Taylor Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department came out yesterday and people are left wondering who she sings about in The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. Here is what we know.
By Gargi Chatterjee
Published on Apr 20, 2024 | 11:08 AM IST| 11K
Taylor Swift
In this Article
- Why do people think the song is about Matty Healy?
- There are other songs that allude to Matty Healy as well
Taylor Swift has a talent for singing about her past relationships and the men she has been with in her songs without actually naming them. Her lyrics always carry hints that can make fans draw their own conclusion. So when her recent album The Tortured Poets Department came out, everyone knew there were going to be songs about Joe Alwyn, who Taylor spent six years with before breaking up, and also about her current partner Travis Kelce.
However, Swift apparently did not forget about her short romance with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy. In one of the songs from the album, titled The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, the pop superstar allegedly eviscerates her relationship with Healy. And “Gazing at me starry-eyed/ In your Jehovah's Witness suit” does seem like a hint.
Why do people think the song is about Matty Healy?
Well Swift has always been a master at leaving hints with her lyrics, and this time it’s no different. One of the first things that made fans think the song was about Healy was the title, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. Fans took this as a hint because Healy once said that everyone else in his band was 6’4 and he was 5’10, which makes people think he is shorter than he is.
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However, the real sign of the song being about Matty was in the first verse which said, “Gazing at me starry-eyed/ In your Jehovah's Witness suit.” Which reminded the listeners about the way Healy dresses which was described as “close-cut suit and a tie,” by the New Yorker.
This is also a popular choice of clothing amongst Jehovah’s Witnesses who dress in a similar way to Healy, even though he is not a Witness himself. She also says, “If rusting my sparkling summer was the goal” in the song which apparently refers to their dating timeline which lasted till the early summer of 2023.
Some other lyrics from the song also seemed to allude to Taylor’s relationship with Matty. When she sings “You tried to buy some pills/ From a friend of friends of mine,” it reminded people of the time Healy spoke out about his experience with drugs and addiction.
The lyrics also inquire, “Were you sent by someone who wanted me dead?” and “Were you writin' a book? Were you a sleeper cell spy?/ In fifty years, will all this be declassified?” which seems to allude to the time Swifties thought that Matty Healy’s controversial history and habits were posing a threat to the popstar’s reputation.
There are other songs that allude to Matty Healy as well
When Swift’s new studio album was announced, people thought the songs would mostly be about her six-year-long relationship with Joe Alwyn which ended last year, and her current loving relationship with Travis Kelce. But people were pleasantly surprised to see that most of the songs seemed to allude towards the singer’s short spring romance with Matty Healy instead.
A lot of the sixteen songs in the album seem to point toward their relationship which was a point of gossip last year. The controversies that came up during the time were also alluded to in the song But Daddy I Love Him.
Other songs such as Guilty as Sin, I Can Fix Him (No I Really Can), loml, and even the title track The Tortured Poets Department which refers to someone as a “tattooed golden retriever” which seems to allude to Healy’s many tattoos. It seems as though a lot of the songs from the album were centered around her short-lived romance with Healy, which now seems to have been much more serious than initially thought.
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ALSO READ:Who Is Florence Welch? Meet The Artist Collaborating With Taylor Swift On The Tortured Poets Department
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About The Author
Gargi has a Masters degree in English Literature from The University of Calcutta. She has been a content writer
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