LISTEN: Songs that Taylor Swift has written about Joe Alwyn
Multiple media outfits in the United States have reported the breakup of Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn after dating for six years. According to an insider, the split was "amicable," "not dramatic," and "had just run its course."
Their low-key romance began in 2016. Together, they worked on music, including collaborations for Taylor's back-to-back 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore—with Joe being credited under the pseudonym William Bowery.
Even before her pandemic-time music releases, however, the singer-songwriter had already been making hits about Joe.
Here are some of the Grammy winner's songs that either directly reference or allude to her longest relationship so far.
...Ready For It?
"Younger than my exes but he act like such a man, so/I see nothing better, I keep him forever."
If anyone doubts that ...Ready For It? is about Joe, who is younger than many of her exes including Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Hiddleston, there are Easter eggs in the actual music video. These include "Joseph" in Chinese calligraphy and the number 91 in yellow, linked to Joe's birth year, 1991.
Lover
"With every guitar string scar on my hand/I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover."
Taylor confirms her and Joe's 2016 dating anniversary by loving someone for three summers. Previously, she said that she's proud of Lover's bridge and finds the lyrics special because she "spent quite a lot of time writing break-up songs."
Paper Rings
"Darling, you're the one I want/In paper rings, in picture frames, in dirty dreams."
Here, Taylor narrates some of their intimate moments in their private relationship, including painting his brother's room together.
Invisible String
"And isn't it just so pretty to think/All along there was some/Invisible string/Tying you to me?"
Taylor references throughout the song the respective early lives of her and Joe: her living in Nashville and him working at a yogurt shop as a teenager.
Lavender Haze
"No deal, the 1950s sh*t they want from me/I just wanna stay in that lavender haze."
Taylor penned this song about experiencing her relatively private relationship in the public spotlight: "Like my relationship for six years, we've had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it... And so this song is sort of about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff."
