylor.”
His favorite era is “Folklore” and favorite song is “You’re Losing Me,” a bonus track from “Midnights.”
Will he will try to beat his own world record?
“Many people on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, they are saying that they will soon break the record, that’s so easy. Easy-peasy,” he says. “So let’s see if someone broke this score. Then definitely I will try to regain it.”
Jhandir says Swift has quite the following at his university in Pakistan. He also hopes to see her perform this year.
“My only dream, at this time is to meet her,” he says. “Or, at the very least, attend a stop on the Eras tour.”
