Taylor Swift Hears Your Cries About That Controversial 'Lover' Lyric, OK?

A week before the release of Taylor Swift's seventh studio album, Lover, on August 23, the pop star released the LP's nostalgic and very romantic title track. The song rapidly became a preference among Swifties, however this day, the fandom keeps it up and continues to sound off on Twitter about one particular lyric that suggests we should all be taking our Christmas lights down before January 1. Right now, Swift is issuing up a long-overdue explanation.


"I had toyed with the idea of being like, 'We could have the Christmas lights up 'til April,'" Swift told The New York Times for its "Diary of a Song" series. Nevertheless she stuck with January for good reason — to show that even the dullest parts of a relationship are special any time you're completely in love with the correct person. "It's not about that being a crazy thing," she explained. "It's about how mundane it is. It's about, like, 'we could put a rug over there,' 'we could do wallpaper or we might do paint.'"


If you thought that the final lyric — "We could leave the Christmas lights up 'til January" — was simply failed to notice by the pop star, think again. Swift's songwriting process is a long arduous one, and it also includes "obsessively going over every lyric and making sure that's what I want the final lyric to be." Luckily, a person's eye to detail paid off, and that one song — which Swift wrote herself in the middle of the night — became the track that would define although another era of her 15-year career.


The truth is, Swift habitually wanted to prepare a song that people "who are in love would wish to dance to," and "Lover" definitely fits the bill. Whenever she came up with the chorus, she knew she was on the correct track. "I wanted the chorus to be these really simple existential questions that we ask ourselves as soon as we're in love," she instructed them paper. "'Can I go where you go?' Is such a heavy thing to ask somebody. 'Can we habitually be this close?' Has so much fear in it."


As made clear, Swift's songwriting skills are both mystifying and rare. And once "Lover" was written, she knew it was something special. "Even if anybody has been like, 'I don't think this one's wonderful I would've been like, 'Well, I resist your feedback because I love this one.'" And thank goodness for that.


For more on the making of Taylor Swift's "Lover," how she came up with the wedding-themed bridge, and what instruments were used to prepare the song feel the most authentic, watch the whole video up above.