Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024)

“Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” is track ten on Taylor’s eleventh studio album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024). It was released on April 19, 2024, through Republic Records. In the song, Taylor confronts and mocks the rumors that surround her professional and personal life.
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:

«And so I enter into evidence / My tarnished coat of arms / My muses, acquired like bruises / My talismans and charms / The tick, tick, tick of love bombs / My veins of pitch black ink / All's fair in love and poetry…Sincerely, The Chairman of the Tortured Poets Department.»

The album’s tracklist, including “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”, was revealed a day later.

Lyrical Theme

In “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?,” Taylor addresses how the media constantly downsizes her, ever since the beginning of her career. In a voice note sent to producer Jack Antonoff, Taylor said:

«Yeah, just a song about being crazy.»

The title of the song possibly references the 1966 film and 1962 play by Edward Albee, named Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which explore the complexities of a failing marriage.

Live Performances

Starting with the European leg, which kicked off in May 2024, Taylor added “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” to the regular setlist for her sixth headlining tour, “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024).

Commercial Performance

Upon the release of THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the chart week ending on May 4, 2024.

Lyrics

General Information
ArtistTaylor Swift
AlbumTHE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT
ReleasedApril 19, 2024
Recorded2022-2023
StudiosConway (Los Angeles)
Electric Lady (New York City)
Esplanade (New Oreleans)
Long Pond (Hudson Valley)
Hutchinson Sound (Brooklyn)
Big Mercy (Brookyln)
Pleasure Hill (Portland)
Audu Music Studio (Brooklyn)
Sterling Sound (Edgewater)
GenreAlternative
Length5:34
LabelRepublic Records
SongwriterTaylor Swift
ProducersJack Antonoff
Taylor Swift
THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT CHRONOLOGY
Guilty as Sin?Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
Song Artwork
Live Performance
Lyric Video
Official Audio