Even before officially dropping her album Midnights, Taylor Swift teased that the track “Lavender Haze” was a love song about her and her boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn. While the couple has purposely kept their romance as private as possible, Swift gave an intimate look inside their relationship with the lyrics of Midnights‘ first track.
She discussed the meaning of “Lavender Haze” ahead of its release, saying in a video shared to her Instagram, “Lavender Haze is track 1 on Midnights,” she started. “I happened upon the phrase ‘lavender haze’ when I was watching Mad Men. I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool. And it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the ’50s where they would describe being in love. If you’re in the ‘lavender haze,’ then that meant you were in that all-encompassing love glow. And I thought that was really beautiful.”
She continued, “I guess, theoretically, when you’re in the ‘lavender haze,’ you’ll do anything to stay there. And not let people bring you down off of that cloud. I think that a lot of people have to deal with this now, not just like ‘public figures,’ because we live in the era of social media, and if the world finds out if you’re in love with somebody they’re going to weigh in on it. Like my relationship for six years we’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it. So this song is about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff.”
Swift explained that the lyrics, “I’ve been under scrutiny (yeah oh yeah) / You handle it beautifully (yeah oh yeah),” are a reference to Alwyn’s careful handling of their relationship in his own interviews. She acknowledged the engagement rumors too with the line, “All they keep asking me (all they keep asking me) / Is if I’m gonna be your bride / The only kind of girl they see (The only kind of girl they see) / Is a one night or a wife.”
Here, all the lyrics with references explained. You can listen to the song below, too:
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Meet me at midnight
Oooh oooh oooh woahStaring at the ceiling with you
Oh you don’t ever say too much
And you don’t really read into
My melancholia
Swift and Alwyn started dating in fall 2016, the summer after Kim Kardashian dropped her Snapchat receipts of Swift and Kanye West’s conversation about “Famous” during the height of Swift and West’s feud. Swift disappeared after that Snapchat conversation was released. She later talked about being canceled to Vogue in 2019. “A mass public shaming, with millions of people saying you are quote-unquote canceled, is a very isolating experience,” she said. “I don’t think there are that many people who can actually understand what it’s like to have millions of people hate you very loudly. When you say someone is canceled, it’s not a TV show. It’s a human being. You’re sending mass amounts of messaging to this person to either shut up, disappear, or it could also be perceived as, Kill yourself.”
“I realized I needed to restructure my life because it felt completely out of control,” she continued. “I knew immediately I needed to make music about it because I knew it was the only way I could survive it. It was the only way I could preserve my mental health and also tell the story of what it’s like to go through something so humiliating.”
I’ve been under scrutiny (yeah oh yeah)
You handle it beautifully (yeah oh yeah)
All this shit is new to me (yeah oh yeah)
Alwyn made a point to dodge questions about Swift throughout their six-year relationship. He told GQ earlier this year that he hoped public interest in them would die off eventually. “I think because the precedent was set—that our choice is to be private and not feed that side of things—the more you do that, hopefully, the more that intrusiveness or intrigue drops off,” he said.
I feel a lavender haze creeping up on me
So real
I’m damned if I do give a damn what people say
No deal
The 1950s shit they want for meI just wanna stay in the lavender haze
Oooh oooh oooh woahAll they keep asking me (all they keep asking me)
Is if I’m gonna be your bride
The only kind of girl they see (The only kind of girl they see)
Is a one night or a wife
Swift and Alwyn sparked engagement rumors earlier this year. Swift has always appeared engagement ring-less while out with Alwyn, while Alwyn himself made it clear that the two have no plans to address their private relationship status in an April WSJ interview. “If I had a pound for every time I think I’ve been told I’ve been engaged, then I’d have a lot of pound coins,” he said then. “I mean, the truth is, if the answer was yes, I wouldn’t say, and if the answer was no, I wouldn’t say.”
I find it dizzying (yeah oh yeah)
They’re bringing up my history (yeah oh yeah)
But you aren’t even listening (yeah oh yeah)
Swift is likely referring to the public discussions of her love life history and other, more public relationships she’s had in the past. In January 2016, Swift discussed “Blank Space” at the Grammy Museum and how she used the media’s portrayal of her love life to create the song. “It got pretty out of control there for a couple of years. … Every article was like, ‘Taylor Swift, standing near some guy—watch out, guy!.’” Swift recalled. “My first reaction was to be like, That’s a bummer. This isn’t fun for me. But then my second reaction ended up being like, Hey, that’s actually a really kind of interesting character they’re writing about. She jet sets around the world, collecting men, and she can get any of them … but she’s so clingy, so they leave and she cries and then she gets another one in her web and she traps them and locks them in her mansion and then she’s crying in her marble bathtub surrounded by pearls. So I was like, I can use this.”
I feel a lavender haze creeping up on me
So real
I’m damned if I do give a damn what people say
No deal
The 1950s shit they want for meI just wanna stay in the lavender haze (Oooh Oooh Oooh Woah)
The lavender haze
Talking, talking, go viral
I just need this love spiralGet it off your chest
Get it off my desk
Talking, talking, go viral
I just need this love spiral
Get it off your chest
Get it off my deskI feel a lavender haze creeping up on me
So real
I’m damned if I do give a damn what people say
No deal
Shit they want for me
I just wanna stay in the lavender hazeOooh oooh oooh woah
Get it off your chest
Get it off my desk
The lavender haze
I just wanna stay
I just wanna stay
In that lavender haze
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
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