Everyone Taylor Swift May Have Written a Song About (and What They've said About It) 

Look what they made her do! See the people who have inspired the singer-songwriter's lyrics, and how they've responded

Since the beginning of her career, Taylor Swift has drawn inspiration from the people in her life.

Swift, who was recently inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, became the biggest pop star in the world, due in part to her diaristic lyrics, in which she writes candidly about former relationships, adversaries, friendships and family. With every new project, fans flock to analyze every song's lyrics to gain insight into her headspace and personal life.

"It's not like I have this secret that I write songs about people. It's kind of who I am, and it's been very, very broadcasted," Swift — who has rarely confirmed the inspiration behind her lyrics — told the BBC in 2014. But some of the subjects have been flattered to be included (just ask Travis Kelce and Selena Gomez!) and have confirmed that connection.

See all the muses said to be behind Swift's expansive discography — and how some of them responded.

01 of 19

Joe Jonas

Seventeen magazine asked Joe Jonas in 2009 what he thought about Swift's song about their breakup, "Forever & Always." He answered, "It's flattering. It's always nice to hear their side of the story."

Years later, when Swift re-recorded her sophomore album Fearless, she included a previously unreleased song, "Mr. Perfectly Fine." Jonas's then-wife Sophie Turner shared the song on her Instagram Stories with the caption, "It's not NOT a bop."

02 of 19

Andrea and Scott Swift

On Fearless, Swift penned a sweet tribute to her parents, "The Best Day." Andrea recalled first hearing the song on Christmas Eve, admitting to NBC News, "I've lost it pretty much every time I've heard that song since."

In the song "Soon You'll Get Better," off her seventh album Lover, Swift opened up about coping with her parents' cancer diagnoses.

She explained on a YouTube Live prior to the album's release, "It was a family decision to even put on the album, and I think songs like that that are really hard for you to write emotionally, maybe they’re hard to write and hard to sing because they’re really true."

03 of 19

John Mayer

Asked how he felt about the song "Dear John" on Swift's third album Speak Now, John Mayer told Rolling Stone, “It made me feel terrible, because I didn’t deserve it. I’m pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.”

He added that he never received a heads-up about the song's release, and he felt "humiliated" while at a low point in his life.

04 of 19

Taylor Lautner

Taylor Lautner's Scream Queens costar Lea Michele asked the Twilight actor, "Didn’t [Swift] write a song about you?" The Twilight actor confirmed "Back to December" was about their relationship.

05 of 19

Kanye West

Swift has revisited her decade-long feud with Kanye West in multiple songs over the years — first in a song absolving him of blame for his famous interruption on the VMAs stage ("Thirty-two and still growing up now / Who you are is not what you did / You're still an innocent" in "Innocent" on Speak Now) — then escalating to scorched Earth-level lyrics on Reputation after a leaked phone call blew things up. Most famously, in the music video to her single "Look What You Made Me Do," she quoted a line from her 2016 statement regarding West calling her a "bitch" in his song "Famous": "I would like to be excluded from this narrative."

West hasn't addressed the songs — though he has publicly gone back and forth about whether he actually wants to apologize — but his now-ex-wife Kim Kardashian said in 2019 they'd "all moved on."

06 of 19

Jake Gyllenhaal

Despite Swifties' assumption that many songs off Red and its 2022 re-recording are about her former flame Jake Gyllenhaal, the actor has tried to distance himself from any connection to the music.

"It has nothing to do with me," he told Esquire. "It is her expression. Artists tap into personal experiences for inspiration, and I don’t begrudge anyone that.”

07 of 19

Ethel and Robert F. Kennedy

In the liner notes of Red, Swift dedicated "Starlight" to Ethel Kennedy, whose romance with Robert F. Kennedy inspired the song's lyrics. "I met Bobby on the boardwalk, summer of '45," she sings in the opening verse.

08 of 19

Harry Styles

Swifties speculated that many songs off Swift's 1989 were about her romance with One Direction's Harry Styles. (One clue: the references to "paper airplanes" and "your necklace hanging from my neck" in "Out of the Woods" seemed to refer to a paper airplane pendant he wore at the time. Oh, and that one song is called "Style.")

The "Watermelon Sugar" singer doesn't mind, explaining that "everyone" writes from a personal experience. "She really good, so they’re good songs, " he added. "I’m really lucky in that sense."

09 of 19

Katy Perry

Years after "Bad Blood" was rumored to be about Katy Perry and Swift's feud, Perry confirmed on James Corden's Late Late Show that "there is a situation."

"Honestly, it's really like she started it and it's time for her to finish it," said the Teenage Dream singer. They made amends on screen when Perry had a cameo in the music video for Swift's "You Need to Calm Down."

10 of 19

Joe Alwyn

Swift's ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn served as her muse for more than five studio albums, from Reputation to Midnights (with speculation that some of the songs from The Tortured Poets Department are about their split). Throughout their relationship, Alwyn never minded being the subject for her songs "at all," he told The Sunday Times.

"It's flattering," he added.

11 of 19

Scooter Braun

Scooter Braun, who purchased Swift's masters in 2019 through a deal with Scott Borchetta's Big Machine Records, is rumored to be the subject of songs like "Vigilante S—" and "Karma."

During an interview on the Question Everything podcast, Braun said, "I never thought [the song] was about us. … Everyone else kind of feeding into the fire? Great strategy move."

12 of 19

Rebekah Harkness

In her Folklore song "The Last Great American Dynasty," Swift told the story of '90s socialite Rebekah Harkness, the previous owner of the singer's Rhode Island house.

13 of 19

Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez, one of Swift's longtime best friends, confirmed on her husband Benny Blanco's podcast Friends Keep Secrets that the Evermore song "Dorothea" was about her. She also revealed that a decade ago, Swift penned a song about their friendship, "Family."

"Without quoting, it is basically saying you have these amazing dreams. You want to be in a movie, in every crowd I see you," Gomez said.

14 of 19

Marjorie Finlay

She paid homage to her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay, in the eponymous Evermore track. Ahead of the album's release, she shared that one song stars her grandma, "who still visits me sometimes … if only in my dreams."

15 of 19

Travis Kelce

Her fiancé Travis Kelce has inspired several love songs since they started dating in 2023, from The Tortured Poets Department's "So High School" to The Life of a Showgirl's "The Fate of Ophelia." On "The Alchemy," she cheekily references football in the lyrics ("So when I touch down, call the amateurs and cut 'em from the team").

After Swift seemed to allude to Kelce's manhood in her song "Wood," his brother Jason playfully pressed him for a reaction. Playing innocent, he replied, "I love that girl, so what do you mean? Any song that she would reference me in that way…"

16 of 19

Clara Bow and Stevie Nicks

On the closing track of The Tortured Poets Department, Swift names silent film actress Clara Bow and Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks as part a lineage of entertainers that the industry is always looking to replicate in a younger star.

17 of 19

Kim Kardashian

Swift pointedly alluded to West's ex-wife Kim Kardashian in the title of her song "thanK you aIMee," with the capitalized letters spelling out the reality star's name.

Kim herself didn't respond, but a source told PEOPLE after the release of The Tortured Poets Department that she “doesn’t get why [Swift] keeps harping on it. It’s been literally years.”

18 of 19

Charli xcx

Her song "Actually Romantic" was interpreted by listeners as a response to Charli xcx's 2024 Brat track "Sympathy Is a Knife," speculated to be about her insecurities while around Swift.

In the Amazon Music introduction to "Actually Romantic," Swift explained that it's "a song about realizing that someone else has kind of had a one-sided, adversarial relationship with you that you didn’t know about."

Charli declined to comment on the situation to Vanity Fair shortly after Showgirl's release.

19 of 19

Matty Healy

Swift and The 1975 frontman Matty Healy didn't date for long, but it was long enough to make a big impression and (reportedly) inspire quite a few of the songs on The Tortured Poets Department — in particular, the lead song, which references his preferred writing instrument (a typewriter, of course) and mutual friends Lucy Dacus and Jack Antonoff. There are also a few songs hinting to fan criticism of their relationship, like "But Daddy I Love Him," as well as what appear to be observations about his inability to grow up, like "Peter."

"I haven't really listened to that much of it, but I'm sure it's good," Healy told photographers after the album dropped — then later joked onstage about his poetry prowess.

Read the full article here