In April, it was reported that Taylor, aged 33, and Joe, aged 32, had ended their relationship after being together for six years. Neither of them has publicly commented on the split.
Fans speculated that Taylor hinted at her single status during a performance at an Eras show the week before. On her March 31 setlist in Arlington, Texas, she replaced "Invisible String," a love song that suggested she was destined to be with Joe, with "The 1," a heart-wrenching song about wondering if a lost love was actually "the one" after all.
"And if my wishes came true / It would've been you," Taylor sings in the folklore track. "It would've been fun / If you would've been the one."
However, after the split made headlines, Taylor appeared to brush it off and be in good spirits when she went out for dinner in New York's West Village on April 10. While she may have been dressed for revenge, as she sings in "Vigilante S--t," she was more clearly dressed for renewal, as she wore a pair of jeans with an embellished butterfly, which historically symbolizes rebirth.
In the weeks since, Taylor has been seen with Blake Lively, Gigi Hadid, and The 1975's Matty Healy, with whom she seems to be dating.
As for Joe, his next film project was announced on April 11, with the studio revealing that he will star in "The Brutalist" alongside Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones. Filming for the project is currently taking place in Hungary, while Taylor has sold-out tour dates in the United States until August.
Continue reading to revisit some of Taylor's best songs inspired by Joe.
The first song Taylor Swift collaborated on with her former boyfriend Joe Alwyn is the ballad featured on the album "Folklore" (2020) as a duet with Bon Iver. At the time of the album's release, Joe was credited under the pseudonym William Bowery, but Taylor confirmed during her Disney+ concert film, "Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions," that William and Joe were the same person.
Taylor revealed that Joe had written the entire piano part and sang, "I can see you standin' honey / With his arms around your body / Laughin' but the joke's not funny at all." She further explained that Joe, who is also an actor in "The Favourite," was always playing, creating, and making things up. However, they may have never worked together if it weren't for the COVID-19 shutdown.
"I was like, 'Hey, this could be really weird, and we could hate this,'" she explained. "'Because we're in quarantine and there's nothing else going on, could we just try to see what it's like if we write this song together?'"
The result of their collaboration? Winning Album of the Year at the 2021 Grammys.
"We're so proud of 'Exile,'" Taylor expressed. "All I have to do is dream up some lyrics and come up with some gut-wrenching, heart-shattering story to write with him."
For the title track of her ninth studio album, Taylor explained to Apple Music's Zane Lowe that she and Joe worked together in the same way they did on "Exile." Joe crafted the melody, Taylor wrote the lyrics, and Bon Iver once again provided the male singing voice.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the song's co-producer Aaron Dessner mentioned that it was "really important" for Joe to play the piano part on "Evermore," as he couldn't do so on "Exile" due to recording issues.
"But this time, we could," Aaron said. "I just think it's an important and special part of the story."
Just hours before Taylor began The Eras tour in Glendale, Arizona, on March 17, the Grammy winner surprised fans with four brand-new songs, including "All of the Girls You Loved Before." Originally intended for her 2019 album "Lover," fans speculated that the track was about Joe.
Taylor starts the pre-chorus by singing, "Your past and mine are parallel lines / Stars all aligned and they intertwined." These lyrics reminded fans of another song she wrote about Joe titled "Mastermind," featured on "Midnights," where she sings, "Once upon a time, the planets and the fates / And all the stars aligned / You and I ended up in the same room / At the same time."
Later in the song, Taylor croons, "The way you call me 'baby' / Treat me like a lady." Swifties quickly recalled Taylor's hit from the "reputation" album, "King of My Heart," which is also about Joe. In that track, she sings, "We met a few weeks ago / Now you try on callin' me 'baby' like tryin' on clothes."
As part of the high school love triangle trilogy on "Folklore," Taylor explained that "Betty" was inspired by hearing Joe "singing the entire, fully formed chorus from another room."
"I really liked that it seemed to be an apology," she added. "And since I've written so many songs from a female perspective, wanting a male apology, we decided to make it from a teenage boy's perspective, apologizing after losing the love of his life because he's been foolish."
While Joe wasn't actively involved in the production of the opening track on "Midnights"—credit goes to Zoë Kravitz as a co-songwriter—Taylor's desire to protect their relationship from the public eye was the inspiration for the song.
"If the world finds out that you're in love with somebody, they're going to weigh in on it," she explained on Instagram. "Throughout our six-year relationship, we've had to dodge weird rumors and tabloid stuff—and we just ignore it. This song is about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect what's real."
The title comes from a phrase commonly used in the 1950s, which Taylor first heard while watching "Mad Men." She shared that it meant an "all-encompassing love glow."
Although the couple co-wrote the song "Evermore" about a failed engagement, Taylor dismissed the speculation that it was about their own relationship.
"I say it was a surprise that we started writing together, but in a way, it wasn't," she told Zane Lowe. "Because we have always bonded over music and had the same musical tastes, and he's always the person who's showing me songs by artists, and then they become my favorite songs or whatever."
Taylor continued, "Joe and I really love sad songs. We've always bonded over music. So... we write the saddest ones. We just really love sad songs. What can I say?"
In addition to the title track and "Champagne Problems," Joe also co-wrote "Coney Island," a dark duet featuring The National frontman Matt Berninger, on "Evermore."
Described by Taylor as the most vulnerable song on "Folklore," the ballad was a result of her feeling "more rooted in my personal life" because of Joe, as she revealed in an interview with Paul McCartney for Rolling Stone.
"I think that in knowing him and being in the relationship I am in now," she said, "I have definitely made decisions that have made my life feel more like a real life and less like just a storyline to be commented on in tabloids."
The only track Joe co-wrote on "Midnights," this sweet love song begins with a pebble picked up from a beach in Wicklow, the county in Ireland where the actor filmed the Hulu series "Conversations With Friends."
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