2023 is the year of Taylor Swift. A record-breaking tour, a massively successful concert film of said tour, two smash hit Taylor's Version re-releases (each including a whole new treasure trove of From the Vault tracks to fall in love with), a headline-making romance...perhaps no celebrity was more prevalent in culture this year than the pop icon. Even Time Magazine agrees.
But while we're always enamored by Taylor Swift the celebrity, 2023 further proved that it's Taylor Swift the artist — and more specifically, the songwriter — that continuously brings us together. Anyone who attended a screening of "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour," in which Swifties traded friendship bracelets, dressed up in their best bejeweled 'fits, sang (or screamed) out the lyrics of "All to Well (10 Minute Version)" and danced in the theater aisles to "Cruel Summer," can attest to the power of Swift. It's no coincidence that three of the most anticipated and successful films at the box office this year were the Eras Tour film, "Barbie" and "Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé." Never underestimate the power and joys of girlhood, vulnerability and crying in a movie theater next to your bestie.
For fans of Swift, it all comes back to the lyrics. Yes, we will memorize the lyrics to a 10-minute song and stand at attention when it's played. Yes, in times of strife and uncertainty we'll turn to the book of Evermore and Folklore for guidance. And yes, we'll continue to "make the friendship bracelets [and] take the moment and taste it" just as our wise queen advised.
In celebration of Swift's 34th birthday, we asked some of country music's most fervent Swifties to share their favorite songs and lyrics by the music icon. Long live!
Ashley Cooke
Brayln Kelly
- album: shot in the dark
- learn more about Ashley here
Favorite song: "Back To December" will always have a special place in my heart! I remember playing that song all the time when I was younger. It was the first song I learned on piano and I'd write pencil marks on the keys to remember where to put my fingers. The bridge always gets me so excited, the way the strings come in and the hits on the back half of it... chills.
Favorite lyric: "It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you" stopped me in my tracks the first time I heard it.
SACHA
Courtesy of artist
- latest single: "Confident"
- learn more about Sacha here
Favorite song:
I find it hard to have just one favorite Taylor Swift song, amongst her incredible catalogue of releases over the years, but if I had to narrow it down to one I'd choose the track "You Belong With Me." This song takes me back to when Taylor first came on the scene and how I was immediately impacted by her. She fueled my passion to pick up a guitar and head to Nashville to chase my dreams. I was fortunate enough to get a ticket not even an hour before her Eras show at Nissan Stadium. There was a huge thunderstorm and the show was delayed. I left my couch dressed as I was — in a hoodie sweatshirt, jeans, black trench coat and baseball cap — and jumped in an Uber and headed to the concert. I couldn't believe what seat I found myself in: a first row floor seat beside the catwalk. When she sang "You Belong With Me," I spiritually left my seat and body in that moment.
Alana Springsteen
Lily Nelson
- album: Twenty Something (Deluxe)
- Springsteen wrote her song "taylor did" about Swift's influence and constant presence at every stage in her life
- learn more about Alana here
Favorite song:
"State of Grace" stands out for a few reasons. The original Red album dropped a few days after my 12th birthday. It's the first album I bought myself and it stayed in the CD player in my room for over a year. To this day, it takes me back to that bedroom. Crying, dreaming, escaping, and feeling. I've always preferred to experience albums from beginning to end. I still do. That song was track one on the record, so it came on first every time I hit play. I lived a really formative time of my life to that album and to this song in particular. At the time, I was a few years into writing songs and playing guitar. When I say I studied these songs, I mean I STUDIED them. "State of Grace" blew my mind from a production standpoint. The feedback on the electrics, the big drums, and the BGVs. Everything about the choices that were made in the studio. It was the first time I had experienced rock's influence in country in a way that also made sense to me lyrically and it made my heart race. It felt like what my 12-year-old heart imagined it would feel like to fall in love for the first time. When I'm in the studio now, I get so particular about the nuances of drum and guitar tones because I know how much of an effect they can have on how the record makes you feel. "State of Grace" was also structurally completely different from anything else I'd heard. It's not just verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, out. It feels like a free-flowing composition that ebbs and flows chaotically - just like love does. I really appreciated the way she and Nathan [Chapman] told that story. That album helped me understand all the ways that music could become a form of self-expression. It inspired me to learn how to paint outside the lines, lyrically and musically.
Favorite lyric:
Lyrically, there are some insane gems in this song. "We are alone with our changing minds / We fall in love 'til it hurts or bleeds or fades in time" - I mean come on. That sentiment hits so hard for me, and my experience of relationships and love. I'm the kind of person that's completely all-in until I'm not. Our lives are a product of the choices we make, and we have to live with those decisions. Taylor managed to encapsulate one of the most complex parts of the human experience in two lines of a song. I also have to bring up the hook - "This is a state of grace / This is a worthwhile fight / Love is a ruthless game / Unless you play it good and right." I felt like she laid out the rules of love with this line and ultimately calls it worthwhile despite all that we put on the line. I took it as a challenge to approach love with fairness and with grace, otherwise the consequences can be awful. Grace is also my middle name, so there's that.
Lily Rose
Katie Kauss
- album: Stronger Than I Am
- learn more about Lily here
Favorite song:
"Enchanted" has always been my favorite Taylor song, for sure. I think her ability to write conversational lines in songs is what makes Taylor "Taylor." I was in high school when I first heard it. I'm sure I was driving in my car with my friends. We were obsessed with that album.
Favorite lyric:
My favorite lyric that comes to mind is the bridge: "please don't be in love with someone else, please don't have somebody waiting on you." It's so honest, and I can speak from experience with my wife that I felt that exact feeling after meeting her for the first time!
Tanner Adell
Daniel Chaney
- current single: "Hot Pink Christmas"
- learn more about Tanner here
Favorite song: "Blank Space"
The first time I heard "Blank Space" was on a road trip to girls camp with my youth group. We probably played it about a million times and none of us had boyfriends yet but the sass and confidence was so empowering.
Tigirlily Gold
Jared Olson
Kendra's favorite song: This is the hardest question ever! I love the song "Clean" from the 1989 album. I remember downloading 1989 the day it came out and freaking out about the entire album, but after one listen, "Clean" was immediately one of my favorites.
Kendra's favorite lyric: "You're still all over me like a wine stained dress I can't wear anymore." I think this song is so beautifully and poetically written, yet very clear to the listener and that is hard to do!
Krista's favorite song: There are so many good ones! Folklore is always in my rotation and my favorite song off that album is "illicit affairs." Folklore came out during the pandemic, and I remember thinking how heartbreakingly beautiful this song was! I was definitely screaming it at the top of my lungs by the second listen.
Krista's favorite lyric: My favorite line from that song is the entire bridge. "Don't call me kid, don't call me baby, look at this godforsaken mess that you've made me/ You showed me colors you know I can't see with anyone else."
Spencer Crandall
Nina Long
Favorite song:
Asking me to pick my favorite Taylor Swift song is an absolutely impossible task. However, when I think of the T Swift song that I've listened to the most this year, it's definitely "Invisible String." [The song] brings together all my favorite parts of a Taylor Swift song: amazing melodies, vulnerability, next level visuals and parts of her real life story.
I first heard "Invisible String" in my apartment during COVID. When I heard the song [mention] Centennial Park, I walked down to the park and sat there with the song on repeat. I just remember that little lead line when the song starts, bringing me so much joy. It felt like an important moment for me during the pandemic, because it was a beautiful day and that song was the first thing in a long time to make me feel like everything was gonna be alright.
Carter Faith
Muriel Margaret
Favorite song:
Honestly, my favorite Taylor Swift song will always be "Teardrops on my Guitar." It was the very first song of hers that I remember hearing and I was fully obsessed with her music and how it made me feel immediately.
The first time I heard the song was on the CMT music video countdown! I remember watching it with my dad so vividly and needing a guitar of my own immediately.
