Taylor Swift’s Past Relationship Found References in The Songs Of Her Confessional Album 'Speak Now'

Taylor Swift is conquering the world with her 'Eras Tour' while also re-releasing her previously recorded albums in a fresh 'Taylor's version'. She recently announced the re-release of her 2010 originally released album Speak Now on Instagram. This was Swift’s third album and the songs were largely inspired by "her growth as a person and artist as she entered adulthood." She wrote, “I first made Speak Now, completely self-written, between the ages of 18 and 20. The songs that came from this time in my life were marked by their brutal honesty, unfiltered diaristic confessions, and wild wistfulness. I love this album because it tells a tale of growing up, flailing, flying, and crashing … and living to speak about it. Each song is meant to serve as 'a different confession to a different person'.”

Let us take a look at some of the sources of inspiration for her 'confessional album'. 

Mine

The lead single was specifically written for a crush, the Lavender Haze songstress had told MTV News, per People. She said, "This is a situation where a guy that I just barely knew put his arm around me by the water, and I saw the entire relationship flash before my eyes, almost like a weird science-fiction movie, After I wrote the song, things sort of fell apart, as things so often do. And I hadn't talked to him in a couple of months. And the song came out, and that day, I got an email from him. And I was like, 'Yes!' Because that one was sort of half-confession and half-prediction or projection of what I saw."

Dear John and The Story of Us

Most probably referred to the widely publicized relationship she briefly had with John Mayer. Swift shared with USA Today in 2010 - that “Dear John” and “The Story of Us” are about the same person. "The Story of Us is about running into someone I had been in a relationship with at an awards show, and we were seated a few seats away from each other," she told the publication. "I just wanted to say to him, 'Is this killing you? Because it's killing me.' But I didn't. Because I couldn't. Because we both had these silent shields up.” 

Back to December 

The song refers to the brief romance the Blank Space hitmaker shared with her Valentine’s Day costar Taylor Lautner, from whom she split in December 2009. The Twilight actor had confirmed during a Facebook Live in 2016 that the song was indeed about him "That's what she does. She writes songs," Lautner had replied when his Scream Queens costar Michele probed whether Swift had penned a track about him. "It's called 'Back to December.'" 

Speak Now

Swift revealed to Yahoo! Music in 2010 that this particular track was about her childhood crush. "One of my friends ... the guy she had been in love with since childhood was marrying this other girl and my first inclination was to say, 'Well, are you gonna speak now?' And then I started thinking about what I would do if I was still in love with someone who was marrying someone who they shouldn't be marrying. And so I wrote this song about exactly what my game plan would be."

Enchanted 

In February 2011, Owl City singer Adam Young had confirmed that the lyrics to the song Enchanted were about him - “I’m so tremendously honored that Taylor would write such an elegant song and thereby offer a gracious nod in my direction,” he confessed in February 2011. “Needless to say, I was lost for words and utterly smitten. I couldn’t stop smiling.” Swift explained her inspiration to MTV News that the song came to fruition after meeting a guy in New York City - "I started writing that in the hotel room when I got back because it was just this positive, wistful feeling of 'I hope you understand just how much I loved meeting you.'" 

Last Kiss 

The Bad Blood singer had recalled on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that wrote the song Forever and Always after her breakup with Joe Jonas. Eagle-eyed fans noticed that the words "forever and always" appeared as the hidden message in the Speak Now liner notes for Last Kiss and realized that it was meant for Joe. The Cake by the Ocean singer was later spotted at several Speak Now Tour shows, including in San Jose, California, during which Swift wrote, "After all that we've been through, I know we're cool," inspired by Gwen Stefani's song Cool.