Matty Healy breaks silence over Taylor Swift's 'diss track' on new album The Tortured Poets Department
25 April 2024, 13:31 | Updated: 25 April 2024, 13:54
Matty Healy - the lead singer of The 1975 - has reacted to Taylor Swift's latest album The Tortured Poets Department, which features several tracks rumoured to be about him.
Healy was approached on a street in Los Angeles by paparazzi on Wednesday and asked about the album.
In a video circulating online, he is heard to say: "I haven't listened to that much of it, but I'm sure it's good."
Swift's 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, which released on Friday, has become Spotify's most-streamed album in a single week.
Fans have speculated whether some of her new songs are about him - after they reportedly dated last year.
Over the weekend, Healy's aunt Debbie Dedes said she didn't think the musician would be bothered by the songs.
“She writes about all her relationships, doesn't she? I don't think it will come as a shock to him at all,” Dedes told The Daily Mail of her nephew. “He's very happy in his new relationship so I'm sure he will be focusing on that.”
On the track “Guilty as Sin?” Swift mentions someone sending her the 1989 synth-pop song “The Downtown Lights" by the band The Blue Nile.
The frontman has been quoted citing The Blue Nile as his “favorite band of all time" and also said that the 1975's song “Love It If We Made It” was inspired by “The Downtown Lights."
Healy is also presumably the subject of the album's titular track “The Tortured Poets Department," when Swift sings about her lover bringing his typewriter to her apartment to evoke the vibes of legendary poets like Dylan Thomas.
“You left your typewriter at my apartment / Straight from the Tortured Poets Department / I think some things I never say / Like, ‘Who uses typewriters anyway?’” she sings.In 2018, Healy told GQ that he "really" likes to write using more tactile methods like a typewriter and pen and paper.
Swift met Healy in 2014 but didn't publicly strike up a romance until years later.
In 2022, Healy confirmed his band worked with her on her 10th studio album Midnights, though their work was never released. Then, in January 2023, she performed during a guest spot at a 1975 concert in London.
The Tortured Poets Department became the first Spotify artist to have 300 million streams in a single day.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Spotify said on Wednesday: "On April 22, 2024, Taylor Swift's
The Tortured Poets Department became Spotify's most-streamed album in a single week.
"The album has surpassed one billion streams since release."
On April 22, 2024, Taylor Swift's THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT became Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single week. The album has surpassed 1 Billion streams since release.
— Spotify News (@SpotifyNews) April 24, 2024