THE RUNDOWN
- Taylor Swift has dropped her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl.
- On her track “Cancelled!,” the singer takes aim at cancel culture and criticisms rooted in misogyny.
- She also celebrates friendships forged through shared public scrutiny and “matching scars.”
Taylor Swift has some thoughts about cancel culture in her new track “Cancelled!” from The Life of a Showgirl. Defying public scrutiny and criticism, the singer embraces scandal and the sharp edges of reinvention.
She starts by calling out how quickly criticisms of celebrities can escalate: “You thought that it would be OK, at first / The situation could be saved, of course / But they’d already picked out your grave and hearse / Beware the wrath of masked crusaders.” Her wordplay alludes to the sneering that women often face once they achieve success, asking, “Did you girl-boss too close to the sun? / Did they catch you having far too much fun?”
Swift, who has weathered her fair share of controversies and public feuds over the years, reframes disgrace as glamour in the chorus: “Good thing I like my friends cancelled / I like ’em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal / Like my whiskey sour / And poison thorny flowers.” She finds strength in solidarity, singing that true friends are “the ones with matching scars.”
She later scrutinizes the mentality of online mobs and how public perceptions of celebrities can change with one misstep: “It’s easy to love you when you’re popular / The optics click, everyone prospers / But one single drop, you’re off the roster/ ‘Tone-deaf and hot, let’s fucking off her.’” By the end, she cements her stance, singing, “Can’t you see my infamy loves company / Now they’ve broken you like they’ve broken me / But a shattered glass is a lot more sharp / And now you know exactly who your friends are.”
In “Cancelled!,” Swift doesn’t just critique the critics—she portrays herself as a juggernaut who can emerge from the wreckage, perhaps scathed but, ironically, never actually cancelled.
Read the lyrics below, courtesy of Genius.
[Verse 1]
You thought that it would be okay, at first
The situation could be saved, of course
But they’d already picked out your grave and hearse
Beware the wrath of masked crusaders[Pre-Chorus]
Did you girl-boss too close to the sun?
Did they catch you having far too much fun?
Come with me, when they see us, they’ll run
Something wicked this way comes[Chorus]
Good thing I like my friends cancelled
I like ’em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal
Like my whiskey sour
And poison thorny flowers
Welcome to my underworld
Where it gets quite dark
At least you know exactly who your friends are
They’re the ones with matching scars[Verse 2]
It’s easy to love you when you’re popular
The optics click, everyone prospers
But one single drop, you’re off the roster
“Tone-deaf and hot, let’s fuckin’ off her”[Pre-Chorus]
Did you make a joke only a man could?
Were you just too smug for your own good?
Or bring a tiny violin to a knife fight?
Baby, that all ends tonight[Chorus]
Good thing I like my friends cancelled
I like ’em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal
Like my whiskey sour
And poison thorny flowers
Honey welcome to my underworld
It’ll break your heart
At least you know exactly who your friends are
They’re the ones with matching scars[Bridge]
They stood by me
Before my exoneration
They believed I was innocent
So I’m not here for judgment, no, ooh[Verse 3]
But if you can’t be good, then just be better at it
Everyone’s got bodies in the attic
Or took somebody’s man, we’ll take you by the hand
And soon you’ll learn the art of never getting caught[Chorus]
It’s a good thing I like my friends cancelled
You know that I like ’em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal
I like my whiskey sour
And poison thorny flowers (Ooh)
Yeah, it’s a good thing I like my friends cancelled (Cancelled)
I salute you if you’re much too much to handle
Like my whiskey sour (I like it)
And poison thorny flowers (I love it)
Can’t you see my infamy loves company?
Now they’ve broken you like they’ve broken me
But a shattered glass is a lot more sharp
And now you know exactly who your friends are[Outro]
You know who we are
We’re the ones with matching scars
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.elle.com ’
