Taylor Swift feared happiness could ‘dry up’ her songwriting
Taylor Swift has spoken of her relief that being happy in her personal life did not affect her ability to write songs for her new album, The Life of a Showgirl.
“I used to have this dark fear that that if I ever were truly happy and free, being myself and nurtured by a relationship, what happens if the writing just dries up?” she told BBC Radio 1 as part of a flurry of UK interviews.
Swift also discussed her engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce, getting her master recordings back, the Eras world tour and her love of baking.
Fans have been digesting the album since its release at 05:00 BST, with some reporting that Spotify was briefly overwhelmed by the demand.
The new album includes a song which interpolates George Michael’s Father Figure. The late singer’s estate said they were “delighted” when Swift approached them about using it.
“When we heard the track we had no hesitation in agreeing to this association between two great artists and we know George would have felt the same,” Michael’s estate said on Facebook.
Another song on the album, Actually Romantic, prompted speculation that the song is a diss track about Charli XCX.
But others have played that down, noting that Swift said last year that she was “blown away” by Charli XCX’s work, and praised the British star’s music as “surreal and inventive”.
Here are six other things we learned from Swift’s interviews, plus what critics are saying about the album so far.
1. Did being happy impact her songwriting?
Swift, who famously uses her lyrics as a form of emotional purging for her relationships, told Radio 1’s Greg James about her fears her writing abilities might be impacted if she felt “happy and free”.
“What if writing is directly tied to my torment and pain? And it turns out, that’s not the case at all, and we just were catching lightning in a bottle with this record.
“But it’s nice because you’re from a place of happiness and love, you can go back to those places. You can look forward to other things,” she said.
Graham Norton asked her on his BBC One chat show if all the songs are inspired by her life.
“I am open about things, but in recent years I have a different perspective and like storytelling at a little bit of a distance, so it isn’t like doing a complete autopsy of myself,” she said.
2. Life and love with Travis Kelce
The singer spoke affectionately in several of the interviews about how she’s loving life with Kelce.
“He’s such a natural, just in life. He’s just never been nervous about anything in his entire life, so it’s pretty fun,” she told Heart’s Emma Bunton and Jamie Theakston.
“He’s fun and vibrant and has this infectious personality, makes me laugh so much. There’s a line in a song that says, you just wanted a best friend who you think is hot – and that’s kind of it!”
That song is Wi$h Li$t, from the new album, which includes the lines: “Please, God, bring me a best friend who I think is hot / I thought I had it right, once, twice, but I did not.”
Her prayers, it seems, have now been answered.
She added: “It’s this interesting thing, that you’ve been you your whole life, but we are different shades of ourselves at different volume levels, and this person came into my life and everybody’s like, ‘Yeah, you’ve never been so you’.
“People fuel you, they fuel every part of you, and they make you walk taller, and they make you present in a more vibrant way. And hopefully that bleeds into the music too.”
3. Engagement ring hint 18 months ago
Swift showed off her diamond engagement ring, which she confirmed Kelce designed with an “amazing jeweller” called Kindred Lubeck.
“She does all of her gold engraving by hand,” Swift told Heart. “I just thought all of her stuff was so cool, so I’d shown him a video a year and a half ago.
“And he was just paying attention to everything, it turns out, because when I saw the ring I was like, ‘Aaahh, I know who made that!’
“And also that you listened to me. It was like, you really know me. I didn’t know what I would want, but he did somehow. And that’s kind of a flex.”
Kelce popped the question in his garden, surrounded by lavish flower arrangements, straight after the couple recorded an episode of his podcast in August.
“He really crushed it in surprising me,” she told Norton. “While we were talking on his podcast, he had a complete garden built out the back of his house to propose in. He went all out – 10 out of 10.”
Asked when the wedding is happening, Swift joked, “you’ll know”, adding that it will not be until she has finished promoting the new album.
“I want to do the album stuff first, and the wedding is what happens after in terms of planning,” she said. “I think it will be fun to plan.”
4. The ups and downs of touring
Swift’s Eras Tour was an “astonishing challenge”, she told Hits Radio’s Fleur East, Will Best and James Barr, saying how proud she was of her crew, performers and indeed herself.
The tour famously became the first in history to surpass $1bn (£786m) in ticket sales when it ended in December after nearly two years. It featured a 44-song setlist lasting more than three hours, with 149 shows spanning five continents.
All this meant setting herself some tough goals.
“So you’re like, don’t get sick, don’t let any outside noise into your head, focus on only this one thing,” she said.
Swift wrote and recorded her latest album at the same time as during her recent Eras Tour.
Speaking to BBC Radio 2’s Scott Mills, she explained: “I would go from three shows in a stadium, fly to Sweden [to record it], fly back to the tour, fly to Sweden.”
So has she “got the itch” for another tour for her new album? “No, no, I’m gonna be really honest with you,” she told James.
“I am so tired when I think about doing it again, because I would want to do it really, really well again.”
Capital Radio’s Jordan North heard how she still finds time to put her feet up.
“When you’re inspired to write, for me that’s the most fun possible,” she said. “But also, I lay around and watch so much TV, just rotting.”
5. Preferring baking to social media
Swift explained she tries to be very measured about how she uses her phone and social media, with her focus on being “peaceful and happy”.
“I really am not much of a scroller at all,” she told Hits Radio.
“I don’t have the apps on my phone, because it’s really effective, they know what I want to see and they’re going to show it to me.”
She added: “When there’s so much of any type of opinion about me, it’s like, don’t put that in my brain…
“We live in a moment of a lot of rage-baiting and getting attention has now been monetised. So you have to know what world we live in and choose what reality you want to be in.”
She now has more time for hobbies like baking, she said. “I have a lot of hobbies, and I didn’t really have as many hobbies when I spent a lot of time scrolling.”
6. Getting her master recordings back
The singer also discussed how she bought back the master recordings of her earlier albums this year, something she described as “a lifelong dream”.
“I don’t respond to stuff generally, but not owning it really pissed me off,” she told Norton.
“I didn’t think I should be given it – I was happy to pay and at a premium. I am glad I spoke publicly about it and my fans got behind it and championed it.
“I couldn’t believe it happened. Travis and I were in tears when it did. Every time it is mentioned, I get a wave of euphoria still.”
In the music industry, the owner of a master recording controls the way it is distributed and licensed. The artist still earns royalties, but controlling the masters offers protection over how the work is used in future.
To date, she has released four re-recorded albums – known as “Taylor’s Versions” – with dozens of bonus tracks and supplementary material.
What have critics said about the new album?
Meanwhile, The Life of a Showgirl has received broadly positive reviews from critics, some of which have been shared by Swift on social media.
Rolling Stone’s Maya Georgi awarded the album five stars, saying Swift “hand-picks elements from all of her eras, just as she did on tour, and combines what works best”.
In a four-star review, the Independent’s Roisin O’Connor said: “The Life of a Showgirl might be one of her most uneven records, but she’s as compelling as she’s ever been – the showgirl, the ringmaster and the circus all in one.”
There was a colder reception from the Guardian’s Alexis Petridis, whose two-star review said the album was “dull razzle-dazzle from a star who seems frazzled”, while the Financial Times’ Ludovic Hunter-Tilney said the album was “charismatic, but lacks sparkle”.
But the Telegraph Neil McCormick awarded four stars, noting: “The overwhelming emotional mood is relief. It pervades the songs, a self-soothing blanket of gratitude that she has been rescued from solitude.”
