The Tortured Poets Department has quite the staff! Taylor Swift released her highly anticipated new double album on Friday (April 19), and across the LP’s 31 tracks lies a slew of references to celebrities inside and outside the worlds of music and poetry.
When the “Cruel Summer” singer first revealed the Tortured Poets tracklist in February, much of the attention landed on the two high-profile featured artists. Grammy-nominated alt-rock band Florence + the Machine appears on “Florida!!!” and Post Malone appears on “Fortnight,” which Swift confirmed as the set’s first single on Thursday (April 18).
Outside of those collaborations, however, the tracklist also included a song titled “Clara Bow.” Serving as the closer for the album’s first disc, “Clara Bow” also references an American actress who rose to fame during the silent-film era, transitioned to “talkies” and ultimately became a leading cultural symbol of the Roaring ’20s.
As it turns out, those tracks were just the tip of the iceberg. The Tortured Poets Department — which broke a major Spotify record in less than 12 hours — is not only inspired by Tay’s much-buzzed-about relationships with The 1975‘s Matty Healy and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, but it also contains references to stars ranging from Boygenius‘ Lucy Dacus to Kim Kardashian.
The Tortured Poets Department serves as both Swift’s eleventh studio album and her first album of new music since 2022’s Grammy-winning Midnights. Longtime collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner assisted in writing and producing the record, continuing a streak that stretches back to 2014’s 1989 for Antonoff and 2020’s Folklore for Dessner.
Keep reading for a list of all the celebrities Taylor Swift name-dopped directly or indirectly on The Tortured Poets Department.
Song: “The Tortured Poets Department”
Lyric: “You smoked and ate seven bars of chocolate/ We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist”
T-Swift shows some major love to Charlie Puth on the title track. Puth has earned four top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Attention” (No. 5) and the Selena Gomez-assisted “We Don’t Talk Anymore” (No. 9). On the Billboard 200, the acclaimed singer-songwriter has earned three consecutive top 10 albums.
Song: “The Tortured Poets Department”
Lyric: “Sometimes I wonder if you’re going to screw this up with me/ But you tell Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave.”
If the Tortured Poets title track really is about Swift and Healy’s relationship, “Lucy” could be in reference to Lucy Dacus of Boygenius. After all, Dacus and Healy were friends before Swift entered the picture, although that dynamic ultimately soured. Last year, Healy deactivated his X account after Dacus responded to one of his tweets in which he threw some shade at her and her Boygenius bandmates.
Song: “The Tortured Poets Department”
Lyric: “And I had said that to Jack about you/ So I felt seen / Everyone we know understands why it’s meant to be/ ‘Cause we’re crazy.”
C’mon, which other Jack could Taylor possibly be referencing?!
Song: “The Tortured Poets Department”
Lyric: “I laughed in your face and said/ ‘You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith / This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel, we’rе modern idiots’”
Swift references Welsh “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” poet Dylan Thomas and “Because the Night” rocker Patti Smith on the title track for her eleventh studio album.
Song: “Thank You Aimee”
Lyric: “I don’t think you’ve changed much/ And so I changed your name, and any real defining clues,” as well as “And one day, your kid comes home singin’/ A song that only us two is gonna know is about you.”
OK, so Taylor spends the song referring to an “Aimee” and never actually name-drops Kim K., but the capitalization of the song’s title — “thanK you aIMee,” with the capital letters spelling out “Kim” — is intentional, according to Swifties. In the song, “Aimee” causes Swift “searing pain,” not unlike the way the chips fell back in 2016 when the then-married Kim Kardashian and Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) publicly sparred with Swift over the “New Slaves” rapper’s own T-Swift name-drop in his Rihanna-assisted Billboard Hot 100 hit “Famous” (No. 34). Fans also think the pop superstar hints at Kim and Ye’s daughter North with the line about a child coming singing “a song that only us two is gonna know is about you,” a potential reference to when the reality star and North danced to one of Tay’s songs in a video.
Song: “Clara Bow”
Lyric: “You look like Stevie Nicks in ’75/ The hair and lips/ The crowd goes wild at her fingertips/ Half moonshine, a full eclipse,” Swift sings, nodding to the beginning of Nicks’ Fleetwood Mac era.
Stevie Nicks — who has earned four Hot 100 top 10 hits and six Billboard 200 top 10 titles as a soloist — also penned a poem for the physical copies of The Tortured Poets Department that plays on Taylor’s signature lovelorn lyricism.
Song: “Clara Bow”
Lyric: “You look like Clara Bow in this light/ Remarkable/ All your life, did you know you’d be picked like a rose?”
Of course, the iconic actress is referenced through the song with a title that directly references her.
Song: “Clara Bow”
Lyric: “You look like Taylor Swift in this light/ We’re lovin’ it/ You’ve got edge, she never did/ The future’s bright, dazzling.”
Every great pop star indulges in a meta moment. In “Clara Bow,” Taylor name-drops herself, poking fun at the way the media and the culture at large has perceived her art and persona over the course of her career.
Song: “Guilty as Sin?”
Lyric: “Drownin’ in the Blue Nile/ He sent me ‘Downtown Lights’/ I hadn’t heard it in a while”
In the opening lines of this soft-rocking Tortured Poets cut, Taylor references Scottish alternative band The Blue Nile. The group — who last played together in 2008 — scored a Hot 100 entry back in 1990 with “The Downtown Lights,” which reached No. 10 on Modern Rock Tracks, now known as Alternative Airplay.
0 comments