If, like me, you spent the night looking through each Folklore song credit trying to see who co-wrote what with Taylor Swift, you likely noticed that a mysterious name pops up: William Bowery.
He's credited with co-writing "Betty" and "Exile." But when you look him up, nothing comes up.
hey guys so um.... i was doing a little research and found that that ‘william bowery’ isn’t a real person and there’s no information of him out there... i think we can all agree that ‘william bowery’ is another ‘nils sjoberg’ situation right? #folklore
Taylor mentioned William Bowery as a collaborator. but i searched there's no musician with that name??? who is he???👀 @taylorswift13
That's because it seems to be someone using a pseudonym, and fans are pretty sure it's Taylor's boyfriend, Joe Alwyn.
Fan account @taylowkey13 tweeted a pretty convincing reason why it could be Joe. He and Taylor were spotted at the Bowery Hotel in New York City at the beginning of their relationship. It's a meaningful location, since it's around the time they fell in love and visited the dive bar Taylor often references. Also, Joe's late great-grandfather William Alwyn was a composer, so the name could be in tribute to him.
WILLIAM BOWERY theory on oct 2016, taylor (w her squad) & alwyn were spotted in BOWERY hotel. (smth special mustve happened here, that's why she used d name "BOWERY" i guess?) WILLIAM alwyn is literally joe alwyns great-grandpa. he was was composer, conductor, and music teacher
Another fan account, @alwynswiftt, also made a thread with their theory on the connection, stating similar info about his great-grandfather and the importance of the Bowery Hotel.
William Bowery, songwriter credited in #Folklore, is actually a pseudonym for Joe Alwyn; a thread
As the thread showed, the name William also appeared in the video for Sugarland's collaborative song with Taylor, "Babe."
Other Swifties share the same theory of William Bowery being Joe, too.
OMG I JUST FOUND OUT JOE HAS AN ENGLISH LITERATURE DEGREE AND HE USED TO SING AND PLAY A GUITAR IN HIGH SCHOOL?? AT THIS POINT I WOULDN'T BE SUPRISED IF HE'S THAT WILLIAM BOWERY (WHO IS CREDITED ON 2 SONGS) MY MIND AND HEART CAN'T HANDLE IT BYEE I DIED DEAD
WAIT I THINK WILLIAM BOWERY IS JOE ALWYNS PSEUDONYM, AND JOE IS GOOD AT WRITING POEMS
YOU GUYS JOE (who swifties believe cowrote two songs with taylor on this album using pseudonym WILLIAM BOWERY) was teasing us #folklore all along. We are never safe you guys, i repeat NEVER.
Some fans are hopeful that it's a secret collab with Lorde, but I'm not buying it!
i am going to pretend william bowery is lorde despite it making the least amount of sense out of all the theories. i simply cannot see the evidence telling me otherwise
"William Bowery is a pseudonym for joe since joe's great-grandfather name is william and he and taylor attended the same after party at the bowery hotel" lol by this logic it's more likely william to be lorde cause she IS a songwriter and was also at the hotel at the same event
And it's true — Lorde was part of Taylor's hangout with Joe at the Bowery Hotel in 2016. But I still think it's a bit of a stretch.
