“There goes the last great American dynasty, Who knows, if she never showed up, what could’ve been …”

I’ve become something of a Swifty these last few years, having discovered the singer songwriter during lockdown. And I have to say my favourite album (to date) has to be Folklore. There’s something about the songs on this album that reached out to me. Not least because I can sing along to them all, and know all the words—yes, by heart.

It wasn’t till recently though that I fully understood the lyrics, and the emotion behind the words in the quote above. I watched the recent documentary, The Long Pond Studio Sessions, in which we hear about Swift’s thought process and the creation of these songs and lyrics. The evolution is as interesting as is the emotional punch behind them. I love that I also got a bit of a history lesson and learnt about the divorcee, Rebekah Harkness—who married Standard Oil heir William Hale Harkness in 1947—a story which inspired the song, The Last Great American Dynasty.

I think Harkness had the last laugh and, in some respects, given the huge success of Taylor Swift who’s riding the world on the crest of a huge wave of popularity, so is she.

Here’s to loud women everywhere.