10 Songs Taylor Swift Has Written About Her Boyfriend Joe Alwyn

Taylor Swift was in a relationship with actor Joe Alwyn starting in 2016. Alwyn is best known for his supporting roles in several highly regarded films, such as The Favourite, Boy Erased, and Harriet. His most recent film, Kinds of Kindness, co-starring Emma Stone, debuted in May 2024. Alwyn has also become a songwriter, having worked with Taylor Swift on her albums folklore and evermore.

Given how long he dated Taylor Swift, Joe Alwyn became the subject of many popular songs. This is no surprise, as Taylor Swift has a long history of writing songs about her boyfriends, both past and present.

While Swift rarely confirms who her songs are about, fans have speculated that she has written songs about many of her famous ex-boyfriends, including John Mayer, Jake Gyllenhaal, Harry Styles, and Calvin Harris. Alwyn can now be added to this list. But because of how long the two were together, there is no one Swift has written more songs about than Alwyn.

Here are 14 songs that Taylor Swift has written about Joe Alwyn.

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Updated May 2024: Taylor Swift and her current boyfriend, Travis Kelce are jet-setting the world together while Swift is on tour. Given how happy Swift seemingly is with Kelce, it would not be unheard of for her to be penning songs about him while on the road, which would add to the songs, "The Alchemy" and "So High School" Swift wrote about Kelce on "The Tortured Poets Department."

14 "...Ready For It?"

Album: reputation

"...Ready For It?" was the second single from Taylor Swift's sixth studio album reputation, and it is the first song of hers that is clearly about Joe Alwyn.

Many fans presumed that reputation was going to be an angry and vengeful record – heavily focused on her reputation in the media and her various celebrity feuds – but it was actually far more focused on Alwyn. A few of the songs on the album are about her so-called “reputation” – as the title would suggest – but the vast majority of the tracks are love songs, like "...Ready For It?"

13 "Gorgeous"

Album: reputation

“Gorgeous” came out shortly after “...Ready For It?”, and it is also clearly about Joe Alwyn. Taylor describes his “ocean blue eyes” and his accent (“I got drunk and made fun of the way you talk”), and she makes it clear that the song is autobiographical with references to her cats and her past relationships with Calvin Harris and Tom Hiddleston (“I got a boyfriend, he’s older than us”).

12 "End Game"

Album: reputation

On this song from reputation, Taylor Swift collaborated with Ed Sheehan and Future, and all three artists wrote verses about the loves in their lives.

In Taylor’s verse, she describes Joe Alwyn’s body as “gold” (a color she frequently associates with Alwyn in her music) and she also references her “red lips”, which is a recurring motif that she uses to describe herself.

11 "Lover"

Album: Lover

While reputation was mostly about Joe Alwyn, Swift’s next album, Lover was entirely about him. He is the titular “lover” after all. “Lover” opens with the lyric, “We could leave the Christmas lights up 'til January”.

This harkens back to the final song on reputation, “New Year’s Day”, which is all about cleaning up the decorations after a New Year’s Eve party. In “New Year’s Day”, Swift begs Alwyn not to “read the last page” of their relationship, and her song “Lover” is clearly the next chapter.

10 "Paper Rings"

Album: Lover

“Paper Rings” is clearly one of the most autobiographical tracks on Lover.

Swift sings about the story of her relationship with Alwyn, from the very beginning to when the song was released.

One particularly memorable line is, “In the winter, in the icy outdoor pool, When you jumped in first, I went in too.” It is both a metaphor for their relationship and a reference to a true story.

Another noteworthy lyric is when Swift mentions "painting your brother’s wall”. Many Taylor Swift fans would be quick to tell you that she has become quite good friends with Joe’s little brother Patrick.

9 "London Boy"

Album: Lover

Joe Alwyn is, of course, the titular “London Boy” that Swift sings about in this song.

However, some people might find it a little strange that she refers to Alwyn as her “London Boy”, because her previous boyfriend, Tom Hiddleston, is also from London.

8 "Cornelia Street"

Album: Lover

While “London Boy” is all about Swift and Alwyn spending time together in his hometown, this song about their relationship takes place stateside.

Taylor Swift used to live on Cornelia Street in New York City when she first started dating Alwyn, and in this song she sings about how difficult it would be to ever walk down Cornelia Street again if the two of them were to break up.

7 "Invisible String"

Album: folklore

“invisible strong” is the eleventh track on Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album folklore. folklore includes far fewer autobiographical songs than any of Swift’s previous albums, but there are still a couple of tracks that seem to be about her relationship with Alwyn, and “Invisible String” is one of them.

Swift makes it very clear the song is about her and Alwyn’s relationship when she sings the line “Bad was the blood of the song in the cab, On your first trip to LA”, referencing the fact that Joe Alwyn listened to her song “Bad Blood” before he even met her.

6 "Peace"

Album: folklore

In an interview with Paul McCartney for Rolling Stone, Swift mentioned that the song “peace” was one of the more autobiographical songs on the album.

In the chorus she sings “you got a friend in me”, which calls back to an earlier song she wrote about Alwyn called “It’s Nice to Have a Friend”.

She also references her friendship with his little brother Patrick once again, singing “I see your brother as my brother”.

5 "Gold Rush"

Album: evermore

As with her eighth studio album folklore, very few of the songs on Taylor Swift’s ninth studio album evermore are about her own life. However, the third track on evermore, titled “Gold Rush”, is certainly about Joe Alwyn.

Swift frequently uses the color gold to refer to Joe, and she also frequently sings about how Alwyn’s good looks make her nervous that too many other girls want him. In this song, she uses the phrase “gold rush” to describe her fear that “everybody wants you”, with the word “you” referring to Joe, of course.