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skyline of New York at night
skyline of New York at night
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Culture

Unpacking All of Taylor Swift’s New York City Lyric References

Ellie Brown
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at NYU chapter.

With the announcement of Taylor Swift’s new album “The Tortured Poets Department ” and rising curiosity surrounding much of the tracklist, it’s a good time to take a look back at the many references to New York City sprinkled into her discography. Swift is no stranger to rooting her music in specific places—this much is clear from the tracklist of “The Tortured Poets Department” alone, with titles like “So Long, London” and “Florida!!!” New York City has been a recurring theme in Swift’s work for over a decade. It’s clear that the city holds a lot of meaning as her home and a marker of pivotal moments in her life. From oldest to newest, let’s deep dive into New York’s place in the Taylor Swift universe as the city grows from a distant dream to a first love until it eventually becomes an old haunt.

“Speak now (taylor’s version)”
  • Mean: “Someday I’ll be living in a big ole’ city, and all you’re ever gonna be is mean.”
    • Perhaps this is a bit of a stretch as it doesn’t explicitly mention New York, but it seems feasible to assume that the “big ole’ city” she sings about could be NYC. This defiant banjo classic sets the city up as the dream of a lifetime and a triumphant trophy after overcoming a tough critic.
  • When Emma Falls In Love: “Well, she’s so New York when she’s in LA.”
    • This “Speak Now” vault track uses New York as a description of the protagonist’s, Emma’s, personality. It’s a sweet, romantic picture of the kind of girl that Swift wished she could be. Fans have speculated that the song is about Emma Stone, a good friend of Swift, but, like all the best songs, we’ll never know for sure.
“red (taylor’s version)”
  • Holy Ground: “Back to a first-glance feeling on New York time, back when you fit my poems like a perfect rhyme.”
    • “Holy Ground” is a fan-favorite song with an iconic New York reference. With an up-tempo drumbeat and tongue-twister lyrics, it perfectly captures the speed and chaos of the city as Swift reminisces on an old love story. Swift performed this acoustically as a surprise song at the Eras Tour this past summer at one of her MetLife shows in East Rutherford, NJ, paying homage to the city across the river.
  • Come Back… Be Here: “I guess you’re in New York today, I don’t wanna need you this way.”
    • “Come Back… Be Here” is a pining guitar-based ballad about a budding love cut short by distance. New York and London are the two cities the song shifts back and forth between. This song drops some hints that have left fans theorizing about Harry Styles, but it stands on its own as an incredibly written country ballad without the speculation into her personal life.
  • The Lucky One: “They say you bought a bunch of land somewhere, chose the rose garden over Madison Square.”
    • “The Lucky One” tells the story of a celebrity who runs away from fame, choosing life with a quiet garden instead of life in New York City. Swift compares the initial love affair with newfound fame with the negative impacts of a loss of privacy as she reflects on her journey alongside the mysterious “Lucky One” she sings about. It sounds like old money and mystery.
“1989 (taylor’s version)”
  • Welcome To New York: “Welcome to New York, it’s been waiting for you”
    • Though this album is largely associated with New York thematically, there is only one clear reference to the city to be found. This reference comes in the form of the boisterous and iconic “Welcome to New York,” an ode to New York’s magic and Swift’s new found joy after moving to the city in her mid-twenties. “Welcome to New York” is arguably the most famous Swift song focused on the city. It is the exuberant, classic anthem of college freshmen, tourists and new transplants alike. The song has become a certified NYC anthem, right alongside Jay-Z, Alicia Keys and Frank Sinatra, it’s blasted in pedicabs everywhere.
“reputation”
  • Delicate: “Dive bar on the East Side, where you at?”

“Reputation” holds one brief reference to the East Village in the tender fifth track, “Delicate.” The rumored dive bar mentioned in the song is Lovers of Today, located on Seventh Street. Coincidentally, this dive bar was recommended to HCNYU by Alana Hadid in our interview with the model last September. It’s an intimate bar where, according to Hadid, “You’ll always see fun, cool people.”

“lover”
  • False God: “I’m New York City, I still do it for you, babe.”
    • New York City features prominently in the landscape of Swift’s seventh album, “Lover.” She becomes the city itself in the saxophone-centered sensual track “False God,” conveying all of her allure and power in a single sentence. 
  • Daylight: “Back and forth from New York, sneaking in your bed.”
    • “Daylight” is a hopeful love song proclaiming love to be “golden.” The reference to New York here is used as a way to root the relationship she writes about in a specific location, calling forward a specific memory to make it feel alive. Her time spent running “back and forth from New York” will be forever preserved in song.
  • Cornelia Street: “I’ll never walk Cornelia Street again.”
    • Another fan favorite, this intimate glimpse of a relationship that has survived hardships, references Swift’s old apartment on Cornelia Street, which she rented in 2016. Swift expresses a fear of losing something good in this song, calling back to tangible moments in the old apartment (“barefoot in the kitchen, sacred new beginnings” and “windows swung right open, autumn air, jacket around my shoulders is yours”) as a way to remember the way that love felt when she lived on Cornelia Street.
“folklore”
  • Hoax: “You know I left a part of me back in New York, you knew the hero died, so what’s the movie for?”
    • The closing track of “folklore” speaks of New York as a thing of the past, alluding to a lingering pain and a loss that took place in the city that Swift won’t be able to get back. Its haunting, breathy vocals are accompanied by a lullaby-like piano melody. The narrator of this story sounds jaded and wounded as if coming away from a battle.
  • Cardigan: “Your heartbeat on the highline, once in twenty lifetimes.”
    • “Cardigan” is another reflective glance back at young love, and Swift sets the ethereal chorus on New York’s High Line Park. She loads the entire song with faded images, bathed in streetlight, making listeners picture a romantic walk down the High Line, hand-in-hand with an old flame on a summer afternoon.
“evermore”
  • Coney Island: “I’m sitting on a bench in Coney Island wondering, where did my baby go?”
    • The New York landscape in this “evermore” track is decidedly less densely packed and chaotic than the others. Coney Island sounds desolate and windy here–a place for quiet introspection and longing. Swift and Matt Beringer reference “the fast times, the bright lights, the merry go” of the boardwalk from a perspective full of apologies and regret (“Sorry for not winning you an arcade ring”).  
“midnights”
  • Maroon: “And I chose you, the one I was dancing with in New York.”

The most recent reference to New York in Swift’s discography so far comes from “Maroon.” There is a very subtle tragedy revealed in a single word being changed from the beginning of the song to the end: “I chose you, the one I was dancing with in New York,” becomes “I lost you, the one I was dancing with in New York.” It’s a melancholic look back at a once-great relationship with New York at the scene of the crime.

There are many new stories to tell on “The Tortured Poets Department,” and nobody knows which cities Swift will write about next, but hopefully, the New York City skyline will keep making appearances.

Eliana Brown is a writer studying Journalism, English Literature, and Creative Writing at NYU. She is an editor and a staff writer for NYU's chapter of Her Campus. She self publishes a monthly newsletter through Substack and is also a contributing writer for the Washington Square News. With a passion for literature and writing about culture and art, she spends most of her time stressing about her yearly Goodreads challenge and talking about Taylor Swift. More often than not, she can be found at a concert somewhere.