Following the release of Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated album THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, many fans were surprised to learn who and what each song on the album is about. Below are my thoughts and opinions combined with those of videos, articles, and friends I have spoken to about the album, and who I and the majority of fans believe each song to be about:

1. “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)”: Opening the highly-anticipated album, “Fortnight,” among several other tracks, is rumored to be about Swift’s ex-boyfriend, Matty Healy of the band The 1975. Though their relationship was allegedly rather brief, lyrics such as “And for a fortnight there, we were forever” lead listeners to think that the song is about Healy. Since the length of a fortnight is two weeks, fans believe that “Fortnight” is an ode to the short, yet seemingly joyful, relationship between Healy and Swift. Other lyrics such as “I love you, it’s ruining my life” and “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up” hint at the backlash Swift received upon the public learning about the relationship, and the rumor that Healy stopped answering Swift’s calls and texts out of the blue. In addition to the lyrics matching up, the music video for “Fortnight” mirrors aspects of photo shoots and music videos for the album Being Funny In a Foreign Language by The 1975, as well as details from the band’s YouTube series, “A Theatrical Performance of an Intimate Moment.” Within the music video for “Fortnight,” the black-and-white theme combined with poses and clothing choices remarkably similar to those in the previously mentioned projects from The 1975 further add to the suspicion that this track is about Healy. 
2. “The Tortured Poets Department”: As this track contains lines that could pertain to multiple people, Swifties have made speculations that “The Tortured Poets Department” is about either Matty Healy or Joe Alwyn, another past boyfriend of Swift’s. The opening lyric of the song is “You left your typewriter at my apartment,” making some fans believe that the song is about Healy, as he mentioned his fondness of typewriters in a 2018 GQ interview. In addition to this connection, the lyric “You smoked, then ate seven bars of chocolate” is heavily hinted to be about Healy as he notoriously smokes cigarettes on stage and has a hit song with The 1975 titled “Chocolate.” Further into the song, the lyric, “But you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave / And I had said that to Jack about you, so I felt seen” has many fans convinced that “The Tortured Poets Department” is about Healy as he was seen multiple times beside Lucy Dacus during the portion of the Eras Tour where Healy and Swift were reportedly together, and worked with Jack Antonoff on producing The 1975’s most recent album, Being Funny In a Foreign Language. Swift is friends with both Dacus and Antonoff and has worked with Antonoff on several of her albums, including THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. With this being said, some fans question whether the song is about Swift’s ex-boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn. The main evidence fans have to back up this claim is the title of this song and the album title. In a conversation with fellow actor Paul Mescal in 2022, Alwyn discussed he and Mescal being members of a WhatsApp group chat along with actor Andrew Scott called “The Tortured Men Club.” Whether or not the entire song is about Alwyn is debatable, but his influence on Swift’s title choices is evident here. 
3. “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”: Although this song does not evidently single out a specific relationship, Swift does confirm in an interview with Amazon Music that it is about “Being somebody’s favorite toy until they break you and then don’t want to play with you anymore.” The lack of details connecting the song to a specific person leaves fans to ponder the possibility that it is about multiple people, more specifically several exes, according to Swift’s explanation of the song.  
4. “Down Bad”: Once again, Matty Healy is rumored to be Swift’s lyrical inspiration, this time for her song “Down Bad.” While Swift herself discusses in an iHeartRadio interview that “[Down Bad is] where someone… rocks your world and dazzles you and then just kind of abandons you…,” others believe several lyrics to be about Healy. Relating back to the lyric, “But you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave / And I had said that to Jack about you, so I felt seen” within “The Tortured Poets Department,” the lyric, “Fuck it if I can’t have him / I might just die, it would make no difference” displays Swift’s similar feelings of not seeing a reason to live without said person. Though most of the lyrics in this song express the heartbreak and anger of being abandoned, fans believe Swift nods positively at Healy in the lines “I loved your hostile takeovers” and “All your indecent exposure.” The “hostile takeovers” and “indecent exposures” mentioned are implied to reference Healy’s controversy in late 2023 when he kissed fellow band member, Ross MacDonald, on stage in Malaysia in response to the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws. Healy received major backlash for this choice, while Swift implies her support for the decision in the previously-mentioned lyrics, as she has been known to support LGBTQ rights.  
5. “So Long, London”: As many were expecting THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT to be mainly about Joe Alwyn, “So Long, London” is unmistakable about him. The claim begins with the intro of the song seemingly mimicking wedding bells, highlighting Swift’s relationship with Alwyn as her longest relationship yet. In terms of lyrics, “So Long, London” contains damning lines such as, “I left all I knew, you left me at the house by the Heath,” that allude to the song being about Alwyn. As Swift and Alwyn lived together in London during their relationship, this line hints heavily at the turmoil faced before their breakup. Other lines like, “You sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days” likely reference Alwyn’s depression and Swift’s inability to ignore its impact on their relationship. 
6. “But Daddy I Love Him”: While Swifties argue over whether “But Daddy I Love Him” is about Matty Healy or Travis Kelce, there is a good amount of evidence to back up either argument. The lyrics, “Now I’m runnin’ with my dress unbuttoned / Screamin’, ‘But, Daddy, I love him!’” and “I know he’s crazy, but he’s the one I want” can be about either Healy or Kelce. After news broke of both relationships respectively, Swift received harsh criticism about her relationship choices. The song title appears to be a clapback to the criticisms as Swift implies that she can and will date whomever she chooses despite what people say. In terms of the line, “I know he’s crazy, but he’s the one I want,” Swift is likely referring to either Healy’s reputation of doing performative bits such as eating raw meat on stage and drinking out of flasks and wine bottles during shows, or Kelce’s intense display of anger during the Super Bowl when he screamed at and bumped into his coach. Further evidence that the track could be about either Healy or Kelce is seen in the lyric, “Even my daddy just loves him,” as both men were seen conversing with Swift’s father, Scott, at the Eras Tour while watching her perform. 
7. “Fresh Out The Slammer”: Less than halfway through the album, Healy is once again suspected as Swift’s influence, this time for “Fresh Out The Slammer.” In a 2016 interview with NME, Healy claims to have had a brief “flirtation” with Swift back in 2015, right before she and Alwyn had begun dating. The intro “Now, pretty baby, I’m runnin’ back home to you / Fresh out the slammer, I know who my first call will be to” is rumored to relate to Healy as it alludes to Swift and Healy getting together shortly after her relationship with Alwyn had ended. ‘The slammer’ mentioned in the title of the song is said to represent the low points of Swift’s relationship with Alwyn in lines such as “For just one hour of sunshine / Years of labor, locks and ceilings.” Swift also mentions the sun in “So Long, London” when she sings, “A moment of warm sun / But I’m not the one.” Healy is also hinted at toward the end of the song in the line “To the one who says I’m the girl of his American dreams,” as Healy sings “You see, I can’t sleep ‘cause the American Dream / has been buying up all of my self-esteem” in The 1975’s “The 1975” on the album Being Funny In a Foreign Language. 
8. “Florida!!! (feat. Florence + the Machine)”: As the second song on the album heavily rumored to be only about Alwyn, Swift paints their relationship as the same dreary picture as that in “So Long, London.” As the Florida shows of the Eras Tour were the first shows after Swift and Alwyn’s breakup was made public, Swift makes Florida a symbol for escaping her relationship with Alwyn in “Florida!!!.” When talking with iHeartRadio, Swift discussed how Florida is a conventional location that criminals escape to for a new start. Continuing to emphasize her unhappiness in her relationship with Alwyn, Swift sings, “Little did you know your home’s really only / A town you’re just a guest in.” This description of home being unwelcoming contradicts how Swift describes home in her 2019 song on the Lover album, “London Boy.” Within “London Boy,” Swift sings, “Home is where the heart is… / You know I love a London boy,” expressing her infatuation with Alwyn at the time.
9. “Guilty as Sin?”: Beginning the song with the lyrics “Drownin’ in the Blue Nile / He sent me ‘Downtown Lights,’” “Guilty as Sin” is heavily rumored to be about Matty Healy of The 1975, as Healy named The Blue Nile as his “favorite band of all time” in a tweet a few years back. The 1975 also samples part of “The Downtown Lights” by The Blue Nile in their 2018 hit “Love It If We Made It.” Other lyrics go on to discuss the possibility of Swift fantasizing about another person while dating her ex of six years, Joe Alwyn. The lines “I keep these longings locked / In lowercase, inside a vault” allude to folklore and evermore, Swift’s only albums in lowercase since reputation in 2017, along with the fact that songs “From The Vault” are written at the time Swift records an album, but do not make it onto the album. These details suggest a possible hidden song written about someone else at this time, as Swift and Alwyn were together through the release of both folklore and evermore. 
10. “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”: Within this track, Swift sings about rumors surrounding both her professional and personal life. “I’m always drunk on my own tears, isn’t that what they all said?” appears to be a response to the criticism of Swift exclusively writing about her breakups. Swift calls out the negatives of show business when she says “I was tame, I was gentle ‘til the circus life made me mean,” implying that her career has caused her personality to change negatively. She even takes shots at certain fans in the line “So all you kids can sneak into my house with all the cobwebs,” as several fans had posted themselves on TikTok walking into Swift’s former address on Cornelia Street in New York. 
11. “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)”: One of the songs most heavily rumored to be about Matty Healy is “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can).” In the title alone, the use of parentheses mirrors The 1975’s notorious use of parentheses in their song titles. More direct links to Healy are shown in lyrics such as “The smoke cloud billows out his mouth” as Healy is known to smoke cigarettes during performances, and “They shake their heads sayin’, ‘God, help her’ when I tell ‘em he’s my man” referencing the hate Swift received in response to the public learning about her romance with Healy due to his problematic history. Swift responds to this hate in the lines “But your good Lord doesn’t need to lift a finger / I can fix him, no, really, I can,” as she implies that she can improve his behavior and reputation. However, Swift seems to lose the confidence of being able to “fix him” when she ends the song with the lines “I can fix him, no, really, I can (No, really, I can) / Woah, maybe I can’t.” 
12. “loml”: Shifting from Swift’s romance with Healy to her relationship with Alwyn, “loml” recalls her time with Alwyn both positively and negatively in the contradicting lines “I felt aglow like this / Never before and never since” and “But I’ve felt a hole like this / Never before and ever since.” This back-and-forth of ups and downs in the relationship continues when Swift sings “You and I go from one kiss to getting married” and ends this chorus with “You said I’m the love of your life.” This loving line is then contrasted in the next chorus in the line “What we thought was for all time was momentary,” once again ending the chorus with “You said I’m the love of your life.” As the abbreviation “loml” usually means “love of my life,” Swift never mentions anyone being the love of her life, yet she is mentioned being the love of someone else’s life several times. The only instance of Swift herself directly saying a phrase to align with “loml” is the very last line “You’re the loss of my life,” emphasizing the heartbreaking end of the relationship referenced in the song.
13. “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”: This track is about Swift being on her Eras Tour after a breakup and her ability to perform and appear as though everything is normal. The pre-chorus most obviously expresses this topic in the lines “Lights, camera, bitch, smile / Even when you wanna die” and “All the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting, ‘More’ / I was grinnin’ like I’m winnin’ / I was hittin’ my marks / ‘Cause I can do it with a broken heart.” This last line is immediately followed by the adlib “(One, two, three, four)” spoken by Oli Jacobs who worked on “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” and several other tracks on THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. His counting mimics the click track that Swift hears when performing on stage to help keep the beat. This song likely connects specifically to Swift’s breakup with Alwyn as supported in the lyrics “‘Cause I’m miserable (Haha) / And nobody even knows,” as Swift began the Eras Tour on March 17, 2023, but her breakup with Alwyn was not announced publicly until April 8. This timeline means that fans were unaware of the breakup for the first weeks of shows in the tour. 
14. “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”: In yet another song rumored to be about Healy, “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” dives into the downfall of their rumored romance. Within the first few lines of the song, Healy seems to be the muse when Swift sings “Gazing at me starry-eyed / In your Jehovah’s Witness suit.” As Jehovah’s Witnesses are known for wearing suits when recruiting for their religion, Healy is known to wear suits when performing with The 1975. Further evidence of this track being about Healy comes in the lines “You tried to buy some pills / From a friend of friends of mine / They just ghosted you / Now you know what it feels like,” as Healy’s history of drug addiction is likely referenced here, as well as the fact that the termination of he and Swift’s romance is rumored to be because he stopped answering her calls and texts out of the blue. Moving into the bridge, Swift’s anger over the way the romance ended is present until the end of the song, but most apparently in lines like “I would’ve died for your sins, instead, I just died inside / And you deserve prison, but you won’t get time” as well as “You said normal girls were boring / But you were gone by the morning.” The lyric “You kicked out the stage lights, but you’re still performing,” could connect to the fact that at the end of each show of The 1975’s most recent tour, “Still… At Their Very Best,” one of the band members pulls a lever and turns off the stage lights. In addition to this detail, Healy has discussed during performances that he “performs” during his shows, acting quite differently than he does in his daily life. The title of the song can also allude to the running joke among fans of The 1975 that Healy is rather short. 
15. “The Alchemy”: Moving into her most recent relationship, this track makes far too many football references to not be about Swift’s current boyfriend, Travis Kelce. “The Alchemy” appears to express Swift’s affection for Travis as well as her appreciation for him after a period of darkness in her life. The most prominent lyrics implying that Kelce is the inspiration behind this track are “So when I touch down / Call the amateurs and cut ‘em from the team.” Swift goes on to make digs at both Alwyn and Healy in the lines “These blokes warm the benches / We’ve been on a winning streak.” As “bloke” is a British term for a man and both Alwyn and Healy are British, Swift is implying that both men paved the way for Kelce’s relationship with Swift to provide her the happiness she was missing with them. The title “The Alchemy” most likely refers to how Swift sees love, as the word ‘alchemy’ loosely means aiming to turn something into gold. Swift’s previous songs such as “Daylight” associate gold with love in the lines “I once believed love would be (Black and white) / But it’s golden (Golden)” and “I once believed love would be (Burnin’ red) / But it’s golden.” Although “Daylight” was released during the time that Swift and Alwyn were together, it is possible that Swift may still associate love with the color gold. 
16. “Clara Bow”: Ending the album on a rather thought-provoking note, Swift discusses in collaboration with Amazon Music that “Clara Bow” is her take on certain aspects of the music industry and what she has experienced with it firsthand. Swift goes on to discuss the process of trying to get a record deal when she was younger and having a label say that she reminds them of an artist, then follow up with a derogatory remark about the artist. In essence, “Clara Bow” is about the normalization of replacing successful women in the music industry. Swift names Clara Bow, Stevie Nicks, and herself in the song as influential women in the entertainment industry. Beginning each verse with “You look like” followed by either the name of Bow, Nicks, or Swift, Swift sings from the perspective of a producer or record label comparing a young woman wanting to work in the entertainment industry to a famous artist already in the industry. The offensive comment added after the comparison is shown in the outro in the lines “‘You look like Taylor Swift / In this light, we’re lovin’ it / You’ve got edge, she never did.’” Swift herself is seen as the comparison for a rising star in this last line, much like the ones she was compared to when first beginning her career. The album ends with the line “‘The future’s bright, dazzling,’” signifying the opportunity for new artists to achieve a level of success similar to that of the successful women named in this track.