Taylor Swift is supposed to be all-powerful. She’s a titan of industry who can sway markets, bend wills, and convince the minds of millions. But in April, the limitations of Swift’s powers were laid bare during the bridge of Lover‘s lead single, “Me!” featuring Brendon Urie. “Hey kids. Spelling is fun!” the lauded singer-songwriter proclaimed with her entire chest, despite historical analysis proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that spelling is quite possibly antithesis of “fun.” Predictably, the backlash was swift. The line showed a level of audacity rarely seen in the upper echelons of pop. Who was Taylor to try to sell a critical re-evaluation of spelling?
Almost four agonizing months later, balance has been mostly restored. On Wednesday, two days before the release of her next album, the lyric was scrubbed from the Apple Music version of “Me!” The “spelling is cool” version is still available on Spotify, but will likely be replaced soon.
In April, Swift tried to explain away the spelling controversy by labeling “Me!” “With this song, we really just wanted to have this song not really be fully taking itself seriously,” Swift said during an interview on the The Hit Network’s Carrie and Tommy. “So the lyrics, that’s a tone decision that we made in the studio. We literally were like, okay, let’s say ‘Hey, kids! Spelling is fun’ because we want everyone to know that this song is not really serious because it’s not, like, a serious love song.”
Taylor Swift’s team did not respond to a request for comment from Rolling Stone.
Since the change, Swift’s fans are responding online to the change with their trademark restraint.
TAYLOR REMOVED “HEY KIDS SPELLING IS FUN!” OMG pic.twitter.com/J5Q1pUDFOe
— azaan (@daylightlovers) August 21, 2019