Taylor Swift's Department of Tortured Poets it has arrived, and has already sent the world into a frenzy. As fans have guessed, the confessional, and sometimes scathing, record is full of songs seemingly directed at or about Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy, Kim Kardashian and more. But there's another group of people Swift is reaching out to for the first time: her own fans, though not in a way you might expect.
“But Daddy I Love Him” is one of several songs on the album that apparently alludes to Swift and Healy's momentary fling in 2023. But the song isn't so much about him directly as it is about her fan base that strongly protested their relationship. — and Swift has a few harsh words for them.
Swift and Healy's short-lived romance began around May 2023, just a month after she and ex Alwyn publicly called it quits. Tabloids caught the 1975 singer attending Eras tour shows and holding hands with the pop star. By June 2023, they had broken up, with sources telling ET that they “realized they weren't really compatible with each other.” However, they managed to cause a storm of drama that month when the public, and many of her fans, questioned their compatibility and Swift's decision-making skills, airing racist comments she had made about Ice Spice and disparaging her. comments he's also made about Swift in the past. (Healy has since apologized to both.)
“But Daddy I Love Him” is effectively Swift's response to this drama, wrapped in a not-so-subtle metaphor of a woman and a man's illicit relationship that becomes a major scandal in a small town .
The song opens with Swift calling out the many “Sarahs and Hannahs in their Sunday best” who disapproved of her pairing. “Gripping her pearls, sighing 'What a disaster,' she sings. She asserts that their relationship was realand indeed that he was “the only one she wanted,” setting the record straight for anyone who thought their fling was a sham, or just a simple fling.
And despite the subject matter, there's also some cheeky humor on the track. In the chorus, Swift darkly jokes, “I'm having her baby / No, I'm not, but you should see your faces,” perhaps as a jab at Swifties who may care too much about their lives.
But the most scathing message he has for his fans is reserved for the bridge, in which he declares that “I'd rather burn my whole life/ Than listen to one more second of all this moaning and groaning.” Then, for good measure, he shuts down lingering misunderstandings about who alone is in control of his life and his decisions: “I'll tell you something about my good name/ It's only mine to dishonor/ I don't pay attention to all these vipers. dressed in clothes of empathy.” It's his final word on the whole matter, which works like a mic drop.
If that all sounds too harsh, it's worth noting that by the end of the album Healy doesn't escape unscathed either, as Swift skewers him on songs like “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.” But Swift's frustration with her fans and the deep parasocial relationships they've cultivated around her remain valid criticisms. After all, it's a reminder that no one can tell you who you'll date, even if he gives you a hard time.
