She’s Taylor Swift, of course she’s going to savagely shade her ex-boyfriend upon the release of an epic new album.
On Sunday, February 4, the pop star announced the name of her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, as well as its release date of April 19, while accepting her award for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2024 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Calif.
“I want to say thank you to the members of the Recording Academy for voting this way, but I know that the way that the Recording Academy voted is a direct reflection of the passion of the fans,” Swift said while pointing out the award was her 13th Grammy, reminding viewers this is her “lucky number.” “So I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I’ve been keeping from you for the last two years, which is that my brand new album comes out on April 19,” she revealed.
It didn’t take long for someone to resurface a 2022 interview of the “Love Story” singer’s ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn, where he revealed he and pals Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott have a group chat named “The Tortured Man Club.” He’s just on it by himself,” Mescal quipped during the interview with Variety, while Alwyn – who dated Swift for six years before news broke of their split last year – joked: “Just messaging himself good mornings.”
Swift’s speech further fueled fans’ speculation, as she emphasized the album was “two years” in the making – seemingly around the time things potentially took a turn for the worse in her relationship with Alwyn. Upon sharing the album’s cover image with her 280 million Instagram followers, Swift – whose album Midnights won Album of the Year later in the evening – additionally uploaded a handwritten note, which likely encrypted “Easter egg” clues for her admirers.
