Sugarland Just Dropped A Break-Up Song With Taylor Swift & I Wonder Who Tay Was Thinking Of When She Wrote It

As she conquers the world of pop music (and pop culture in general), sometimes it’s easy to forget Taylor Swift’s beginnings as a country singer writing uber personal, emotional songs about being brokenhearted.

But Taylor recently went back to her roots on country duo Sugarland’s new song “Babe.”

Very different than what we’ve been used to hearing from Swift lately, no? She sings backup vocals in the chorus as Jennifer Nettles takes the lead, weaving a dreary picture of a love lost. The song was reportedly supposed to appear on Swift’s 2012 album Red, a fan favorite. After “Babe” was cut from the album, she offered the song—which she wrote along with Pat Monahan from Train—to Sugarland.

“She was excited that we were getting back together. She said, ‘Hey, I have a song…’ and we said ‘Yep!’” Nettles said backstage at the 2018 Academy of Country Music Awards.

Fans have been rejoicing Swift’s return to country. The song is currently at #5 on the iTunes charts, and although diehard Swifties have supported her no matter what genre of music she makes, some are particularly happy to see her go back to the genre that brought her into the spotlight.

Now that fans know Swift wrote the song during the Red era, speculation has arisen on which ex the autobiographical singer wrote the song about. Taylor Lautner? Jake Gyllenhaal? Someone we don’t know about? Whoever it’s about, the song certainly sounds like she’s never going back again: “Big mistake, broke the sweetest promise/That you never should have made.”

• country music
• entertainment
• new music
• Taylor Swift