Taylor Swift could also be one of many best-selling music artists of all time, however she can be a self-proclaimed “cat lady” who will not be afraid to precise her love for felines by her lyrics.
Swift — who’s a “cat mom” to Scottish folds Meredith Grey and Olivia Benson and Ragdoll Benjamin Button (named after characters from Grey’s Anatomy, Law & Order: SVU and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, respectively) — is susceptible to utilizing kitties as metaphors in her music.
“Karma is a cat purring in my lap ‘cause it loves me,” Swift sings in her Midnights track “Karma.” (Mariska Hargitay, who plays Olivia Benson’s namesake on SVU, named her cat Karma in 2023 after Swift’s tune.)
Moreover, Swift’s three cats have made appearances alongside her in music movies, journal covers and social media posts all through her profession. The singer’s love of cats even impressed her to look in Tom Hooper’s 2019 movie adaptation of the Broadway musical Cats.
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“I have cats. I’m obsessed with them. I love my cats so much that when a role came up in a movie called Cats, I just thought, like, I gotta do this,” she advised TIME in 2019. “[Cats are] very dignified. They’re independent. They’re very capable of dealing with their own life.”
That similar yr, Swift’s cats Meredith and Olivia costarred in her music video for ME! alongside Brendon Urie. Referring to the Scottish folds as her “young daughters” within the video, Swift will get into an argument with Urie’s character, and he finally presents Swift with a kitten to ask her for her forgiveness. That kitten was a young Benjamin, and Swift couldn’t assist however take him home after they wrapped the video.
Benjamin went on to grace the duvet of TIME alongside Swift in 2023 when she was named Person of the Year. “We’d like to name you Person of the Yea- […] Me: Can I bring my cat,” Swift wrote through X on the time, taking a dig at her obsession whereas sharing the duvet.
Keep scrolling for a complete information to each time Swift has referenced cats in her lyrics:
“Wonderland”
In the Alice in Wonderland-themed monitor from 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Swift references one of the vital well-known fictional cats of all time.
“Didn’t you calm my fears with a Cheshire Cat smile?” she sings.
Earlier within the tune, she sings: “Didn’t you flash your green eyes at me? / Haven’t you heard what becomes of curious minds?” While Swift is clearly chatting with an ex within the tune, she can be referencing the inexperienced eyes of the Cheshire Cat and the proverb “Curiosity killed the cat.”
“Gorgeous”
Swift sings of a lover whose magnificence makes her “furious” within the Reputation monitor from 2017. During the tune’s bridge, the pop star sings, “You make me so happy it turns back to sad / There’s nothing I hate more than what I can’t have / Guess I’ll just stumble on home to my cats alone / Unless you wanna come along.”
The lyric doubtless references a viral red carpet interview from the 2015 Grammys, throughout which Swift was advised by an interviewer, “You’re going to walk home with more than maybe just a trophy tonight, I think lots of men.” In response, Swift quipped, “I’m not going to walk home with any men tonight. I’m going to go hang out with my friends, and then I go home to the cats.”
“Paper Rings”
Using the idiom “cat and mouse,” which refers to a back-and-forth pursuit, Swift sings about her favourite animal as soon as once more on the Lover monitor “Paper Rings.”
The tune describes the evolution of a relationship from a pair’s first assembly to a wedding proposal with “paper rings.” Of the twosome’s preliminary courting, Swift sings, “Cat and mouse for a month or two or three / Now I wake up in the night and watch you breathe.”
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“Vigilante Sh*t”
Swift begins one among her extra risqué songs, “Vigilante Sh*t” off of 2022’s Midnights, with the lyric, “Draw the cat eye, sharp enough to kill a man.”
The pop star is referencing the eyeliner method that mimics the slant of a cat eye within the tune, which takes intention at an enemy from her previous. (Many followers have theorized that this tune is about her feud with Scooter Braun.)
“They say looks can kill and I might try,” Swift sings later within the refrain. “I don’t dress for women / I don’t dress for men / Lately, I’ve been dressing for revenge.”
“Karma”
In the dance-pop tune off Midnights, Swift makes use of a slew of metaphors to convey karma working in her favor.
“Karma is my boyfriend / Karma is a god / Karma is the breeze in my hair on the weekend / Karma’s a relaxing thought / Aren’t you envious that for you it’s not?” Swift sings within the tune’s refrain.
She continues: “Sweet like honey, karma is a cat / purring in my lap ‘cause it loves me.”
