Taylor Swift’s ‘thanK you aIMee’ lyrics and Kim Kardashian references explained

Taylor Swift isn’t at all times recognized for being refined together with her references—simply ask Jake (or John, or Joe, or…you get the thought). So when The Tortured Poets Division: The Anthology dropped on 19 April with a whopping 15 further bonus tracks, together with “thanK you aIMee,” Swifties instantly clocked these capitalised letters as a probable reference to Kim Kardashian, with whom Swift has had a beef since 2016.

Within the track Swift sings a couple of highschool bully, one whose “bronze, spray-tanned” statue stands in her hometown. Whereas there aren’t any different express references to her explicit feud with Kardashian, the takeaway—that her expertise with the bully solely made her stronger—along with the title, appear to substantiate the theories that “thanK you aIMee” is about Ok-I-M, not anybody named “Aimee.”

The track’s title may additionally allude to Britney Spears’s 2008 track “If You Search Amy,” one other pop anthem that’s…not a couple of lady named Amy however about one thing else that is being spelled out.

In her 2023 Time individual of the 12 months cowl story, Swift delved into better element about her fall from grace after Kardashian leaked an edited lower of Swift’s cellphone name with Kardashian’s then-husband Kanye West, who had requested Swift permission to name-drop her in his track “Well-known.” Within the edit, Swift appeared to present West her consent; she later stated that she had not heard the lyric in full, through which Kanye refers to her as a “bitch” that he “made well-known.”

“That took me down psychologically to a spot I’ve by no means been earlier than,” she stated of the fallout from the leaked recording. “I moved to a international nation. I didn’t depart a rental home for a 12 months.

“I used to be afraid to get on cellphone calls,” she added. “I pushed away most individuals in my life as a result of I didn’t belief anybody anymore. I went down actually, actually laborious.”

After the Time article was revealed, TMZ reported that Kardashian had by no means provided an apology to Swift for the leak, or the vitriol she confronted within the aftermath. “Our sources say Kim’s by no means apologized to Taylor for the decision,” TMZ claimed. “And even after the Time article, it is nonetheless crickets.”

In “thanK you aIMee,” Swift sings, “It wasn’t a good battle or a clear kill,” and somewhat cuttingly, “Everybody is aware of that my mom is a saintly lady / However she used to say she wished that you just had been lifeless.”

In the end, nevertheless, the track is about rising from the ashes. “However once I rely the scars, there is a second of fact,” Swift sings. “That there would not be this, if there hadn’t been you.”

You may learn the complete thanK you aIMee’ lyrics right here:

1st verse
Once I image my hometown
There is a bronze spray-tanned statue of you
And a plaque beneath it
That threatens to push me down the steps at our college

Pre-chorus
And it was at all times the identical searing ache
However I dreamed that, sooner or later, I may say