Taylor Swift has spent almost two decades building a global brand by almost actively encouraging her army of fans to blur the lines of the parasocial – but now it’s for that same reason they’re feeling empowered to revolt about her personal life.
Since her split from ex-boyfriend of six years Joe Alwyn in April, Swifties have been introduced to their new step-dad Matty Healy – her ex Harry Styles is who they affectionately refer to as dad instead – and like what happens with many blended families, the transition has not been smooth.
But this one hasn’t been helped by the fact The 1975 frontman has been previously accused of racism, which Swift appeared to attempt to alleviate with a recent collaboration with rapper Ice Spice, if you believe the rumour mill.
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Add in a new song Swifties believe is about Alwyn, and you’ve got a hot mess in your hands.
Here’s what’s going on between Taylor Swift, Matty Healy, Ice Spice and Joe Alwyn.
What’s going on with Taylor Swift, Ice Spice and Matty Healy?
Buckle up, buttercup.
On May 27 (Australia time), Swift, 33, and 23-year-old rapper Ice Spice surprised the crowd during the first of Swift’s three Eras Tour shows at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, performing their new duet – a remix of Swift’s hit Karma from album Midnights – together.
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It’s not unusual for Swift to bring out special guests on-stage – she did it all throughout her Reputation Stadium Tour and 1989 World Tour – but the timing of this, and the Karma remix’s release in general, has fans scratching their heads.
Ice Spice’s feature on Swift’s Karma remix is notably the first time a Black woman has appeared on one of Swift’s songs, a fact that’s bittersweet considering what Healy said about the rapper earlier this year.
In a February podcast episode of The Adam Friedland Show, which has since been pulled from Apple and Spotify after backlash, Healy, who is a white man, was heard laughing at racially-charged jokes made by hosts Adam Friedland and Nick Mullen about Ice Spice’s ethnicity (she is Dominican and Nigerian).
Healy also appeared to encourage both Friedland and Mullen when they imitated Hawaiian and Chinese accents, and also laughed later when they imitated Japanese accents.
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“I never meant to hurt anybody,” Healy later said in apology while performing on-stage on April 19 in Auckland, New Zealand.
“I’m sorry if I’ve offended you and, like, Ice Spice, I’m sorry. It’s not because I’m annoyed that me joking got misconstrued, it’s cause I don’t want Ice Spice to think I’m a d–k. I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry. I don’t want anything to be misconstrued as mean. I don’t mind being a bit of a joker … but I don’t want to be perceived as, like, kind of mean-hearted.”
On April 8 – which also happens to be Healy’s birthday – it was announced that Swift and Alwyn had broken up. Healy had stayed silent on the Ice Spice controversy until April 19, and on May 3, The Sun reported Swift and Healy were dating.
The duo had been photographed multiple times together in the weeks following The Sun‘s story, with Healy seen at many of Swift’s shows, but they had not commented on the controversy and mounting criticism of the relationship flooding social media – until May 25, if you believe fans’ speculation, with many taking Swift’s Karma remix announcement as a “calculated PR move”.
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“I don’t believe that Matty Healy is a demon conservative,” Swiftie Brooke Giles, 27, told NBC News.
“And she [Swift] is not commenting on it. Instead, she’s finding more ways again to profit off of controversy,” Giles claimed.
“I don’t think she’s a terrible, awful person,” Giles said. “I always like to think that is pretty well-established. But I do think that she’s very careless in her privilege.”
“i love taylor swift as much as the next swiftie but this is such an interesting PR move,” another Twitter user claimed.
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Some fans have speculated that Swift and Ice Spice’s collaboration has been in the works for longer than the controversy, but echo disappointment that Swift has not publicly addressed it.
Ice Spice, meanwhile, said in a January 25 interview with Elle that she was a fan of The 1975. She’s not publicly responded to Healy’s comments made in February.
What Taylor Swift has said about her collaboration with Ice Spice
In an audio clip shared by streaming service Spotify on May 27, Swift said her collaboration with Ice Spice was “one of the most natural things.”
“She reached out through her team, just kind of saying, ‘Hey, Ice has been a big fan of Taylor’s since she was a little kid, would love to collaborate if that was ever something that came about,'” Swift says in the clip.
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“I had been listening to her nonstop – like getting ready for my tour, I was just listening to Ice Spice constantly. So I immediately got her number and said, ‘Hey, would you wanna do your version of Karma? Do you relate to this?’ She jumped in headfirst,” Swift continued.
When she announced the collaboration on Instagram, Swift wrote of Ice Spice, whose real name is Isis Gaston: “I’m a massive fan of this brilliant artist and after getting to know her I can confirm: she is THE ONE to watch.”
Ice Spice, meanwhile, wrote of Swift on Instagram: “thxx [Swift] for being the coolest person on earth ilu💜.”
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Why Matty Healy is seen as a controversial partner for Taylor Swift
Amid the Ice Spice drama, Swifties have been using the hashtag #SpeakUpNow on social media platforms to share their frustrations over her association with The 1975 frontman.
”Your voice holds tremendous power and right now your silence is palpable,” some fans wrote in an open letter, shared to Twitter, addressed to Swift.
“We urge you to reflect on the impact of your own and your associates’ behaviour and engage in genuine self-reflection.”
Aside from his comments about Ice Spice in the since-deleted February podcast episode, others have resurfaced comments he made in the same episode about masturbation, namely the admission he specifically enjoys porn that sexually degrades and humiliates women of colour.
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Healy also partakes in a running bit on-stage where he starts to say something controversial, before one of his bandmates cuts him off and they begin the song – an example of the bit is when Healy, in January at Leeds at the First Direct Arena, said: “I don’t think it’s a racist thing to say…” before being cut off.
Not long after this, Healy was filmed seemingly giving the Nazi salute on-stage, and also singing, “Thank you, Kanye, very cool.”
Those words are from The 1975’s hit Love It If We Made It, which intends to mock Donald Trump by referencing his tweet to Kanye West.
Fans of The 1975 have defended Healy giving the salute and his behaviour in general, saying the salute was intended as a mockery of Trump and West, and highlighting his past activism and advocacy for issues including racial equality, reproductive rights, and more as proof his controversies are a form of performance art.
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As for the defense of Healy, comedian and activist Franchesca Ramsey tweeted: “my take is a large percentage of Taylor’s audience feels extreme loyalty to her bc of the parasocial relationship she’s cultivated with them throughout her career. showing allegiance to her on social media is a way to feign closeness & a chance at being picked/noticed by her.”
Swift herself was also the subject of one of Healy’s controversial remarks in 2016, where he said, per NME, that dating her would be “too emasculating” for him as she’s too successful.
Neither Healy or Swift have commented on this discourse.
How Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn’s split kicked the controversy off
Prior to her apparent relationship with Healy – though the duo were briefly linked in 2014 – Swift dated actor Joe Alwyn for six years.
The couple started dating in 2016, and were rarely seen together in public – it was only through Swift’s songs that fans got a glimpse into their private relationship.
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Swift dropped her highly-anticipated 10th studio album Midnights in October, and the track Lavender Haze was confirmed to have been inspired by she and Alwyn’s romance – and the lengths the notoriously private couple went to in order to quiet the outside noise.
“I happened on the phrase ‘lavender haze’ when I was watching Mad Men, and 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 just describe being in love,” Swift said on social media at the time.
“If you were in the lavender haze that meant you were in that all-encompassing love glow. I thought that was really beautiful.”
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“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 a lot of people have to deal with this now, not just ‘public figures,’ because we live in the era of social media, and if the world finds out that you’re in love with somebody they’re going to weigh in on it,” she added.
“Like my relationship for six years, we’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff and we just ignore it. This song is sort of about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff.”
Her 2017 track Gorgeous off the Reputation album was also about Alwyn.
Why fans think Taylor Swift’s new song You’re Losing Me is about Joe Alwyn
Details about Swift and Alwyn’s breakup have been scarce, though fans have noticed a pattern – after sharing a meal with Swift, her high-profile friends, including Ryan Reynolds, Gigi Hadid and Blake Lively, appear to unfollow him.
Alwyn has stayed mum on the matter, though Swift has appeared to address the split in a newly-released track, called You’re Losing Me, in which she sings about feeling sick as a relationship falls apart in front of her.
Swift, in the song, likens herself to a “phoenix always rising from the ashes, mending all her gashes,” and questions if she should stay in the relationship and try to fix it, or give up. She also describes herself as “a pathological people pleaser”.
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”Do I throw out everything we built or keep it? / I’m getting tired,” she sings.
Other lyrics include the repetition of, “Stop, you’re losing me”, before she sings: ”I can’t find a pulse / My heart won’t start anymore for you / ’cause you’re losing me.”
She also sings: ”Now you’re running down the hallway / And you know what they all say, ‘You don’t know what you got until it’s gone.'”
Swift also sings in the song that she “wouldn’t marry [her] either”, with some fans drawing comparisons to the constant speculation that Swift and Alwyn had tied the knot over the course of their relationship.
Once again, fans have gone into absolute meltdown on Twitter, comparing the lyrics to Swift’s past songs that were confirmed to have been about Alwyn.
Though Swift, as usual, has not confirmed who the song is about. All we can do is speculate.
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