Back in 2019, we had a notable debate on this blog about Selena Gomez’s then-new album, which she said was mostly about Justin Bieber. Justin and Selena were on-and-off for years, until they were finally done for good and Justin went and married Hailey Baldwin. Hailey and Justin had been married for a year by the time Selena put out that album, and in interviews at the time, Selena spoke about how she hoped that Justin would listen to the album. I found the whole thing unhealthy and uncomfortable, especially given that Selena was still trying to get her married ex to pay attention to her.
Well, I was reminded of that situation because Selena’s friend Taylor Swift has also devoted an album to an ex. An ex who has moved on and is currently dating someone else. Taylor is dating someone else as well, which is looking more and more like an ill-fated rebound after Matt Healy rocked her world. While Taylor has not said that she hopes Healy listens to The Tortured Poets Department, she did devote a whole-ass album about the racist guy she banged for several months before he ghosted her. All of which to say, Healy hasn’t listened to it.
Matty Healy, the lead singer of The 1975, has shared his initial thoughts after the release of Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department. After being approached by paparazzi in Los Angeles Wednesday, April 24 and asked how he’d “rate” his “Taylor diss track” as compared to others, Healy, 35, asked, “My diss track? Oh!” then laughed and replied, “I haven’t really listened to that much of it, but I’m sure it’s good.”
Healy is a presumed frequent topic on Swift’s new double album, though he’s not explicitly mentioned by name.
Over the weekend, Healy’s aunt Debbie Dedes had said she didn’t think the musician would be bothered by the songs. “She writes about all her relationships, doesn’t she? I don’t think it will come as a shock to him at all,” Dedes told The Daily Mail of her nephew. “He’s very happy in his new relationship so I’m sure he will be focusing on that.”
(Healy has been dating model and Instagram chef Gabbriette Bechtel since September 2023.)
Healy is also presumably the subject of the album’s titular track “The Tortured Poets Department,” when Swift sings about her lover bringing his typewriter to her apartment to evoke the vibes of legendary poets like Dylan Thomas.
“You left your typewriter at my apartment / Straight from the Tortured Poets Department / I think some things I never say / Like, ‘Who uses typewriters anyway?’” she sings.
Matt Healy really said: I ain’t reading all that, I’m happy for u tho or sorry that happened. What’s even funnier, to me, is that before TTPD was released, the Swifties were convinced that the album was mostly about Joe Alwyn and they were fully prepared to make Joe’s life hell. Now that they can see that the album is mostly about Healy, it’s taken the wind out of their sails because they already had such a low opinion of him. Like, I’m not even sure the Swifties care enough to yell at him for breaking Taylor’s heart.
Matty Healy admits he hasn't listened to all of Taylor Swift's new album 'The Tortured Poets Department' but is "sure it's good." pic.twitter.com/pKNaSwaYRA
— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) April 24, 2024
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.
-
- West Hollywood, – 51592489 Singer Taylor Swift is seen leaving a studio before heading over to Fred Segal to do some shopping in West Hollywood, California on November 22, 2014. The superstar singer has reportedly moved on from ex Joe Alwyn with 1975 frontman Matt Healy. In 2014 a then 25 year old Healy gave an interview to Shazam Top 20 where he talked about meeting Swift who at the time was dating DJ Calvin Harris, “I met Taylor Swift, that was really nice,” the British rocker told host Angus O’Loughlin. “We exchanged numbers. Let’s see what happens. I mean bloody hell, what am I going to do? Go out with Taylor Swift? She’s a sensation, I wouldn’t say no.” Pictured: Taylor Swift BACKGRID USA 4 MAY 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: FameFlynet / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- New York, NY – Taylor Swift and her boyfriend Matthew Healy leave Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Pictured: Taylor Swift, Matthew Healy BACKGRID USA 15 MAY 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- New York, NY – Taylor Swift and her boyfriend Matthew Healy leave Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Pictured: Taylor Swift, Matthew Healy BACKGRID USA 15 MAY 2023 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- New York, NY – Taylor Swift and beau Matthew Healy exit Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Pictured: Taylor Swift, Matty Healy BACKGRID USA 15 MAY 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: BlayzenPhotos / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- New York, NY – Taylor Swift and beau Matthew Healy exit Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Pictured: Taylor Swift, Matty Healy BACKGRID USA 15 MAY 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: BlayzenPhotos / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- New York, NY – Taylor Swift and beau Matthew Healy exit Electric Lady Studios in New York City. Pictured: Taylor Swift, Matty Healy BACKGRID USA 15 MAY 2023 BYLINE MUST READ: BlayzenPhotos / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
-
- BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend at Camperdown Park. Featuring: Matty Healey, The 1975 Where: Dundee, United Kingdom When: 27 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend at Camperdown Park. Featuring: Matty Healey, The 1975 Where: Dundee, United Kingdom When: 27 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend at Camperdown Park. Featuring: Matty Healey, The 1975 Where: Dundee, United Kingdom When: 27 May 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
I call bullshit! He definitely listened to it all. How could anyone resist if you heard 95% of an album was about you? He’s just playing it cool and unbothered.
100% agree @holz Matty has sooooo listened to it. That pap encounter was true acting (not very good) on his part.
I think we can all agree relationships in your 20s and 30s often are not ending with a perfect bow/clean break. I can’t imagine what doing that in the public eye would be like but some celebrities are def better at it than others. Taylor and Matty are definitely not in that category lots of public messy relationship stuff.
He’s soooooo unattractive, and greasy and small.
And she was into it/him… all of him: the stink, the smallness AND the racism.
Looking back: Calvin into Tom into Joe into Matt into Travis… I dated a lot before, and after, my decade-long marriage, AND I took breaks between the serious relationships: reflected, therapy, time with myself and my friends in ways that may have been lacking… I’m so curious about her relational patterns.
@ Looper I was wondering about her relationship patterns too. Is she a serial monogamist or are there longer breaks than we realize because she doesn’t publicize breakups until a new man is in the wings? It’s hard to tell, but ever since Calvin Harris it has seemed that she doesn’t break up until she has a jump off waiting in a Getaway Car. Or at the most she takes very short breaks before finding someone new.
@It Really Is You, Not Me, She sounds like a “monkey brancher” to me.
Well.. he is the Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. (See what I did there?)
‘I ain’t reading all that’ 😄😄😄
I wish they’d cover how Taylor’s horrible outfit at the Grammy’s is now being discussed as a good fashion choice because she’s supposedly referencing different poets style from the past. There’s a way to make vintage inspired clothes look good, and then there’s Taylor’s outfit.
Am I the only one who read the headline as “Taylor Swift’s PTSD?”
Because it’s starting to feel like she wants us to see her albums as such.
Me too Enis, every time I see the album name! Happy I am in good company!
Some swifties are still trying. I saw some comments about Joe’s possible drug use. They are trying to make the Matty songs about Joe, because they can’t attack the guy about being depressed and they spent months saying to people that she didn’t even date Matty (even on this blog).
I tried listening to it last night and got bored. Maybe Matty Healy ran into the same problem.
Same, Matty, same. It’s hard to get through that long of an album that sounds like Midnights castoffs.
Matty Healy has 100% listened to this entire album. His ego wouldn’t let him do otherwise. Someone said he should probably text Taylor “u up?” on Friday night because she seems so far from over him lol. But career Taylor probably can’t let herself actually go for round 2 with a sleazy bigot.
I’d love to know what Travis makes of all this. Is he worried he’s going to get the “Joe who?” treatment or dissected in a Taylor post-mortem a la “the smallest man in the world”? He definitely had to get the message this relationship only progresses if he puts a ring on it in soon (but not too soon because Taylor doesn’t want to seem like she’s rushing it). Taylor doesn’t want anymore shit talking her under the table about rings and cradles ;P
I’m not a Swifty or anti-TS, it’s not my style of music, but enjoy her stuff when it’s on and I’m in the mood for it (driving, exercising). I think it’s interesting that Matt seems to be taking the same response as Kim. Basically, “oh, geez, is she still on that? Hope she can move on”. Regardless of what one thinks about who is the baddy in these beefs/heartbreaks, I find this to be a particularly effective response to being trashed on a TS album. I think at this point, potential subjects have seen what reactions lead to non-stop media attention and are eager to avoid that. I don’t approve or disapprove of Taylor putting identifiable people on blast in her songs. I do understand though the desire of those who’ve crossed paths with her not to have “Taylor’s diss” become so all defining as to who they are.
I think your point is good about other celebrities too. Not just in relation to Taylor Swift, but there’s a definitely component for some people and some fandoms of how dare you not acknowledge that I don’t like you. So in this particular case I think basically being kind of like oh yeah that’s interesting moving on, bothers those people. They need you to be upset, and the best thing that you can do whether you are upset or not is project an air of I don’t care, I’m not going to sub-tweet about this, I’m not going to make references to this. It’s an effective way to get under people’s skin.
There are def songs about Matty on the album. Overall, I think its a post-mortem on all of relationships and fans’ sense of ownership over her story (Prophecy, Manuscript).
The ALBUM is most about JOE not Matty…clearly a REAL swiftie knows that
lol. No, it is mostly about Matty. She even says on the prologue that she is best at writing about bad guys.
No, there are maybe 2 songs dedicated to Joe, and maybe a couple more referencing him. The rest is about the gross, racist love-bombing Matty. Puke. Taylor really needs to be single for awhile and get some therapy and self love.
“Well, I was reminded of that situation because Selena’s friend Taylor Swift has also devoted an album to an ex. An ex who has moved on and is currently dating someone else. ”
That’s why it’s kind of sad. The ex has moved on. The ex doesn’t care. If she could write a bit more ambiguously about the exes … maybe it would be so cringey.
I don’t know anything about this guy or their relationship, but I do have a comms background and thought his response was 10/10.
– He didn’t say he hadn’t listened to it at all, which would have been probably (1) implausible given the coverage and anticipation her album has attracted/generated and (2) framed as being dismissive and resentful, with possible headlines like “Matt Healy Refuses to Listen to Taylor’s New Album”.
– He kept it bland and gave a mildly positive rating (“I’m sure it’s good”). This is less likely to get the rags putting out headlines with extremes that attract too much attention.