‘I can do it with a broken heart.’ Taylor Swift fans turn to her lyrics after election
Turns out that Taylor Swift has, in fact, written a song for just about every experience in life ... like when your candidate loses a presidential election.
Swift made headlines when she endorsed Kamala Harris in September following the presidential debate, inspiring scores of her fans — though clearly not all — to jump on the blue train.
So on Wednesday, following Harris’ defeat, they turned to Swift’s lyrics as they publicly sorted out and shared their disappointment, and defiance, on social media.
One Swiftie on TikTok filmed herself slicking on her lipstick, slowly, purposefully, set to the lyrics of Swift’s “Vigilante S—” from her “Midnights” album, a dark tune that reeks of revenge.
More than a few set their thoughts to “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” from “The Tortured Poets Department” album.
Some consoled their fellow Swifties by posting videos from her current Eras Tour, which wraps up next month in Canada.
“Before I go downstairs and have to tell my kids, I’m going to take a moment and be sad with you. Over the past year Swift Tok has become more my safe space, my happy space. And I know that we are all going to need that so much more in the next four years,” one fan posted Wednesday morning.
“So ... today we get to be a mess. Today we get to cry. And then tomorrow, we’re going to pick ourselves back up and we’re going to keep going and we’re going to be strong.
“And we can disappear when we need to in Taylor’s music and the joy and the love that she brings because we are definitely going to need that.”
The Swifties’ postmortem playlist included “The Man,” a song from the “Lover” album that Swift performs during her Eras Tour show. It showed up on many TikToks.
It’s a strong denouncement of sexism and double standards for women. Harris would have been the first woman president of the United States.
I’m so sick of running as fast as I can
Wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man
And I’m so sick of them coming at me again’
‘Cause if I was a man
Then I’d be the man
They also turned to these lyrics from “Only the Young,” a Swift song featured in the 2020 Netflix documentary, “Miss Americana.”
And the big bad man and his big bad clan
Their hands are stained with red
Oh, how quickly, they forget
They aren’t gonna help us
Too busy helping themselves
They aren’t gonna change this
We gotta do it ourselves
They think that it’s over
Only one thing can save us
Only the young
They reached for lines from “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” from “The Tortured Poets Department” — these in particular.
The title of this song, one of the extra 15 tracks on “The Anthology,” part of her dual album release in April, succinctly summed up what some fans were feeling: “I Hate It Here.”
A few fans beseeched the singer to help them through their election grief by releasing the much-anticipated “Reputation (Taylor’s Version).”
“Release it today. It would be perfect timing to just make us feel a little bit better. Come on, man,” begged one fan.
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