Why Taylor Swift’s Prom Queen Crown Can’t Make Her Happy

Taylor Swift has finally found her happily-ever-after. So why doesn’t she seem happy?

The global pop superstar released four new songs as part of “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore,” the extended deluxe version of the quite poorly received 2025 album Life of a Showgirl. “Cleveland!” is a musically buoyant track allegedly celebrating her newfound marital bliss with football player Travis Kelce. But when you read the lyrics, most lines aren’t focused on her husband and their happiness, but on a subject that has disproportionately occupied her mind: her critics, or “haters.”

As Taylor Swift appears perpetually stuck in high school, an adolescent metaphor feels particularly apt. Taylor Swift is the prom queen and married to the star football player, but is still left stewing the burnout (former fling Matty Healy), the guy who takes drama club a tad too seriously (ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn), and the kids who gossip in the hallways.

Despite some not worshiping at her altar, Taylor Swift has become the archetypal popular girl. Her most recent tour grossed over $2 billion in ticket sales, a record-breaking figure more than double any other tour’s ticket sales gross, with more than 10 million fans paying astronomical prices and some traveling to different states, countries, and continents to see the star perform. And after years of singing about desires to find the love of her life and settle down, she married an NFL star after a widely publicized romance. Yet she still is focusing on the negative in every song.

The lyrics of “Cleveland!” exude a barely disguised bitterness. Even the few lines that actually mention her groom are undercut with resentment over niche critiques of her or their relationship. But if you’re so deliriously happy, centering criticism rather than romance is an odd choice.

The other tracks on “Showgirl” that purport to celebrate her love story similarly include veiled references to, or outright focus on, past lovers or current critics. There isn’t a pure love song among the 12 tracks.

The three additional songs on the “Encore” spotlight revolve around — shock of all shocks — old flames; it is genuinely surprising that Taylor Swift still has content left to mine on that subject, given that it’s the primary subject around which her art has centered for her entire 20-year career. “Babylon” details an uncommitted lover less invested than the singer. “Pink Clouding” is an apology to a man to whom she made romantic promises she couldn’t keep. “Patient Zero” serves as a warning to the current partner of an ex.

It feels odd for a newlywed to be so addled, focusing on the men of her past rather than enjoying the one with whom she is set to spend the rest of her life.

For a woman who, at age 18, perceptively wrote, “In your life, you’ll do things greater than dating a boy on the football team,” she seems to place a decent amount of self-worth in the Kansas City tight end having chosen her. In this latest song, the only praise she gives her new husband is that he likes her, despite what everyone else thinks.

“Cleveland!” does not even tread new ground for the pop star, whose controversial 2017 release, “Reputation,” explored similar territory. “Delicate,” for example, opens with the observation that her tarnished name means that her new beau, now-ex Joe Alwyn, must like her for who she is. But while the refrain references her constant preoccupation with how the rest of the world perceives her, the verses explore a fragile new connection, a tentative approach to love, and the subject’s allure. “Cleveland!” in contrast remains on the level of “I don’t care what you think, because he loves me.”

Writing an entire song about being unbothered contradictorily demonstrates how much you really do care.

The gimmick behind “Cleveland!” could work beautifully if it was approached with a wittier, more tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, but the track reeks of Taylor Swift’s notoriously thin skin and desperate desire for approval. She may be reaching for playful, but cannot quite grasp it. To laugh at yourself effectively, you need to be ok with others laughing, too. And Taylor Swift has proven supremely uncomfortable with any reaction other than overwhelming adulation.

A woman reaching the pinnacle and getting everything she’d ever wanted — the man of her dreams, the professional success, the adoration of millions — only to discover that it doesn’t fill the emptiness in her life is fertile creative ground, but requires a degree of self-awareness and introspection Taylor Swift seems to lack, or at least is not yet prepared to explore.

Taylor Swift has won. She should stop focusing on the negative and actually enjoy it.

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Paulina Enck is a media specialist in Washington, D.C.

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