We’re used to hearing her sing candidly and openly about her love life, but Taylor Swift’s connection with alcohol has sparked controversy with the release of her new album The Tortured Poets Department last week.
Swift confesses in her current ballad, Fortnight, recorded with Post Malone and largely assumed to be about her romance with 1975 frontman Matty Healy, ‘I was meant to be taken away, but they forgot to fetch me/ I was a functioning alcoholic/ ‘Til nobody noticed my new aesthetic.’
So, forget the hunk on her arm; how about the drink in her hand?
Swift has been spotted with a cool beverage in her hand in recent months, whether she is watching NFL tight end boyfriend Travis Kelce, 34, play his way to the Super Bowl, at home with BFF Brittany Mahomes, out with her glossy crew in New York, or at a pop-up bar in Kansas City.
While some may be zero proof, Swift, 34, has made numerous references to alcohol consumption in her work. In Delicate, she adds, ‘We can’t make any commitments right now, sweetie. “But you can make me a drink.” In Death by a Thousand Cuts, she sings, ‘I get drunk, but it’s not enough.’
And in 2019’s Cruel Summer, which is allegedly about the early days of her relationship with Joe Alwyn, she sings: ‘I’m drunk in the back of the car/And I cried like a baby comin’ home from the bar/Said ‘I’m alright,’ but it wasn’t true/I do not want to hide secrets merely to keep you.
In fact, in her previous seven albums, she has recorded no fewer than 40 songs about drinking or getting intoxicated.
However, TTPD appears to be the first time she has identified her drinking as a potential problem.
She stated that she quit drinking in preparation for her massive Eras Tour, which required her to train ‘like a frat boy’ in a training regimen that her trainer reportedly claimed would make most people ‘vomit up’. The arduous tour is set to resume in Paris on May 9 after a two-month vacation, during which she appears to have spent the majority of her time with Kelce.
Rye restaurant in Leawood, Kansas, stated in January that Taylor’s new favorite drink is a French Blonde, a delightful mix of grapefruit, gin, Lillet, and St Germaine served in a coupe, after she spent the night drinking it with Kelce and co.
Last week, lip-reading enthusiast tismejackie took to TikTok to broadcast what she said were conversations between Kelce and Swift at their recent Coachella appearance.
She narrated the loved-up and happy pair as they danced and kissed under the slogan ‘check on your swifties, were [sic] not okay’.
Swift appeared endearingly happy to be so close to the stage at one point, and she supposedly giggled to Kelce, ‘That was the best thing that happened tonight. Sorry, I’m intoxicated.
That was a far cry from when Taylor, then 21, told 60 Minutes: ‘I have drunk, but I’m not a drinker,’ adding that she didn’t like the taste of beer, and when Lesley Stahl asked if she enjoyed wine, she replied: ‘Not really’.
‘I don’t like to drink. I’m not like, “Man, that’s my favorite thing to do,” she explained. “And I don’t drink to get drunk because it’s just not cute.”
Fast forward to last September’s MTV Video Music Awards, and the term ‘Drunk Taylor’ was trending after her energetic appearance in Newark, New Jersey, with fans wondering if booze played a role in her behavior that night as she won almost everything, danced to every song, and fangirled over NSYNC.
Footage showed her sipping drink after drink, and while it’s impossible to tell what was in each cup, she was definitely having a great time and appeared to be in progressively good spirits as the night progressed.