Taylor Swift fans have had an eventful week.
Amid the ongoing stadium Eras Tour, as well as mounting hype for the re-recording of her third studio album “Speak Now,” Swift dropped another surprise: A special edition of her hit 2022 record “Midnights,” with two new artist features and a new track.
Just the song's title — “You’re Losing Me” — sent fans spiraling. The name alone suggested it would be a new breakup song, which many think is inspired by her reported split from Joe Alwyn. Swift described it as a “vault song” from “Midnights,” meaning it was an unreleased track from the album's writing session.
The singer is known for her devastating lyrics about heartbreak, from “Dear John” — which many, including Taylor Lautner, think chronicles her breakup with John Mayer — and “All Too Well,” tied to Jake Gyllenhaal.
“You’re Losing Me” turned out to be no exception.
The song walks through lyrics about debating whether to leave or stay in a relationship, like, “Now, I just sit in the dark and wonder if it’s time/ Do I throw out everything we built or keep it?”
In the chorus, Swift sends a plea to her other half, warning, “Stop, you’re losing me,” with, “I’m fading, thinking/ ‘Do something, babe, say something’/ ‘Lose something, babe, risk something.’”
TODAY.com has reached out to a representative for Swift for comment on “You’re Losing Me” and the alleged break-up.
Fans have been quick to discuss the sad song on social media.
One Twitter user wrote, “taylor swift dropping youre losing me with the saddest lyrics ever how am i suppose to get up.”
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Others thought that the lyrics explained why Swift and Alwyn allegedly split, as she sings about confronting a relationship that was “sick,” even if the other person wouldn't admit it.
“If you look at the lyrics of You’re Losing Me it just shows that the relationship ended up falling apart as some relationships do. Not every breakup has to have a villain and a hero, the relationship just ended, that’s all there is to it,” one user wrote.
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Many also pointed the musical and metaphorical similarities to her touching love song, “Cornelia Street,” from the 2019 album “Lover.” When news of the Alwyn break up made headlines, many fans placed flowers by her former townhouse in New York City located on Cornelia Street.
In addition to having a similar beat, the lyrics appear to line up, with the “Cornelia Street” chorus, repeating, “I hope I never lose you, hope it never ends/ I’d never walk Cornelia Street again.”
“It really went from ‘I hope I never lose you, I hope this never ends’ to ‘Stop. You’re Losing Me,’” one Twitter user wrote, with several crying-face emoji.
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The new track isn’t the first song on the “Midnights” album to grapple with heartbreak. In “Anti-Hero,” Swift dubs herself “the problem,” while many people found that “Bigger Than The Whole Sky” helped them process their grief after experiencing pregnancy loss and miscarriage.
But many tunes functioned as love songs, from “Labyrinth” and it’s repeating refrain of “Oh, oh, I’m falling in love,” and “Sweet Nothing,” which gets its name from the lyric, “All that you ever wanted from me was sweet nothing.”
When announcing the album, Swift shared that the album’s opening track, “Lavender Haze,” references the idea of an “all-encompassing love glow.”
“If the world finds out that you’re in love with somebody, they’re going to weigh in on it,” she said. “My relationship for six years, we’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff — and we just ignore it. This song is sort of about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff.”
In that song, she also mentions past engagement rumors, which would frequently pop up during her relationship with Alwyn.
“All they keep asking me/ Is if I’m gonna be your bride/ The only kinda girl they see/ Is a one-night or a wife,” she sings in “Lavender Haze.”
Still, some thought the release of the “Midnights” vault song changed the tone of the whole album.
“She turned Midnights into a heartbreak album with a single song,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
And with this context, one of the lines in “You’re Losing Me” feels all the more pointed.
“I wouldn’t marry me either/ A pathological people pleaser,” she sings.
The former couple rarely addressed engagement rumors, but when they did, they appeared to be coy brush-offs.
“If I had a pound for every time I think I’ve been told I’ve been engaged, then I’d have a lot of pound coins,” Alwyn told The Wall Street Journal in April 2022. “I mean, the truth is, if the answer was yes, I wouldn’t say, and if the answer was no, I wouldn’t say.”
‘You’re Losing Me’ lyrics
“You’re Losing Me” was originally released exclusively on the CD format of the “Midnights (The Late Night Edition)” at MetLife stadium ahead of her string of shows in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which began May 26.
Later that day, the singer announced a 24-hour limited digital download release of the album, which included the vault song.
Here's all the lyrics to Swift's latest song:
You say, “I don’t understand” and I say, “I know you don’t”
We thought a cure would come through in time, now, I fear it won’t
Remember looking at this room, we loved it ‘cause of the light
Now, I just sit in the dark and wonder if it’s time
Do I throw out everything we built or keep it?
I’m getting tired even for a phoenix
Always rising from the ashes
Mending all her gashes
You might just have dealt the final blow
Stop, you’re losing me
Stop, you’re losing me
Stop, you’re losing me
I can’t find a pulse
My heart won’t start anymore for you
‘Cause you’re losing me
Every mornin’, I glared at you with storms in my eyes
How can you say that you love someone you can’t tell is dying?
I sent you signals and bit my nails down to the quick
My face was gray, but you wouldn’t admit that we were sick
And the air is thick with loss and indecision
I know my pain is such an imposition
Now, you’re running down the hallway
And you know what they all say
“You don’t know what you got until it’s gone”
Stop, you’re losing me
Stop, you’re losing me
Stop, you’re losing me
I can’t find a pulse
My heart won’t start anymore for you
‘Cause you’re losing me
‘Cause you’re losing me
Stop (Stop) ‘cause you’re losing me
My heart won’t start anymore
(Stop ‘cause you’re losing me)
My heart won’t start anymore
(Stop ‘cause you’re losing me)
How long could we be a sad song
‘Til we were too far gone to bring back to life?
I gave you all my best me’s, my endless empathy
And all I did was bleed as I tried to be the bravest soldier
Fighting in only your army, frontlines, don’t you ignore me
I’m the best thing at this party
(You’re losing me)
And I wouldn’t marry me either
A pathological people pleaser
Who only wanted you to see her
And I’m fading, thinking
“Do something, babe, say something” (Say something)
“Lose something, babe, risk something” (You’re losing me)
“Choose something, babe, I got nothing” (I got nothing)
“To believe, unless you’re choosing me”
You’re losing me
Stop (Stop, stop), you’re losing me
Stop (Stop, stop), you’re losing me
I can’t find a pulse
My heart won’t start anymore
This article was originally published on TODAY.com