Who Is Taylor Swift's New Single "Fortnight" About? It's Set in the Future

Taylor Swift's "Tortured Poet Departments" is very personal, but "Fortnight" is more about the future.

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Updated April 19 2024, 10:45 a.m. ET

Taylor Swift performing at the Eras Tour in Singapore.
Source: Getty Images

There are few artists more willing to make their personal lives the subject of their music than Taylor Swift. Taylor has become one of the biggest musical artists in the word in part by airing her dirty laundry, and her latest album, "The Tortured Poets Department," (TTPD) certainly spends plenty of time airing that laundry.

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Swifties have a habit of looking through every lyric on a given album to figure out who the songwriter might be talking about. Sometimes, it's pretty easy to tell. Sometimes, as is the case with the album's opener "Fornight," the subject of the song is a little more obscure. Here's what we know about who the song is about.

Spotify's 'Tortured Poets Department' pop-up at the Grove in Los Angeles.
Source: Getty Images
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Who is Taylor Swift's "Fortnight" from "TTPD" about?

Unlike many of the songs on the album, which focus on looking back at Taylor's relationships with both Matty Healy and Joe Alwyn, "Fortnight" is actually set in the future. It imagines a world in which Taylor and one of her exes have both settled down with other people. Here, Taylor is actually married.

"And for a fortnight there we were, forever running to you / Sometimes ask about the weather / Now you’re in my backyard turned into good neighbors / Your wife waters flowers. I wanna kill her," the lyrics say in part.

Most fans have speculated that the song is about the lingering feelings that Taylor still has for Joe, even though both of them have moved on with their lives.

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There aren't many concrete clues about who the song could be about, but the song more generally is about looking back on a past love and feeling some lingering regret, even though you've both moved on.

Taylor also spends some time imagining that her future husband will leave her unsatisfied and ultimately cheat on her. The song leaves Taylor in a place of longing, imagining what it would mean to rekindle the romance.

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"I’m calling you, but you won’t be called? / Another fortnight lost in America / Going to Florida by the car you won / But it won’t start up till you touch, touch, touch me," the song concludes.

It isn't clear whether this is meant to reflect on any current relationship or is more speculative and in line with songs on albums like "Folklore."

Taylor was excited to work on the song with Post Malone.

Although "Fortnight" seems to be pretty personal to Taylor's experience, it also features backing vocals throughout from Post Malone.

“I’ve been such a huge fan of Post because of the writer he is, his musical experimentation, and those melodies he creates that just stick in your head forever,” she wrote on Instagram. “I got to witness that magic come to life firsthand when we worked together on 'Fortnight.'”

While "Fortnight" is relatively obscure, many of the songs are more explicitly about a specific person. In some ways, "TTPD" may be Taylor's most personal album yet.

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