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Taylor Swift. Pixel Pushers/Getty Images
The pop star is marrying her fiancé, Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, so The Hollywood Reporter is revisiting her most romantic songs over the years.
As Taylor Swift walks down the aisle today as part of her Madison Square Garden wedding to Travis Kelce – it’s time to take a trip down memory lane.
Throughout her career, Swift has become known for writing sharp, relatable songs about love — both the good and bad parts of it — and has raised a generation of hopeless romantics. So, today I tried to pick 15 of her most romantic songs over the years. Fitting for her album Lover It is most represented here. I will forever mourn her planned Lover Fest, one of the reasons for the COVID-19 pandemic, but thankfully, the singer gave The Era a huge opening slot on the Eras tour.
Looking at some of her older songs — “Mary’s Song (Oh My My)” and “Love Story” — and comparing them to some from the last few years — “Peace,” “The Alchemy” and “Wi$h Li$t” — it proves to be a fascinating exploration of how her outlook on love has changed as she’s gotten older.
Swift’s early tracks looked at love the way a teenager would have at the time. They were idealistic and kind, believing that love could allow two people to work through anything. There were patches of almost plaintive love songs — “Peace” from her Grammy-winning album; Folklore It’s the first thing that comes to mind. The song explores the reality of dating someone as famous as Swift. To paraphrase the chorus, no matter how much she loves you, she’ll never be able to have that peaceful life, and she needs her person to be OK with that.
But in recent years, things have returned to this near-perfect trend. She faced those pains, and now she seems to have found peace, in her own way — at least that’s what she tells us in tracks like “Wi$h Li$t” from her latest album, The life of a showgirl. The track is sticky and sweet and finds Swift asking the world to leave her and her love — her soon-to-be husband — alone, as well as her dream of having enough kids to make “the whole bunch look like him.”
These are Swift’s most romantic songs over the years.
“Maryam’s song (Oh my country)” – Taylor Swift2006
This is for long-time Swift fans. From the b-side of the debut era, “Mary’s Song” is a youthful take on love. The singer chronicles the lovers’ childhood friends as they transition from children to teens and beyond. The final chorus finds the couple getting married – “Take me back to the time we walked down the aisle / Our whole town came and our mothers cried / I said, ‘I do,’ and you did too / Take me back to the house where we met so many years ago / We’ll rock our babies on that front porch.” It’s a classic Swift song for good reason.
“Love Story” — fearless2008
“Love Story” remains one of Swift’s most popular songs, an anthem for desperate romantic girls for nearly 20 years. The singer paints herself as Juliet in this love story, Waiting for Romeo. But fortunately, this love story has a brighter ending: “He knelt down and took out a ring, and said / Marry me, Juliet, and you’ll never have to be alone / I love you and that’s all I really know / I talked to your father, go and pick out a white dress, it’s a love story, baby, just say yes.”
“You’re in love” – 1989 (Deluxe)2014
Grammy Award-winning deluxe track 1989“You’re in Love” is perhaps Swift’s most romantic song yet. Swift has spoken in the past about how the song, which she wrote with frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff, was about his relationship at the time with actress and writer Lena Dunham, through Swift’s eyes. It is one of her most underrated tracks from her entire discography.
There are so many romantic moments in the song, it’s hard to choose just one. Unsurprisingly, the bridge is a contender (“You two dancing in a snow globe, round and round / And he keeps a picture of you in his office downtown / And you understand now / Why they lost their minds and fought wars / And why I spent my whole life trying to put it into words”), but the end of the second verse is just as impressive: “One night, he wakes up, with a strange look on his face / He pauses, then says ‘You’re my best friend’ / And you know what, he’s in love.”
“New Year’s Day” – reputation2017
Do you think I could make a list of love songs and not include a piece with lyrics like “Don’t read the last page / But I stay when you’re lost and afraid and far away?” Now one could argue that this is about platonic love, but I still think it’s romantic. The song has evolved over the years, and is a poignant moment during any Swift performance. But again, her bridge is a standout moment in the song: “Please, never become a stranger / I can recognize his laugh anywhere.”
“Beloved” — Lover2019
the Lover The afternoon was full of love. The album and era remains one of Swift’s most divisive — remember when everyone was debating whether or not she could be happy and write music? But we’re real, sorry, hipster girls know that the album is one of Swift’s best.
The titular track’s bridge is among the most swoon-worthy moments on the album. The lyrics are literally vows, and they’re gorgeous: “Ladies and gentlemen, will you please stand up? / With every guitar string scar on my hand / I take this magnetic force of a man as my darling / My heart was borrowed and yours was blue / All’s well that ends well that ends up with you.”
The final line of the bridge is still the most authentic: “Swear to be dramatic and true with my love.”
“Daylight” – Lover2019
This is the climax of Swift’s love song. “Daylight” became the signature song of Lover era, and it is more than deserved. It’s a dreamy, roughly five-minute song about finally finding the person who feels like daylight. The most romantic words? The whole song. One of the most powerful moments in the song, especially for long-time fans, is the callback to it red The album is about how true love was filled with anxiety and fighting for the love you want. It’s a more mature look at what love is: “I once thought love would be burning red/But it’s golden/Like daylight.”
“Cornelia Street” — Lover2019
last LoverA jewel of the era, “Cornelia Street” has become one of Swift’s most popular songs. Cornelia Street, the West Village street where she lived briefly in New York, has become a place of pilgrimage for fans. In the song, the singer recounts the early days of his romance, wishing it would never end. The lyrics make it easy to see why it’s one of her most romantic songs: “You hold my hand in the street / Take me back to that apartment / Years ago, we were inside / Barefoot in the kitchen / Sacred new beginnings / This has become my religion.”
“Peace” – Folklore2020
The penultimate track on the flagship Swift Folklore“Peace” explores what it means to commit to someone, to promise to always love them, but to teach them that it may be enough for now. It’s both romantic and heartbreaking, but it’s Swift at her best and most introspective. In the song, Swift yearns for her love to want her back, and all that comes with that: “All these people think love’s for show / But I’d die for you in secret / The devil’s in the details, but you got a friend in me / Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?”
“Invisible chain” – Folklore2020
This is in the same vein with “Mary’s Hymn.” FolkloreThe -era track explores the idea that two people can be linked for life. Unlike the first era track, “Invisible String” introduces the idea that despite never meeting, Swift and her love have always had an invisible string connecting each other – do a search for red string theory if you’re interested in knowing… For more. It’s another dreamy and gorgeous track. Some notable lyrics include “One thread of gold / Tie me to you” and “Hell was the ride, but it brought me heaven.”
“All the girls I’ve loved before” – LoverOTAC, 2023
This previously excluded track was meant to be on Lover The album but ultimately didn’t make the cut – it was released before the Eras tour. It’s a unique take on a love song, as Swift spends the song thanking the women her partner dated before her, who made him the person she fell in love with. It also explores some of her past loves (“Crying in the bathroom for some dude/I can’t remember his name now)” but the idea that these two past loves led them to each other earns it a spot on this list.
“When Emma Falls in Love (From the Cellar)” – Speak Now (Taylor Version)2023
Everyone says “Thank you Emma Stone!” The Basement Track, a series of previously unreleased songs that Swift released when re-recording her masters, chronicles the way Swift’s boyfriend falls in love. Swift spends the song singing about the perfect way Emma falls in love, and eventually admits it’s her. The final verse of the song is where he really shines: “Emma met a boy with eyes like a man / Turns out her heart fit in the palm of his hand / Now he’ll be her refuge when it rains / Little does he know that his whole world is about to change.”
“Immortal (From the Crypt)” – Speak Now (Taylor Version)2023
last Speak nowThe “Timeless”-era basement track showcases Swift’s distinct storytelling and songwriting style. Swift has historically enjoyed thinking about her love through the lens of the past, and this song does that perfectly. “Hundreds of years ago, they fell in love, just like we did,” she sings in the introductory chorus. “And I would die for you the same way if I saw your face for the first time.”
“Alchemy” — Section of tortured poets2024
And now, the Kelce era. What many believe is her first song about her soon-to-be husband, this Section of tortured poets The track was a ray of hope in an album filled with heartbreak. After the dark days of heartbreak, I found love and it’s a piece of truth. There are plenty of not-so-subtle references to her beau throughout, but the bridge is Swift’s pinnacle: “T-shirts come off and your friends lift you over their heads / Beer sticks to the floor, cheers go up ’cause they said / ‘There was no chance of trying to be the greatest in the league’ / Where’s the trophy? It came running towards me.”
“Very high school” – Tortured Poets Section: Selections2024
“So High School” is another track from her soon-to-be husband. It’s not her most inspiring song, but it’s sweet and sweet. She’s in love, and feels like she’s been transported to a time when we weren’t all so jaded by the reality of adult love. Plus, nothing beats this Kelsey reference: “Truth, dare, spin the bottles / You know how to ball, I know Aristotle.”
“Wi$h Li$t” — The life of a showgirl2025
This is the perfect song to end this list. Swift has been through the highs and lows of the media and industry, achieved almost everything an artist could find, and has finally found what she’s always wanted – her thing. That’s evident in several other songs on this list where she thought she’d found it before, but it was nothing compared to her gift (“I thought I was right, once or twice, but I didn’t/You surprised me”).
“I just want you / To have two kids, and make the whole building look like you / We ask the world to leave us alone, and they do, wow,” she sings in the chorus. “You got me dreaming of a driveway with a basketball hoop / Boss, settle down, I got a wish list / I just want you.”
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