Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, is officially here, which means today is the day we all talk about who or what she is referencing in her lyrics, as mandated by law. “Wood” seems to be about Travis Kelce (and good for him!). Fans think “Actually Romantic” is about Swift’s newish nemesis-ish Charli XCX. Back when the track list was released, fans confidently assumed “Ruin the Friendship” would be about Blake Lively — thanks to Swift being pulled into Lively’s ongoing legal drama with Justin Baldoni — but it’s about kissing a boy who is also your friend. Anyway, exactly who is “CANCELLED!” about? Maybe this one actually is about Blake Lively.
“CANCELLED!” is one of the most confusing songs on Swift’s album, as I personally thought that Swift did not like when public figures such as herself got “canceled.” But in the Max Martin–produced chorus, she clearly states, “Good thing I like my friends cancelled / I like them cloaked in Gucci and scandal.” Oh! In the bridge, she proclaims her loyalty to her canceled friends, singing, “They stood by me / Before my exoneration / They believed I was innocent / So I’m not here for judgment.”
Who could she be referencing? Let’s discuss.
Brittany Mahomes
Mahomes, wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, has been a regular member of Swift’s squad since Swift got together with Chiefs tight end Kelce in 2023. During the 2024 presidential election, Mahomes was lightly canceled for liking posts about Donald Trump’s agenda on Instagram. Swift, meanwhile, endorsed Kamala Harris, but she has remained friendly with Mahomes and even showed up to her 30th-birthday girls’ trip to Nashville in August. Mahomes is also known to wear Gucci, as Swift references in the song.
Blake Lively
Lively was one of Swift’s oldest and most publicly supportive friends before she sued Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment at the end of last year. Since then, the nature of Swift and Lively’s friendship has been unclear: Does Swift support Lively in her quest for justice, or is she annoyed that she has been name-checked in court several times as Lively and Baldoni go back and forth about what happened on the set of It Ends With Us? According to the tabloids, Swift and Lively’s friendship has been badly damaged if not destroyed entirely. But perhaps “CANCELLED!” is Swift’s way of telling the public that she actually supports Lively despite the backlash. I don’t know — I think Lively would probably prefer that she just put out a statement on Instagram or something instead.
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Karlie Kloss
Kloss was famously Swift’s best friend until the two had a mysterious falling-out around the time Kloss married Josh Kushner in 2018. Kloss has not been canceled, exactly, but in 2020, a contestant on Project Runway pointed out that she is friendly with her husband’s MAGA family in a way that was surely embarrassing. Does Swift feel bad about that? If she’s sympathetic to Mahomes, anything is possible.
Lena Dunham
Everyone seems to forget this, but Swift was a bridesmaid in Dunham’s 2021 wedding to Luis Ferber. The gals have been close friends for years, as Dunham has weathered what I consider to be a disproportionate amount of media criticism. Swift’s lyric “I salute you if you’re too much to handle” could be a direct reference to Dunham’s new Netflix show starring Meg Stalter called Too Much. Why not!
Katy Perry
Okay, so we know that Swift and Perry were major nemeses ca. 2015 and that Swift’s mean-girl anthem “Bad Blood” is about how Perry is a snake, etc., etc. But Swift and Perry have since made up, and they even posed for a selfie together at the Eras Tour last summer. And then, this summer, Perry got kind of canceled for going to space for two minutes with Lauren Sánchez Bezos. I mean, tell me Swift did not write “Did you girlboss too close to the sun?” about her, specifically. Right? Right?!
