With the re-release of Speak Now, Taylor Swift has the chance to retract an old, contentious line from the song “Better Than Revenge.”
The song “Better Than Revenge” first debuted in 2010 with the lines, “She’s not a saint and she’s not what you think/ She’s an actress/ She’s better known for the things that she does/ On the mattress.” The final two lines are now “He was a moth to the flame/ She was holding the matches.”
Taylor Swift expressed her regret for the lyric.
The song at the time was said to be about Camilla Belle, the actress who is Joe Jonas’ new girlfriend. Although it was universally regarded as “fine” at the time, it has since gained controversy. When speaking with The Guardian in 2014, Swift expressed her regret for the lyric. I composed that when I was 18 years old, she said. “At that age, you believe that your partner could genuinely be taken. When you become an adult, you understand that no one can take away someone who doesn’t want to go.
Taylor Swift has modified one of her releases after it has already been released before. In October 2022, Swift made changes to the music video for her song “Anti-Hero,” removing the word “FAT” from a scenario meant to represent one of Swift’s “nightmares.”
Taylor Swift is still performing on the US leg of “The Eras Tour,” which will resume in late August with its initial run of international dates. She’ll start a larger tour the following year with Paramore as a special guest on it. Since the album’s tracklist, which has six brand-new “from the vault” songs in addition to all of the original Speak Now songs, was originally made public, fans have focused especially on the oddly named “When Emma Falls in Love.” Was the song inspired by the novel Emma by Jane Austen? Would it be about Emma Stone, a close friend of Taylor Swift’s? Perhaps Harry Potter star Emma Watson? Or how about a fictitious or random Emma?
Of course, it’s impossible to be certain absent Swift herself saying what it’s about. However, after carefully going over the song’s lyrics, EW can say with a certain amount of Swiftian certainty that “When Emma Falls in love” is not only probably about Emma Stone — whom Swift first met at the Young Hollywood Awards in 2008 — but also more of an ode to a friend than the title initially suggests. Let’s open it up.
Taylor Swift – Better Than Revenge
A close relationship with her mother
Taylor Swift begins the song by crooning, “When Emma falls in love, she calls her mum and makes jokes about all the possible ways that this one could go wrong.” The line that follows is “She waits and takes her time, ’cause little miss sunshine always thinks it’s gonna rain.”
Stone may be implicated in this in a number of ways. First, the Academy Award-winning actress is known to have a close relationship with her mother. She has frequently brought her as a date to award ceremonies over the years, and in 2008, she openly supported her mother as she battled breast cancer.
The lyrics to “little miss sunshine” are another. One of the most well-known moments from Stone’s movie Easy A features her joyfully singing along to the Natasha Bedingfield hit song “Pocketful of Sunshine” on a greeting card.
