The sister album and followup to her summer 2020 hit folklore (also a surprise release) boasted many of the same collaborators (including Joe Alwyn as one “William Bowery”) and themes, plus some surprises. One of the first Easter eggs fans noticed was through Swift’s social media: We know now that whenever the singer says “not a lot going on at the moment” (which is in itself a reference to a T-shirt she wore in the “22” music video), there’s always something big going on. She posted a selfie with the caption in late April, then again Nov. 23, 2020. While folklore combined imaginary and real-life inspired narratives, Swift may have hinted that evermore is predominantly a look back. In a chat with Swifties ahead of the release of “willow,” she quipped, “Dawson’s Creek and The Office have been my quarantine binge shows. Am I stuck in the past? Yup. Am I sorry? Nope.” It’s the “stuck in the past” line we’re paying close attention to. She also noted a change in tone between the sister albums. “I wanted evermore to represent fall & winter while folklore represents spring & summer,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to do a 2part anthology that’s a collective body of work & it just kind of happened naturally.” The aesthetics are a bit different also, but still cohesive, thanks largely to Stella McCartney. “Stella is trustworthy & so creative. I told her I had a secret project & she designed clothes that were EXACTLY what I imagined,” Swift told fans. “I drove to her office, picked them up & took them into the woods!!” Though she always outdoes herself and plans ahead for every era as soon as one begins, Swift admits she isn’t sure what’s after evermore. “I have no idea what will come next. I have no idea about a lot of things these days and so I’ve clung to the one thing that keeps me connected to you all. That thing always has and always will be music,” she tweeted. “And may it continue, evermore.” Here, we break down the rest of the Taylor Swift evermore and “willow” music video Easter eggs track by track.
Taylor Swift evermore Easter eggs and “willow” music video Easter eggs
1. “willow”
On Dec. 4, 2020, a week before the release of “willow” and evermore, Swift namedropped the tree in a tweet celebrating her placement on Rolling Stone’s 50 best albums of 2020 list. Fans also pointed out that a framed picture of a willow tree was visible in her Instagram post saying “not a lot going on at the moment” in November. Swift herself said, “Easter eggs: You’ve seen my co-star in this video somewhere before. One scene represents how I feel about fame. There’s a scene to represent each season throughout the journey of the video.” She added, “Specific songs from folklore actually helped inspire the worlds you’ll see in this video, and I used a narrative plot device from a lyric on folklore to tell the story.” The specific songs, according to Swift: “There’s a scene in the video that represents the song ‘seven,’ one that represents ‘mirrorball,’ one for ’exile,’ and one for ‘mad woman.’” The music video picks up right where “cardigan” left off, with Swift in the attic wearing the titular sweater. She holds a golden string (perhaps a reference to “invisible string” from folklore) and peeks back into her piano. She emerges from the base of a willow tree, wearing a dark-colored dress and no shoes, then gazes into a pond, where she sees a man (played by actor Taeok Lee, who was previously a dancer on her Red tour) next to her in her reflection, perhaps the “mirrorball” reference she mentioned. She dives after him into the water. In the next scene, Swift and her gentleman friend are children playing in a blanket fort, likely the reference to “seven.” In the following scene, she sees him in an auditorium as she’s on a stage with a ukulele, but when she tries to touch his hand, she realizes she’s trapped in a glass box, which likely represents her feelings about fame. She escapes through a trap door in the stage, where we next see her with others wearing dark cloaks in the snow, then performing a coven-like ritual, likely the “mad woman” reference. Her love interest is masked and reveals himself only after she follows the golden thread away. Swifties compared that scene to her hoodie look from “Ready For It”: Fans also made parallels between “cardigan” and “willow” in terms of theme (not just attire). It’s a happy ending, however: The thread leads her back home, where he’s waiting for her as he climbs out of her piano once more, and they hold hands and walk out of their cabin into the sun. Swift told fans in a chat, “‘Willow’ is about intrigue, desire and the complexity that goes into wanting someone. I think it sounds like casting a spell to make someone fall in love with you (an oddly specific visual).” Also fun? Swift uses the lyric “I come back stronger than a 90s trend” as her Twitter bio now. On Dec. 13, 2020, Swift’s 31st birthday, she released a special remix to “willow” that’s more danceable than the original. She tweeted, “Not to be all ‘iTs mY BiRtHdAY & I jUsT wAnNa DaNcE’ but… it is and I do. So here’s the willow dancing witch version, remixed by Elvira, a bad ass female producer I really respect.”
2. “champagne problems”
Swift told fans that “champagne problems” “is not bubbly.” She wasn’t kidding: It’s a song about a man who planned on proposing to his college sweetheart but was heartbroken. Swift co-wrote the track with Alwyn, but seeing as they remain blissfully in love, we doubt this tune is an autobiographical one. It seems, based on “champagne problems” and “betty,” that Swift and Alwyn certainly share a talent for storytelling.
3. “gold rush”
Swift said “gold rush” is collaborator Jack Antonoff’s favorite song on the record, adding, that it “takes place inside a single daydream where you get lost in thought for a minute and then snap out of it.” Swift actually namedrops her folklore album in “gold rush,” which indeed has quite a dreamlike vibe. Fans speculated “gold rush” may have been inspired by Swift’s ex, Harry Styles, who has a song called “Golden” out now…and a reputation as a ladies man.
4. “’tis the damn season”
Swift dropped an Easter egg for “’tis the damn season” in an Instagram story just a day before announcing evermore’s release. It is a really festive ensemble, no? The lyric video for the song features a snowy landscape, and the song tells of a love left behind in the hometown of a would-be star on the rise who’s home for the holidays: “So I’ll go back to LA / And the so-called friends who’ll write books about me / If I ever make it.” It’s a sister song to “dorothea,” who’s the would-be celebrity. A Swiftie from the singer’s hometown confirmed that it actually has the geography she describes: Some fans also speculate that Swift revealed the name of other BFF Gigi Hadid’s baby with “dorothea.” “Y’all hear me out. My best friend just cracked something I guess,” one Swiftie tweeted. “‘August’ is track 8 on folkore and Gigi has posted a picture on Instagram captioning ‘August, waiting for our girl’ and the track 8 of evermore is ‘dorothea’. SO WHAT IF GIGI’S BABY’S NAME IS DOROTHEA?” Could it be a reach? Yes. Could it also be true? Knowing Swift…Also yes.
5. “tolerate it”
Fans speculated that “tolerate it” may be a sister song to “illicit affairs” from folklore: A woman desperately tries to please her man, who can barely eke out a smile for her: “I greet you with a battle hero’s welcome / I take your indiscretions all in good fun.” Swift told fans, “I decided on track 5 because of the lyrics of ’tolerate it’ and how it’s so visual, and conveys such a specific kind of hurt.” Fans speculated that the song may have been inspired by Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s relationship, especially given the contents of Season 4 of The Crown.
6. “no body, no crime” (feat. haim)
“No body, no crime” opens with sirens and the Haim sisters singing, “he did it.” Swift paints a picture of a man cheating on Este Haim but being unable to prove it…and then possibly murdering her and moving in with a mistress. But Swift’s penchant for revenge pays off big time in this country-rock song. Swift, a longtime fan of Law & Order: SVU (she named her cat Olivia Benson!) said it was her fascination with true crime that inspired the tune. “I wrote ’no body, no crime’ by myself,” she told Swifties in her pre-“willow” premiere chat. “It was inspired by my obsession with true crime podcasts/documentaries and I used one of my best friends’ names as the main character…The Haim sisters have been my best friends for years and we’ve played together so many times but this is the first time we’ve done a song together.” Swift also opened up about the collaboration to Entertainment Weekly. “Working with the Haim sisters on ’no body, no crime’ was pretty hilarious because it came about after I wrote a pretty dark murder mystery song and had named the character Este, because she’s the friend I have who would be stoked to be in a song like that. I had finished the song and was nailing down some lyric details and texted her, ‘You’re not going to understand this text for a few days but…which chain restaurant do you like best?’ and I named a few,” she recalled. “She chose Olive Garden and a few days later I sent her the song and asked if they would sing on it. It was an immediate ‘YES.’ Long story short, I’m the 4th Haim sister now, confirmed.”
7. “happiness”
“Happiness” is a bittersweet song about looking for hope of a better day while in the earliest, most painful throes of a broken heart, and there are few things Swift writes better than a breakup song. Swifties ate this one up! Swift told her fans that the title of “happiness” is “deceptive” and that it was the last song she wrote for the album, finishing it just a week before evermore’s release. Fans noticed she may have referenced The Great Gatsby, which she also referenced in “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” from Reputation. She previously sang in folklore’s “the 1,” “Roaring 20s / Dropping pennies in the pool.”
8. “dorothea”
Swift said in an essay that “dorothea” was about a woman who left her small hometown to “chase her Hollywood dreams,” and hinted that “’tis the damn season” was about Dorothea coming back to her hometown for the holidays to see an old flame she left behind. Also interesting? She sings of the titular character “selling dreams, selling makeup in magazines” and Swift herself was the face of CoverGirl. Swift told her fans there’s a connection, if not explicit, between “dorothea” and folklore: “There’s not a direct continuation of the betty/james/august storyline, but in my mind Dorothea went to the same school as Betty James and Inez.” Swifties also speculated with particular fervor that “dorothea” is about Swift’s real-life BFF Selena Gomez, based on the fact that Gomez is the face of her Rare Beauty brand, has celebrity friends, played a character named Dot in The Fundamentals of Caring, had a toxic relationship with Justin Bieber and her favorite movie is The Wizard of Oz, among other things.
9. “coney island” (feat. The National)
“Coney island” features The National, and singer Matt Berninger loved working with Swift, tweeting, “Singing a song with @taylorswift13 is like dancing with Gene Kelly. She made me look good and didn’t drop me once. ‘coney island’ is an incredibly beautiful song she and @aaron_dessner wrote together. It really made me miss Brooklyn. Such a blast being a part of evermore.” Alwyn is a co-writer on the track, and fans believe its tracklisting may be deliberate: The song has a “delicate” reference and speaks of forgetting to say someone’s name while speaking at a podium and for generally just not loving them enough. Swift thanked then-boyfriend Calvin Harris publicly during the 2016 iHeart Radio Awards, but he never returned the favor. Could this be written from his perspective?
10. “ivy”
Fans noticed that not only did Swift leave Easter eggs about “willow,” but also “ivy” with her artwork. Swifties also kept speculating that the singer got married thanks to the lyrics of “ivy,” though the song is likely simply one of the doomed marriage narratives she wrote about in her essay upon the release of evermore.
11. “cowboy like me”
Marcus Mumford sings background on “cowboy like me.” Swifties previously noticed that Swift was in his studio in November. Swift said she has a song about two con artists in love, and this is very explicitly that song: Leaving the skeletons in their closets behind to pursue something that may well be dangerous.
12. “long story short”
The most clearly autobiographical song on evermore may be “long story short,” in which Swift describes how she “fell from the pedestal” and had a “bad time.” The song references her feuds (“your nemeses will defeat themselves before you get a chance to swing”) and meeting Alwyn when she felt she was at her lowest and calling back to “peace” from folklore. She also mentions rebounding with “the wrong guy.” Poor Tom Hiddleston. The best part is the happy ending, of course: “Long story short / I survived.”
13. “marjorie”
On folklore, track 13 was “epiphany,” part of which was inspired by Swift’s grandfather who fought in World War II. “Marjorie” is her grandmother’s name. You can see their resemblance, too! Marjorie Finlay was an opera singer. The song is a moving tribute to Finlay, whose vocals are actually featured in the background, and the lyric video is a beautiful montage of Finlay’s life both before and after becoming the grandmother to one of the biggest stars on the planet. It’s not the first time Swift has honored her grandmother’s memory: In her 2015 “Wildest Dreams” video, Swift donned a brunette wig as “Marjorie Finn.”
14. “closure”
In what likely references the fallout over her masters, Swift sings, “Don’t treat me like some situation that needs to be handled / I’m fine with my spite, my tears and my beers and my candles.” It could also be about one of her exes from across the pond: “Reaching out across the sea that you put between you and me.”
15. “evermore”
The title track is a duet with Bon Iver, and its vibe is similar to that of “exile” from folklore: A forlorn duet between two parties as a relationship ends. However, it echoes back to “happiness” with some hope at the end: “This pain wouldn’t be for evermore.” Alwyn, as William Bowery, plays piano on the song. Fans noticed a callback to “willow” on the last track.
16. “right where you left me”
In “right where you left me,” Swift sings of being stuck in the same place after people around her (and a paramour) moved on with their lives. Swifties have speculated that it’s written from the perspective of the slain woman from “no body no crime” or even Swift’s longtime BFF Abigail.
17. “it’s time to go”
In “it’s time to go,” Swift takes the opposite route of “right where you left me,” in which the narrator points out the benefits of moving forward, be it in the form of a divorce or leaving a thankless job. Some Swifties think she’s singing about her onetime BFF Karlie Kloss in the lines “When the words of a sister / Come back in a whisper / That prove she was not / In fact what she seemed / Not the twin from your dreams / But a crook who was caught.” Their reasoning? Kloss and Swift were inseparable and even had matching haircuts during Swift’s 1989 era, but Swift didn’t attend Kloss’ wedding celebrations…and Swift’s nemesis, Scooter Braun, did. Swift may also hint at her animosity toward Braun as well as her broken relationship with former Big Machine Records exec Scott Borchetta, singing, “Fifteen years / fifteen million tears / begging til my knees bled / I gave it my all / He gave me nothing at all / Then wondered why I left / Now he sits on his throne / In his palace of bones / Praying to his greed / He’s got my past / Frozen behind glass / But I’ve got me.” Borchetta famously sold Swift’s masters of her first six albums to Braun, who worked with Kanye West. Next, check out all of the Taylor Swift folklore Easter eggs you may have missed!
