Taylor Swift confirms Cancelled meaning on The Life of a Showgirl

13 October 2025, 10:35

Who is Taylor Swift's song Cancelled! about? Here is everything we know about the Blake Lively, Brittany Mahomes and Sophie Turner theories.

Taylor Swift's song Cancelled! is the 10th track on the singer's new record The Life of a Showgirl and has become a firm favourite amongst the Swifties.

Joining 'The Fate of Ophelia', 'Opalite', 'Wi$h Li$t', 'Actually Romantic', 'Elizabeth Taylor', 'Ruin the Friendship', 'Wood', 'Honey', 'Eldest Daughter' and 'Father Figure' on the album, fans have suspected Cancelled! is about her ex-best friend Blake Lively, while others have suggested Sophie Turner is the subject of the song following her split from Joe Jonas.

Now Taylor has given fans an insight into what the tune is about, revealing: "The song Cancelled! is a song that's sort of a tongue and cheek glimpse at sort of social outrage, but everybody goes through now."

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She continued: "It's not just like if you're a public figure type whatever, it's like people gossiping about you in your town, negative comments that you read on your Instagram."

Taylor added: "You can literally feel cancelled by any sort of social backlash that you get and I've been through a lot of sort of discussion about everything that happens in my life and everything I do and everything I say.

"So I tend to like first of all anytime like people get backlash I tend to get to be the person they reach out to so it's very funny cause it's sort of like 'Oh yeah okay, no somebody told me that you go in trouble for making that joke. Hey yeah, how are you, it's gonna be fine, you're gonna be fine. If you want to go to lunch yeah it's fine.'

"I don't know I kind of wanted to write a song about how you can become wiser for it and how you can become sharper. I definitely judge people a lot less now that I've been kind of under the microscope for so long.

"I just judge people based on who I know them to be, their actions. Not some like sort of general consensus where people are like step away they're radioactive. I'm just not gonna do that, I'll do that if somebody proves that they're not a good person."

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Taylor also told Amazon Music: "The song 'Cancelled!' is sort of about, you know, having had my own experiences with mass judgment and being at the centre of many, you know, dramatic kind of scandalous moments in my career where people were all weighing in at once, or at least it felt like that.

"Having had those experiences, it makes me move through the world a little bit differently. And when other people go through it, you kind of find yourself thinking about how they're probably going to get smarter because of this. If they can get through it, if they can be tough enough, they can actually learn some things through this process.

"And how I don't naturally just cast people aside just because other people decide they don't like them. I make my own decisions about people based on how they treat me within my life and their actions. And so this is a song about all those themes."

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Fans have taken to X, formally known as Twitter, to muse over who they think the single is about, with Blake Lively and Sophie Turner being some of the names in the mix.

One user wrote: "One more proof that "CANCELLED!" was written about Blake Lively: Taylor Swift wore the exact same bracelet, that was made exclusively for Blake Lively, to wear on "It Ends With Us" Premiere, last year."

Another penned: "The concept of Taylor's CANCELLED! being about Sophie Turner and how the media turned on her after her divorce with Joe Jonas and he is their matching scar."

While a third added: "Taylor Swift saying f*** everyone who said she had to drop Blake Lively and 'cancelled' basically being a defender song."

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Many believed Taylor's song was about Blake Lively as their friendship appeared to come to an end after the singer was dragged into the actress's lawsuit with her co-star Justin Baldoni last year.

The song appears to defend those who have been 'cancelled' in the media, with Blake fitting the bill of whom the tune is about. Eagle-eyed fans also noticed that the artwork for Cancelled! involves Taylor wearing a bracelet worn by Blake at the It Ends with Us film premiere.

However others believe Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner is the subject of the song, after the pair grew close when the actress split from Joe Jonas, who also briefly dated Taylor in 2008.

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Upon Sophie and Joe's divorce being announced, the actress was reportedly framed as a 'party girl', with many interpreting Taylor's lyric, "Did they catch you having far too much fun?" as one directed at Sophie.

Sophie has previously said that Taylor has a "heart of gold", while also telling Vogue: "Taylor was an absolute hero to me this year. I've never been more grateful to anyone than I am for her because she took my children and me, and provided us with a home and a safe space."

Others believe the song may actually be about Taylor's friends Brittany Mahomes who is frequently dressed in Gucci, matching the line, "I like 'em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal."

So far Taylor hasn't confirmed who the song is about but we're keeping our eyes peeled for any more information!

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