We need to calm down! Taylor Swift made a rare red carpet appearance at the 2021 Grammys on Sunday, March 14. The “August” singer wore a floral Oscar de la Renta dress with pink heels. Unfortunately, Taylor showed up without her longtime boyfriend, Joe Alwyn.
As fans know, the A-lister, 31, is nominated for six Grammy Awards this year, including Album of the Year for Folklore and Song of the Year for “Cardigan.” As it happens, Joe is also a Grammy-nominated artist.
During 2020’s Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, Taylor revealed that the U.K. native cowrote two tracks on the album titled “Exile” and “Betty.” However, when Folklore was first released in July of that year, Joe was still going under the pseudonym William Bowery.
“Joe plays piano beautifully and he’s always just playing and making things up and kind of creating things. And ‘Exile’ was crazy because Joe had written that entire piano part,” Taylor explained in the Disney+ documentary. “He was singing the Bon Iver part, the ‘I can see you standing honey, with his arms around your body, laughing but the joke’s not funny at all.’ He was just singing it. And I was entranced and asked if we could keep writing that one.”
As for “Betty,” Taylor heard Joe singing “the entire fully formed chorus from another room” when a lightbulb went off. “And I was just like ‘Hello!’ It was a step that we would never have taken because why would we have ever written a song together?”
At first, the couple was hesitant to jump into uncharted territory. After all, “Betty” isn’t exactly a love song. “So, this was the first time we had a conversation where I came in and I was like, ‘Hey, this could be really weird — and we could hate this — so because we’re in quarantine and there’s nothing else going on, could we just try to see what it’s like if we write this song together?'” Taylor recalled.
Clearly, their efforts paid off!