Everything Taylor Swift Seemingly Reveals About Her Relationship with Matty Healy on Tortured Poets Department

Taylor Swift and The 1975 frontman Matty Healy dated in the spring of 2023

By Rachel DeSantis Published on April 19, 2024 12:16AM EDT

Taylor Swift doesn’t kiss and tell — but the lyrics of her new album The Tortured Poets Department may offer fans some insight into her relationship with Matty Healy.

On Tortured Poets, which came out April 19, Swift chronicles various stages of love, from the excitement of new romance to the devastating end of a relationship that had forever potential.

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Everything Taylor Swift Seemingly Reveals About Her Relationship with Matty Healy on Tortured Poets Department
Taylor Swift and The 1975 frontman Matty Healy dated in the spring of 2023

By Rachel DeSantis Published on April 19, 2024 12:16AM EDT
Taylor Swift attends the 65th GRAMMY Awards on February 05, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for The Recording Academy) ; Matty Healy attends The Royal Academy of Arts summer preview party at Royal Academy of Arts on June 15, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Marsland/WireImage)
Taylor Swift and Matty Healy. PHOTO: NEILSON BARNARD/GETTY; MIKE MARSLAND/WIREIMAGE
Taylor Swift doesn’t kiss and tell — but the lyrics of her new album The Tortured Poets Department may offer fans some insight into her relationship with Matty Healy.

On Tortured Poets, which came out April 19, Swift chronicles various stages of love, from the excitement of new romance to the devastating end of a relationship that had forever potential.

While the Grammy winner, 34, doesn’t name-check The 1975 frontman, a number of songs on the record seem to reference the star, whom Swift dated for several months in the spring of 2023, nearly a decade after they first sparked romance rumors.

On “Guilty as Sin?” Swift — who dated actor Joe Alwyn for six years before their breakup went public in April 2023 — sings about having strong romantic feelings and “fatal fantasies” for someone from her past while in a relationship with someone else.

The song contains several overt references to Healy; in the opening line, Swift sings about the object of her affections sending her the 1989 synth-pop song “The Downtown Lights” by the Scottish band The Blue Nile.

Healy, 35, has called The Blue Nile his “favorite band of all time,” and has said in multiple interviews that The 1975’s song “Love It If We Made It” was inspired by “The Downtown Lights.”

Love If We Made It’ is based on a song by the Blue Nile called ‘Downtown Lights.’ That’s another one where I wanted to reference that song; I didn’t want to hide away from referencing it,” Healy told Entertainment Weekly in 2018. “I wanted it to be f—ing obvious to people that know.”

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Everything Taylor Swift Seemingly Reveals About Her Relationship with Matty Healy on Tortured Poets Department
Taylor Swift and The 1975 frontman Matty Healy dated in the spring of 2023

By Rachel DeSantis Published on April 19, 2024 12:16AM EDT
Taylor Swift attends the 65th GRAMMY Awards on February 05, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for The Recording Academy) ; Matty Healy attends The Royal Academy of Arts summer preview party at Royal Academy of Arts on June 15, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Marsland/WireImage)
Taylor Swift and Matty Healy. PHOTO: NEILSON BARNARD/GETTY; MIKE MARSLAND/WIREIMAGE
Taylor Swift doesn’t kiss and tell — but the lyrics of her new album The Tortured Poets Department may offer fans some insight into her relationship with Matty Healy.

On Tortured Poets, which came out April 19, Swift chronicles various stages of love, from the excitement of new romance to the devastating end of a relationship that had forever potential.

While the Grammy winner, 34, doesn’t name-check The 1975 frontman, a number of songs on the record seem to reference the star, whom Swift dated for several months in the spring of 2023, nearly a decade after they first sparked romance rumors.

On “Guilty as Sin?” Swift — who dated actor Joe Alwyn for six years before their breakup went public in April 2023 — sings about having strong romantic feelings and “fatal fantasies” for someone from her past while in a relationship with someone else.

The song contains several overt references to Healy; in the opening line, Swift sings about the object of her affections sending her the 1989 synth-pop song “The Downtown Lights” by the Scottish band The Blue Nile.

Healy, 35, has called The Blue Nile his “favorite band of all time,” and has said in multiple interviews that The 1975’s song “Love It If We Made It” was inspired by “The Downtown Lights.”

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“‘Love If We Made It’ is based on a song by the Blue Nile called ‘Downtown Lights.’ That’s another one where I wanted to reference that song; I didn’t want to hide away from referencing it,” Healy told Entertainment Weekly in 2018. “I wanted it to be f—ing obvious to people that know.”

Later, on “The Black Dog,” Swift shouts out another favorite band of Healy’s in the pop-punk group The Starting Line. The 1975 covered the band’s 2002 song “The Best of Me” in concert in April and May 2023, days before Swift and Healy were first seen holding hands. “The Best of Me” tells the story of two lovers who spent time apart, but eventually found their way back to one another after “missing each other too much to have had to let go.”

“I just don’t understand how you don’t miss me / In The Black Dog when someone plays The Starting Line / And you jump up, but she’s too young / To know this song / That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming,” Swift sings.