Entertainment

Does Taylor Swift's "...Ready For It?" Have Anything To Do With Tom Hiddleston?

by Michelle Regalado
Kevin Winter/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

On Saturday, Taylor Swift followed up her first, super-buzzy single “Look What You Made Me Do,” with the much more upbeat track, “...Ready For It?” The second song from her Reputation album is fun, flirty, and clearly about someone special — so, considering Swift often writes songs about the men she was one with, many fans may be wondering: Is Swift’s "...Ready For It?" about her ex, Tom Hiddleston?

Swift released the surprise track early on Sunday, September 3, the morning after first teasing the song during Saturday night’s Alabama vs. Florida State football game. And whether you loved “LWYMD” or not, there’s one thing we can all agree on: this song is definitely lighter than her first Reputation single and even has some old-school Swift vibes.

Instead of calling out her well-publicized feuds or critics, "...Ready For It?" seems to capture the excitement and passion surrounding a new love. The anthemic chorus is particularly reminiscent of the old Swift, with easy, romantic lyrics that sound not unlike the 1989 track, “Wildest Dreams”: "In the middle of the night, in my dreams / You should see the things we do, baby/In the middle of the night, in my dreams/ I know I'm gonna be with you,” which are then followed up by the catch post-chorus, “Baby, let the games begin / Let the games begin.”

But though the chorus may be vintage Swift, don’t count on having the old Taylor back just yet (after all, she’s dead). The rest of the song is a bit tougher, with the singer essentially rapping lyrics like:

Well he was a killer
First time that I saw him
How many girls he had loved and left
Haunted
But if he's a ghost then
I can be a phantom
Holding him for ransom

And:

Welcome to this Taylor
Every love I've known in comparison is a failure
I forget their names now
I'm so very tame now
I'll never be the same now

So the question remains: Who could this song be about? Some were quick to suggest that the track could be about Swift’s ex, Hiddleston, who she dated briefly last summer (remember the infamous “I Heart T.S.” shirt?). Fans seemed to come to this conclusion mostly because of the breezy-sounding bridge, which seems to imply a summer fling: “I-I-I see how this is gonna go / Touch me and you'll never be alone /I-Island breeze, lights down low /No one has to know.”

The “island breeze” lyric also seems to imply travels, which everybody knows Swift and Hiddleston did a lot of. After first getting photographed together in Rhode Island, they met up all across the globe, moving from England to Sydney to The Golf Coast.

So is "...Ready For It?" really about Swift’s romance with Hiddleston? Sorry Hiddleswift shippers, but the answer is probably no. It seems more likely that the new track is actually about Swift’s current beau, actor Joe Alwyn.

Why? Well, the public has been keeping a really low profile so far, so we don’t know too much about their relationship. But "...Ready For It?" has one important lyric thats seems to pinpoint Alwyn as its subject: “Younger than my exes but he act like such a man so.”

Alwyn is just 26 years old. Meanwhile, Swift’s prior two boyfriends, Calvin Harris and Tom Hiddleston, are 33 and 36, respectively.

There you have it, folks. It looks like Swift will be dishing on both her haters and her new love on Reputation — so get ready!