Taylor Swift in tribute to city group
TAYLOR SWIFT has paid tribute to a Glasgow band on her eagerly anticipated album The Tortured Poets Department.
Released yesterday, the singer- songwriter’s 11th studio album and is believed to heavily reference her break- ups with British actor Joe Alwyn and The 1975 frontman Matt Healy.
The opening lyrics to the track Guilty As Sin reveals Swift was introduced to The Blue Nile by one of her exes.
In the song, she claims she still cries every time she hears their haunting 1989 song Downtown Lights.
The lyrics go: “Drowning in the Blue Nile, He sent me ‘ Downtown Lights’, I haven’t heard it in a while, My boredom’s bone- deep, This cage was once just fine, Am I allowed to cry?”
According to reports an insider said: “Taylor loves The Blue Nile and thinks the group are different class and yes she was introduced to the band by a former love. The lyrics speak for themselves.”
Swift dated Alwyn for six years before they broke up in April 2023.
She then embarked on a controversial but short- lived relationship with Healy before she met her current partner NFL star Travis Kelce.
Founded in 1981, The Blue Nile consisted of Paul Buchanan, Robert Bell and Paul Joseph Moore.
Their early music was built heavily on synthesizers and electronic instrumentation and percussion, with later works featuring guitar more prominently.
The band gained critical acclaim for their first two albums A Walk Across the Rooftops ( 1984) and Hats ( 1989), though they only had four top 75 hits in the UK singles chart with the highest being Saturday Night which reached number 50 in 1991.
The band members gained a reputation for their avoidance of publicity, their idiosyncratic dealings with the recording industry, their perfectionism and slow work rate.