Music
Fans Think Taylor Swift May Have Namedropped Her Next Collaborators
Her TIME interview may include Easter eggs.
Nothing is off-limits when it comes to Swifties’ investigation tactics — even Taylor Swift’s Time Person of the Year interview. Fans have been looking closely at the cover story in search of the singer’s infamous Easter eggs, and some fans think they’ve uncovered some clues about her upcoming “Taylor’s Version” albums.
According to a viral TikTok theory, Swift may have subtly revealed the artists who may be featured on her next projects, name-dropping them in stories that are significant to her career. The evidence? This is an Easter egg tactic that she’s apparently used before to hint at her collaborators.
Who May Be Featured
Fans think Kelly Clarkson, Kenny Chesney, and Paul McCartney may be collaborating with Swift on one of her next projects. After releasing 1989 (TV) in October, Swift has only two albums left to re-record, her 2006 self-titled debut and 2017’s Reputation. With the exception of 1989, all of her “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings have included featured artists.
Swift starts the interview by recalling how she was scheduled to open for Chesney at 17 years old, but after a beer company joined as a sponsor, she could no longer go on tour due to her age. But at her 18th birthday party, Chesney’s promoter handed her a card from the country singer.
“I’m sorry that you couldn’t come on the tour, so I wanted to make it up to you,” he wrote. Inside, there was a check “for more money than I’d ever seen in my life,” as Swift stated. “I was able to pay my band bonuses,” she said. “I was able to pay for my tour buses. I was able to fuel my dreams.”
She then named Clarkson as a huge motivator in her decision to re-record her first six albums to regain her masters. “I’d run into Kelly Clarkson and she would go, ‘Just redo it,’” she recalled. “My dad kept saying it to me too. I’d look at them and go, ‘How can I possibly do that?’”
The interview ends with Swift showing off the note from McCartney that she had framed in her bathroom, which contains the Beatles lyric, “Take these broken wings and learn to fly.”
Swift’s Interview Easter Eggs
The reason why fans think Swift may have subtly dropped the names of her future collaborators is because she’s done exactly this before. Back in 2019, Swift penned an essay for Elle about her connection to pop music and the memories attached to her favorite songs, some of which just happened to be made by artists who would appear on her 2019 album Lover.
“To this day, when I hear ‘Cowboy Take Me Away’ by [The Chicks], I instantly recall the feeling of being twelve years old, sitting in a little wood paneled room in my family home in Pennsylvania,” she wrote. The Chicks lent their famous harmonies to Swift’s somber ballad “Soon You’ll Get Better.”
She pulled the same trick with Panic! At The Disco singer Brendon Urie, who featured on the album’s lead single “ME!” “When I hear ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’ by Panic! At The Disco, I’m transported back to being sixteen and driving down the streets of Hendersonville, Tennessee, with my best friend Abigail, euphorically screaming the lyrics,” she wrote.
However, the difference between Swift’s Time interview and these Easter eggs is that her Elle feature was an essay written entirely by her, rather than a traditional interview with a journalist. This means she had more time to craft those Easter eggs herself, which may not be as easy in a spoken conversation.
That said, never underestimate Swift’s powers and planning abilities.
