Taylor Swift gave fans a curious wink during a performance of “To All Of The Girls You Loved Before,” perhaps hinting she’s over a past relationship. The 33-year-old singer chose the track — which was a 2023 release but still part of 2019’s Lover — as one of her two surprise songs during her Eras Tour stop in Santa Clara, California on Saturday, July 29. In the song, Taylor sings about the past relationships an partner — presumably now ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn, given the era of the song — had and thanks the previous girlfriends for helping turn him into the man he is now.
@ashleyk902 All of the Girls You Loved Before for Santa Clara N2 #fyp #swiftie #taylorswift #erastour #santaclaran2
While singing about “Cryin’ in the bathroom for some dude / Whose name I cannot remember now,” the GRAMMY winner winked at the sold-out crowd in video posted to social media. While Taylor is known for her cryptic messaging, this move seemed to imply she was over a past relationship — possibly Joe, who she dated for nearly seven years from 2016 to sometime in the spring of 2023. Taylor also had a brief reported fling with The 1975 singer Matty Healy through May and June, and the two were even seen holding hands at Casa Cipriani in New York City — but their relationship fizzled just a few weeks in.
“Every woman that you knew brought you here / I wanna teach you how forever feels like,” she sings on the track. “All of the girls you’ve loved before (Ooh) / Made you the one I’ve fallen for / Every dead-end street led you straight to me,” she also says in the lyrics on the song, seemingly about Joe based on the word choice and era.
The initial lyric about “cryin’ in the bathroom,” however, is believed to have been originally written for ex-boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal. Despite their 10 year age gap, 19 year old Taylor and 29 year old Jake briefly dated in the Fall of 2010. The track “All Too Well” tells the tale of the ill-fated romance, where she also sings “Not weeping in a party bathroom / Some actress asking me what happened, you, that’s what happened, you,” which could be about the same incident. On Red‘s “Moment I Knew,” she once again sings about what seems to be the same night with the lyrics, “And there in the bathroom / I try not to fall apart / And the sinking feeling starts / As I say hopelessly / ‘He said he’d be here'”.