thanK you aIMee

Bonus Track | THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY (2024)

“thanK you aIMee” is track twenty-four on THE ANTHOLOGY, the double album edition of Taylor’s eleventh studio album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024). It was released on April 19, 2024, through Republic Records.
Table of Contents

Background

Taylor released her tenth studio album, Midnights, on October 21, 2022, to widespread commercial and critical success, becoming the biggest album of the year. Midnights was eventually nominated for six Grammy Awards at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on February 4, 2024. The morning of the ceremony, Taylor teased the release of an album by changing her profile picture across all social media platforms to a black and white version of the already existing cover artwork of Midnights. This led to her fans speculating online that she was preparing to release reputation (Taylor’s Version), a forthcoming re-recording of her sixth studio album, reputation (2017). Taylor’s website also appeared to have crashed, replaced with the non-existent HTTP status code 321, as well as error code “hneriergrd”, which fans deciphered to be an anagram spelling “red herring”. They also analyzed the source code of her website and found hidden, foreign-language words, which they then translated into English. The words found would be revealed to be words in Taylor’s handwritten note for the album.

Taylor won the Grammy Awards for “Best Pop Vocal Album” and “Album of the Year” for Midnights a few hours later. In her acceptance speech for the former, she revealed a new studio album, titled THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, and announced its release date of April 19, 2024, which she had been keeping secret for nearly two years. Its cover artwork was subsequently posted on her social media accounts, along with a photograph of a handwritten note.

Live Performance

Taylor first performed “thanK you aIMee” on June 22, 2024, during one of her London shows on “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024). She played it as a mashup with “Mean” (2010). Introducing both songs, she said:

«You know, getting to play Wembley Stadium, that’s not normal. It’s so insane that you’ve done this for me, and for us on the 'Eras Tour', for every single one of the people that you see on this stage, and for my band and for my crew, because we get to play Wembley Stadium eight times this summer. And when I was thinking about that, you think about just being grateful and being thankful for all the people who wanted this for you, and that’s all of you here tonight. Clearly, you thought this was a good idea, you believed we could do this, you wanted this to happen. It blows me away. I’ll spend forever trying to thank you properly for that. But then on the other hand, it really makes me think about how every time somebody talks shit, it just makes me work even harder, and it makes me that much tougher. So, it also makes me incredibly thankful for those people. I’ve never played this one before, wish me luck!»

The live audio was released on August 8, 2024.

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
When I picture my hometown
There’s a bronze, spray-tanned statue of you
And a plaque underneath it
That threatens to push me down the stairs at our school
And it was always the same searing pain
But I dreamed that one day I could say

[Chorus 1]
All that time you were throwing punches
I was building something
And I can’t forgive the way you made me feel
Screamed, ‘fucK you, aIMee’ to the night sky
As the blood was gushing
But I can’t forget the way you made me heal

[Verse 2]
And it wasn’t a fair fight
Or a clean Kill
Each time that aIMee stompеd across my grave
And then she wrotе headlines in the local paper laughing at each baby step I’d take
And it was always the same searing pain
But I prayed that one day I could say

[Chorus 2]
All that time you were throwing punches
I was building something
And I couldn’t wait to show you it was real
Screamed, ‘fucK you, aIMee’ to the night sky
As the blood was gushing
But I can’t forget the way you made me heal
Everyone knows that my mother is a saintly woman
But she used to say she wished that you were dead
I pushed each boulder up the hill,
Your words are still just ringing in my head, ringing in my head

[Bridge]
I wrote a thousand songs that you find uncool
I built a legacy that you can’t undo
But when I count the scars
There’s a moment of truth
That there wouldn’t be this
If there hadn’t been you

[Verse 3]
And maybe you’ve reframed it
And in your mind you never beat my spirit black and blue
I don’t think you’ve changed much
And so I changed your name and any real defining clues, and one day
Your kid comes home singing
A song that only us two is gonna know is about you

[Final Chorus]
Cause all that time you were throwing punches
It was all for nothing
And our town, it looks so small from way up here
Screamed, ‘thanK you, aIMee’ to the night sky
And the stars are stunning
Cause I can’t forget the way you made me heal
Everyone knows that my mother is a saintly woman
But she used to say she wished that you were dead
So I pushed each boulder up that hill,
Your words were still just ringing in my head, ringing in my head

[Outro]
thanK you, aIMee
thanK you, aIMee

General Information
ArtistTaylor Swift
AlbumTHE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT
ReleasedApril 19, 2024
Recorded2022-2023
StudiosLong Pond (Hudson Valley)
Sharp Sonic (Los Angeles)
GenreAlternative
Length4:03
LabelRepublic Records
SongwritersTaylor Swift
Aaron Dessner
ProducersAaron Dessner
Jack Antonoff
Taylor Swift
THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT CHRONOLOGY
I Hate It HerethanK you aIMeeI Look In People’s Windows
Song Artwork
Live Performance
Lyric Video
Official Audio
Official Live Audio