From “Bad Blood” to “When Emma Falls in Love,” see the songs that were inspired by the pop star’s friendships.
It’s no secret that Taylor Swift loves to write songs about her romances and relationships — but she doesn’t just write about her exes! Taylor has penned lyrics about family, self confidence, fame and, of course, her friends. Through the years, Taylor has dedicated many songs to her famous pals, from Emma Stone to Jack Antonoff. While she doesn’t always spill all the details about the meanings of her songs, sleuthing fans usually figure it out!
Find out which songs Taylor wrote about her friends…
1. “Fifteen”
When Taylor was getting ready to release her album Fearless, she penned a song called “Fifteen” which reflected on her early years of high school. It also prominently featured lyrics about her BFF Abigail Anderson and their shared experiences together. Looking back, Taylor says she almost didn’t release the song because it was so personal but Abigail encouraged her to share it with the world.
“I wrote a song called ‘Fifteen’ for my friend Abigail, who is still my best friend, and you know, she’s…gone through a lot of changes in my life and changes in her life and we just still are like this. And she was…sitting next to me in freshman year and we became best friends and a few years later a song called ‘Fifteen’ that was about not just my life and journey at that age but also hers,” Taylor shared in an Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe.
She continued, “That was a situation where I played it for her and I was like, ‘This is just for you and it’s never gonna see the light of day if you don’t want it to.’ And she was like, ‘No you need to put this out.’”
2. “When Emma Falls in Love”
In 2023, Taylor released a vault track called “When Emma Falls in Love,” off of her rerelease of Speak Now. The song not only chronicled a girl named Emma falling in and out of love but also paid tribute to Taylor’s friendship with her. Following its release, Taylor shared that the song was written about “one of [her] best friends” — leading many fans to believe it was about her close friend Emma Stone.
Upon further investigation, Swifties estimated that the song was written somewhere between 2008 and 2010, right as Taylor and Emma were starting to spend a lot of time together. It was also around the time that Emma began dating Kieran Culkin. When Emma was later asked if the song was about her, she remained tight-lipped — but didn’t deny it.
3. “22”
One of Taylor’s most popular songs, “22,” is a clear ode to friendships and being young with a world of possibilities in front of you. When speaking about the song back in 2013, Taylor shared that it was all about her close-knit group of girlfriends.
“I wrote that about my friends, like finally I’ve got this amazing group of girlfriends and we tell each other everything, we’re together all the time,” she shared with Ryan Seacrest. “And I think that was kind of the marker of me being 22, like having all these friends and there’s all these question marks in your life, but the one thing that you have is that you have each other.”
As for who those friends were? In the Red album booklet, the lyrics to “22” featured a hidden message that spelled out the names Ashley, Dianna, Claire and Selena — an ode to her pals Ashley Avignone, Dianna Agron, Claire Kislinger and Selena Gomez.
4. “You Are in Love”
Taylor penned her 1989 track “You Are in Love” for her friend and producer Jack Antonoff and his former girlfriend Lena Dunham. Despite playing a major part in the creation of the album, Jack didn’t know the song was about him until after it was released. Taylor explained that she started writing the song and then realized it was about Jack’s relationship with Lena.
“I remember sitting in my bed, and when I realized that these lyrics that I [was] writing were channeling everything Lena’s told me about the two of you,” she said in an MTV interview. “I didn’t want to be creepy about it, and be like, ‘I wrote a song about your relationship.’”
She added, “I was just really emotional writing this song because I’m so happy for you guys and you guys are like the benchmark of actual, true, real love like it talks about in that song. And I didn’t tell Lena or you about the fact that that was what I was channeling when I was writing it. But I figured when Lena deemed it her wedding song, that she knew I was talking about you two.”
5. “Happiness”
Since the release of “Happiness,” off of Taylor’s album Evermore, fans have speculated that it was another song about her friend Abigail. While neither Taylor nor Abigail have confirmed the theory, much of the song’s lyrics allude to a split — and Abigail announced her divorce shortly after its release.
6. “Bad Blood”
Taylor is rumored to have penned her 1989 track “Bad Blood” about her former friendship with Katy Perry. After the song’s release, Taylor confirmed that the song was about another female pop star whom she declined to name, although the song featured lyrics that seemingly alluded to some of Katy’s songs.
“For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not. She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I would think, ‘Are we friends, or did she just give me the harshest insult of my life?’” Taylor told Rolling Stone.
She continued, “She did something so horrible. I was like, ‘Oh, we’re just straight-up enemies.’ And it wasn’t even about a guy! It had to do with business. She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me. And I’m surprisingly non-confrontational — you would not believe how much I hate conflict. So now I have to avoid her. It’s awkward, and I don’t like it.”
While the feud made headlines for quite some time, Taylor and Katy eventually put it all behind them.
7. “It’s Nice to Have a Friend”
In 2019, Taylor released “It’s Nice to Have a Friend,” off of her album Lover. While the majority of the album was about being in love, she said she wanted to switch it up for “It’s Nice to Have a Friend,” paying tribute to the many friendships in her life.
“I love metaphors that kind of have more than one meaning, and I think I loved the idea that, on an album called Lover, we all want love, we all want to find somebody to see our sights with and hear things with and experience things with,” she explained to Billboard.
She continued, “But at the end of the day we’ve been searching for that since we were kids! When you had a friend when you were nine years old, and that friend was all you talked about, and you wanted to have sleepovers and you wanted to walk down the street together and sit there drawing pictures together or be silent together, or be talking all night. We’re just looking for that, but endless sparks, as adults.
