Every reference Taylor Swift used to talk about Travis Kelce in her new album

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Taylor Swift has appeared to make a number of references to Travis Kelce on her new album.

Last Friday, Taylor Swift graced her fans with the release of her eleventh studio album, entitled “The Tortured Poets Department”.

The 31-song album is divided into two sections: “The Tortured Poets Department”, including 16 tracks, and “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology”, with the remaining 15. It’s an intense emotional journey in which Swift delves into themes of love, pain and self-discovery.

As a result, the release had an overwhelming impact: Swift broke records on Spotify. Her new album became the most listened to in a single day, with over 200 million streams, surpassing her own record set in 2022.

The lyrics of the songs generated a frenzy on social media, especially among the Swifties, who quickly identified references and drew parallels with the messages between the lines.

One of the biggest surprises of the album was Taylor Swift declaring her love for Travis Kelce in an open and explicit way. Although unexpected, the gesture was met with praise and euphoria from fans.

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Their love is So High School

Travis Kelce is the “guy on the Chiefs”, but he’s also the person to whom Swift dedicates ‘So High School’. This song treats their relationship with each other as if it were a teenage school romance.

“I feel so high school every time I look at you
I wanna find you in a crowd just to hide from you”

The first sentence already hints that the song will be about love and the tight end. When she uses the term “crowds”, she’s referring to the fact that they’re almost always seen in the presence of thousands of people, like at Kansas City Chiefs games or at The Eras Tour concerts, possibly referring to the typical Hollywood stereotype of an American couple.

“Cheeks pink in the TwinKling lighTS
Tell me ’bout the first time you saw me”

This part only makes it crystal clear that Kelce is the person behind the track because in the lyric video, she highlights the initials of the two of them in pink.

“Are you gonna marry, kiss or kill me? (kill me)
It’s just a game, but really (really)
I’m bettin’ on all three for us two (all three)

Anyone who’s a die-hard Taylor Swift fan will know that she always stuffs her lyrics with easter eggs so that her listeners can work out what real-life event she’s talking about.

Here, the singer recalls the day the player took part in the game ‘Marry, Kiss or Kill?’, posted by AfterBuzz TV in 2016. She was included as one of the options he had to choose between, along with Ariana Grande and Katy Perry.

“Get my car door, isn’t that sweet? (that sweet)
Then pull me to thе backseat (the backseat)
No onе’s ever had me (had me), not like you”

The backstory of this excerpt concerns the time the couple appeared together for the SNL Afterparty show in October 2023. Kelce opened the car door and gently and calmly waited for his girlfriend to get out and the two walked hand in hand into the event.

“Truth, dare, spin bottles
You know how to ball, I know Aristotle
Brand new, full throttle”

This is perhaps one of the funniest parts of the album. Although she doesn’t mention Travis by name, she basically says that he knows about playing American football and she understands philosophy.

Afterwards, she uses the expression “full throttle”, which her boyfriend quoted during an interview with People magazine, when he claimed that his life is too fast-paced. “It doesn’t feel like there’s much chill in my life. Everything seems to be full throttle and just moving at the speed of light, and that’s how I kind of like it.”

“You knew what you wanted and, boy, you got her
Brand new, full throttle
You already know, babe”

Before they started dating, he went to Swift’s concert at Arrowhead Stadium and tried to give her a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it. His attempted approach became public when he mentioned it on an episode of his New Heights podcast.

It’s no coincidence that the last line of the song closes her love letter to the NFL player with a flourish. Apparently “You already know” is a phrase that Kelce says God knows how many times a day. In an interview with Tom Kludt for Vanity Fair, the author mentions this as a fun fact: “Spend a day with Kelce, and you will hear that phrase anywhere from 30 to 300 times. Contexts of its usage may vary wildly.”

The Alchemy between TK and TS is undeniable

The concept behind alchemy, of turning metals into gold, is her metaphoric way of showing that she has reconnected with herself in her relationship with Kelce. So the name of the song is ‘The Alchemy’.

“So when I touch down
Call the amateurs and cut ’em from the team
Ditch the clowns, get the crown
Baby, I’m the one to beat
‘Cause the sign on your heart
Said it’s still reserved for me
Honestly, who are we to fight thе alchemy?“

The chorus of the song is very clear, starting with the use of ‘touch down’. She goes on singing about the dominance of the Chiefs, who have won two Super Bowls in a row.

Then she makes a reference to the ‘crown’, which can cause a double interpretation with the SB trophy and/or her being the tight end’s trophy.

“I circled you on a map
I haven’t come around in so long
But I’m coming back so strong”

Here she jokes about ‘putting Travis Kelce on the map’, because when their romance became official, the american footballer’s jerseys exploded in sales. He and his brother Jason Kelce even played around with this gag at New Heights.

“These blokes warm the benches
We’ve been on a winning streak“

In this line, you can picture Joe Alwyn, the singer’s British ex-boyfriend (the reason for the term ‘bloke’), on the bench because the winner was always Travis.

The continuation goes back to KC’s winning streak at the time Swift started coming to the games. Of the 13 matches (her lucky number) she attended, the Chiefs won 10.

“Shirts off and your friends lift you up over their heads
Beer stickin’ to the floor, cheers chanted ’cause they said
There was no chance trying to be the greatest in the league
Where’s the trophy? He just comes runnin’ over to me”

During this passage, she evokes the image of the franchise’s post-game celebrations.

Finally, she relives the scene of their kiss when he won the Super Bowl and goes towards her to celebrate.

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