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Honey

The Life of a Showgirl (2025)

“Honey” is track eleven on Taylor’s twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl (2025). Co-written by Taylor, Max Martin and Shellback, it was released on October 3, 2025.

Background and Recording

In March 2023, Taylor launched “The Eras Tour,” a career-defining project that would span nearly two years and ultimately become the highest-grossing tour in history, establishing her as the wealthiest female musician of all time. Beyond its unprecedented commercial success, the tour marked a period of profound personal change and artistic reinvention. In its early months, Taylor ended her six-year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn and briefly rekindled a past romance with musician Matty Healy. These turbulent events unfolded against the backdrop of her peak global visibility and inspired the writing of her eleventh studio album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, which went on to become the world’s best-selling album of 2024. Much of the record was conceived while she toured the United States in the spring and summer of 2023.

The following year brought a strikingly different creative direction. After meeting NFL player Travis Kelce in July 2024—a relationship that would later lead to their engagement—Taylor entered what she described as “the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place” of her career. This new chapter inspired her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, which reflected a brighter, more exuberant sound. To realize this vision, she reunited with Swedish producers Max Martin and Shellback, long-time collaborators who had helped shape the sonic identity of her early pop work on RED (2012), 1989 (2014), and reputation (2017). Taylor revealed that the project began after she reconnected with Max Martin during the Stockholm stop of “The Eras Tour” in May 2024, and in the months that followed she traveled to Sweden between European tour dates to record the album.

Lyrical Theme

Upon the release of The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor told Amazon Music:

«'Honey' is a song about how words that have been meant to hurt you in the past can be repurposed by someone who loves you in a way that feels totally different. You know, if the only time you were called Honey was when someone was like, 'That look is not working for you, Honey.' Like, that is very different than when somebody calls you Honey in a sweet way, in a sincere way, in a lovely way. And it's about the idea of healing these old wounds that were caused by certain words that now feel totally lovely and sweet. So, I also just love this song. It's such a bop! I just jump around to this song.»

Taylor Swift

Lyrics

[Refrain]
You can call me “Honey” if you want
Because I’m the one you want

[Chorus]
When anyone called me “Sweetheart”
It was passive-aggressive at the bar
And the bitch was telling me to back off
‘Cause her man had looked at me wrong
If anyone called me “Honey”
It was standing in the bathroom, white teeth
They were saying that skirt don’t fit me
And I cried the whole way home

[Post-Chorus 1]
But you touched my face
Redefined all of those blues
When you say “Honey”

[Verse 1]
Summertime spritz, pink skies
You can call me “Honey” if you want
Because I’m the one you want
Wintergreen kiss, on my
Gave it a different meaning ’cause you mean it when you talk
Honey, I’m home, we could play house
We can bed down, pick me up
Who’s the baddest in the land? What’s the plan?
You could be my forever night stand
Honey

[Post-Chorus 2]
But you touched my face
Redefined all of those blues
When you say

[Verse 2]
You can call me “Honey” if you want
Because I’m the one you want
I’m the one you want
You give it different meaning, ’cause you mean it when you talk
Sweetie, it’s yours, kicking in doors
Take it to the floor, give me more
Buy the paint in the color of your eyes
And graffiti my whole damn life
Honey

[Bridge]
When anyone called me late night
He was screwing around with my mind
Asking, “What are you wearing?”
Too hard to remember in the morning
And when anyone called me “Lovely”
They were finding ways not to praise me
But you say it like you’re in awe of me
And you stay until the morning
Honey