It Looks Like Travis Kelce Made It Into Taylor Swift’s New Album, So Here’s What She Seemingly Had To Say About Their Relationship

While reckoning with her past, it seems Taylor didn’t forget about her current beau.

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By the look of things, Taylor Swift's Tortured Poets Department draws a lot of inspiration from her past heartbreaks. But, fortunately for Travis Kelce, it seems she still dedicated a few tracks to her present.

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In the unlikely event you need catching up, Taylor’s highly anticipated 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, dropped at midnight, inevitably sending Swifties into a frenzy of excitement.

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And just as listeners were processing the 16-track record, Taylor did what she does best and dropped in at 2 a.m. with a surprise — gifting fans with yet another 15 songs, which merged with the first installment to create The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.

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So, with 31 brand-new tracks to get their teeth into, Swifties have been deep in lyrical analysis since the moment the clock struck 12. And by now, many have speculated that a lot of the songs may have been inspired by Taylor’s fleeting — and rather controversial — romance with Matty Healy, as well as a few nods to her previous ex, Joe Alwyn.

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For a reminder, Joe and Taylor dated for six years before breaking up in April 2023. It was only a month after her split from Joe that Taylor was seen with Matty — whom she was previously rumored to have dated in 2014. 

After sparking widespread controversy in her fanbase, Taylor's brief relationship with The 1975 frontman ended in June, with a source telling Entertainment Tonight at the time: “They are both extremely busy and realized they're not really compatible with each other.”

Going into last night's album release, hopes were high that Taylor may have sought inspiration from her current relationship with Travis Kelce — and luckily for Tayvis fans, it seems she delivered.

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From what we know, Travis and Taylor first started seeing each other privately around August — a month after the NFL star gushed about trying to shoot his shot with her while attending the Eras Tour over the summer.

They confirmed their relationship in September when Taylor attended one of his football games with the Kansas City Chiefs — and the rest is history.

But, before we get into it, we must first acknowledge that lyrical interpretation is subjective. Therefore, this analysis is rooted in speculation based solely on the history of Travis and Taylor’s relationship.

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In the first batch of songs, a track titled “The Alchemy” quickly stood out to listeners as potentially Travis-inspired due to its slew of sports references — namely, the mention of touchdowns.

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“So when I touch down / Call the amateurs and cut 'em from the team,” Taylor sings in the chorus. “Ditch the clowns, get the crown / Baby, I'm the one to be / 'Cause the sign on your heart / Said it's still reserved for me.”

In scientific terms, alchemy is concerned with mixing chemicals to create gold, and if there’s one thing we know about Taylor, she loves using golden themes to describe her happiest relationships. So, with that in mind, the story of this song seems to be about the transformative magic of a budding romance — presumably with Travis.

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For example, in the first verse, Taylor appears to call back to the start of the relationship, noting that such a strong connection is rare.

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“This happens once every few lifetimes / These chemicals hit me like white wine,” the opening lines go.

Later in the first verse, she also sings about seeking out her lover by circling them “on a map,” which some fans think could be a subtle reference to claims that Taylor put Travis “on the map” by boosting his fame and popularity when they started dating.

In the post-chorus, Taylor throws out more sporting references, singing about “blokes” who “warm the benches,” and being on a “winning streak.”

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Since “bloke” is a slang term for “man” commonly used in the UK, it’s possible that the blokes in question are her British exes, Matty and Joe, with Taylor poking fun at how her past lovers have been sidelined.

Meanwhile, the “winning streak” line could be a nod to the Chiefs’ immense success during the football season, becoming Super Bowl champions for a second consecutive year.

But perhaps most notably, the bridge paints a vivid picture of a familiar sporting scene as Taylor sings: “Shirts off, and your friends lift you up, over their heads / Beer stickin' to the floor, cheers chanted 'cause they said / ‘There was no chance trying to be the greatest in the league’ / Where's the trophy? He just comes, running over to me.”

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As most will remember, the last line, in particular, seems to draw parallels to the viral moment that Taylor and Travis embraced on the football field when the Chiefs won the AFC Championship game in January, securing their spot in the Super Bowl.

Despite all this, not everyone agrees that Travis was this song’s sole muse. In fact, numerous fans have theorized that “The Alchemy” could be about Matty.

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For starters, in the post-chorus Taylor uses wordplay centering on heroin, singing: “He jokes that ‘It's heroin, but this time with an E.’” For context, Matty has talked openly about using heroin earlier in his life, so some have interpreted this as a reference to his past addiction struggles.

On top of this, a recurring theme in the song is past lovers and comebacks, with Taylor indicating multiple times that she’s “coming back” to the relationship. This would align with the fact that she and Matty were romantically linked nearly a decade before their public fling in 2023.

And while “The Alchemy” left fans a little divided, listeners seem to have no dispute that “So High School” from the second batch of songs might be inspired by Taylor’s all-American love story with Travis.

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From the outset, it’s noteworthy that Taylor and Travis’s relationship has drawn high-school comparisons since it first began — the superstar and her popular football player boyfriend, reminiscent of a senior year power couple.

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And with that, “So High School” automatically seems to play into that perception of their sweet romance as Taylor depicts the nostalgia of teenage first love — dropping shoutouts to everything from American Pie to Grand Theft Auto, much to the amusement of her fans.

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“And in a blink of a crinkling eye / I'm sinking, our fingers entwined,” the chorus goes. “Cheeks pink in the twinkling lights / Tell me 'bout the first time you saw me.”

“I'll drink what you think and I'm high / From smoking your jokes all damn night,” she sings, leaning into the giddiness of young love. “The brink of a wrinkle in time / Bittersweet 16 suddenly.”

Away from the general high-school themes, Taylor also appears to include some nods to specific moments between her and Travis that fans pored over in the early months of their romance.

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In the intro, for example, she sings about finding her lover in a crowd (something she and Travis are pretty used to, what with football games and concerts), as well as someone opening the car door for her (Swifties memorably lost it over Travis escorting Taylor from her car during a trip to NYC in October).

The first verse also includes the line: "Are you gonna marry, kiss, or kill me?," which has been interpreted by many as a callback to a 2016 interview in which Travis played a game of "Kill, Marry, Kiss" — choosing to kiss Taylor.

And finally, the bridge appears to echo Travis’s public pursuit of her last summer, with Taylor signing: “You knew what you wanted, and, boy, you got her.”

So, while The Tortured Poets Department appears to dedicate a lot of time to the past, it looks like Taylor wants fans to know she’s doing pretty damn well in the present, too.

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Travis has not publicly discussed The Tortured Poets Department since its release, but we’ll let you know as soon as he does. In the meantime, you can read more of our Taylor coverage here.

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