Taylor Swift was worried songwriting would ‘dry up’ if she was ‘truly happy’

Pop star Taylor Swift has said she worried her songwriting would “dry up” if she was “truly happy and free”.

The 35-year-old American was speaking after releasing her 12th studio album The Life Of A Showgirl on Friday, her first record since she announced her engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce, and also the first since she revealed in May that she had regained control of her back catalogue.

Swift told BBC Radio 1 Breakfast With Greg James: “It’s wonderful. I used to kind of have this dark fear that if I ever were truly happy and free, being myself and nurtured by a relationship, what happens if the writing just dries up?

“What if writing is directly tied to my torment and pain? And it turns out that’s not the case at all, and we just were catching lightning in a bottle with this record.”

She told James she had “uncomplicated feelings of joy” about the album’s release, which was “not how I felt about the last album”.

Swift said: “With this album, my life is in exactly the same spot as when I wrote the record.”

The Life Of A Showgirl, which expected to top charts around the world, was available from 5am in the UK, with many Swifties likely to have set early alarms to be among the first to hear it.

It features 12 tracks including Opalite, which appears to be about her fiance Kelce, whose birthstone is opal; Actually Romantic, which is rumoured to be a swipe at a fellow music star; and Elizabeth Taylor, which follows in a long history of Swift songs referencing famous people.

The singer added: “I made this album with Max Martin and Shellback, who I hadn’t worked with in maybe seven or eight years.

“In the time that we kind of took a break from working together, we were all out there honing powers of different types, and one of the things that I was really playing with in our time away was writing in character, and kind of developing these characters and these character arcs and things – and that is present on this record.

“Even though it’s about my life, sometimes you cosplay, like, this is a love song through the lens of Elizabeth Taylor’s life.

“There’s different motifs that I think we’re trying out on this record that are sort of a culmination of me practicing and working up to the point where I could make this type of album.”

Swift also invited Greg James to her wedding with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Kelce, but when he asked about the venue, said she would let him know “at a different time”.

The full interview is available to watch now on Radio 1’s YouTube channel and will be available to listen to on Radio 1 Breakfast With Greg James on Monday from 7am.