Some fans think he got two songs—others think he got more than that.

 

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Travis Kelce has officially entered the chat. While there’s so much more to Taylor Swift’s music than the relationships they allegedly document, it’s objectively fun to comb the 34-year-old pop star’s discography for connections to her lore, so that’s what Swifties were bound to do with The Tortured Poets Department and Swift’s surprise 2 a.m. drop, TTPD: The Anthology.

And while this 31-song double album appears to spend a lot more time unpacking the transition from Swift’s six-year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn to her turbulent summer fling with Matty Healy, her current boyfriend, Travis Kelce, also has his moments. The most obvious ode to KillaTrav comes in the form of the Anthology song “So High School,” which clearly documents the rediscovery of that giddy, nostalgic sort of love she found following her emotionally taxing tryst with Healy. There’s a reason it comes right after “How Did It End?,” which seems to conduct the “postmortem” on that dizzying chapter in her life.

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But “So High School” wasn’t the only mark Kelce left on The Tortured Poets Department. Fans also believe one song off the initial album is dedicated to Kelce, matching a former report that Swift wrote “at least two songs” about the NFL player and their love story. “She’s written at least two songs,” a source told Us Weekly in March. “They have to do with their love story and falling in love with him.”

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Though the source claimed the songs wouldn’t make it onto Swift’s next album, this report lines up with fan interpretations of “The Alchemy” and “So High School,” though there may be a few more references to the baller on Tortured Poets. Here’s everything Swifties have picked apart.

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“The Alchemy”

While Swift and Kelce began dating in August after the Chiefs player gave her a shout-out on his New Heights podcast in late July, they didn’t go public until Swift began attending his football games in late September.

There are a slew of football references the lyrics of “The Alchemy,” particularly in the chorus: “So when I touch down / Call the amateurs and cut ’em from the team / Ditch the clowns, get the crown / Baby, I’m the one to be / ’Cause the sign on your heart / Said it’s still reserved for me / Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy?”

The bit doesn’t stop there: “These blokes warm the benches. We’ve been on a winning streak,” she sings. “He jokes that ‘it’s heroin, but this time with an E.’”

But here’s a question: Is “I circled you on a map” a reference to all those claims that Swift put Kelce on the map? And how about these lyrics: “Shirts off, and your friends lift you up, over their heads / Beer stickin’ to the floor, cheers chanted ’cause they said / ‘There was no chance trying to be the greatest in the league’ / Where’s the trophy? He just comes, running over to me.” As we know, Kelce isn’t the only one running.

Read all “The Alchemy” lyrics here:

This happens once every few lifetimes
These chemicals hit me like white wine
What if I told you I’m back?
The hospital was a drag
Worst sleep that I ever had
I circled you on a map
I haven’t come around in so long
But I’m coming back so strong

So when I touch down
Call the amateurs and cut ’em from the team
Ditch the clowns, get the crown
Baby, I’m the one to be
‘Cause the sign on your heart
Said it’s still reserved for me
Honestly, who are we to fight thе alchemy?

Hey, you, what if I told you we’rе cool?
That child’s play back in school
Is forgiven under my rule
I haven’t come around in so long
But I’m making a comeback to where I belong

So when I touch down
Call the amateurs and cut ’em from the team
Ditch the clowns, get the crown
Baby, I’m the one to be
’Cause the sign on your heart
Said it’s still reserved for me
Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy?

These blokes warm the benches
We’ve been on a winning streak
He jokes that “it’s heroin, but this time with an E”
’Cause the sign on your heart
Said it’s still reserved for me
Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy?

Shirts off and your friends lift you up over their heads
Beer stickin’ to the floor, cheers chanted ’cause they said
There was no chance trying to be the greatest in the league
Where’s the trophy? He just comes runnin’ over to me

Touch down
Call the amateurs and cut ’em from the team
Ditch the clowns, get the crown
Baby, I’m the one to be
’Cause the sign on your heart
Said it’s still reserved for me
Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy?

These blokes warm the benches
We’ve been on a winning streak
He jokes that “it’s heroin, but this time with an E”
’Cause the sign on your heart
Said it’s still reserved for me
Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy?

This happens once every few lifetimes
These chemicals hit me like white wine

“Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus”

If you’re one of the fans that believes this heartbreaking track is about Healy, then this lyric must reference Kelce: “And you saw my bones out with somebody new who seemed like he would’ve bullied you in school. And you just watched it happen.”

“So High School”

Let’s just start by noting that the image attached to this song on Spotify features stadium lights. More blatantly, Swift highlighted their initials in the song’s official lyrics video, using pink letters for “T,” “K,” “T,” and “S” in the lyrics, “cheeks pink in the twinkling lights.”

Obviously, this song is one big Traylor reference, but “You know how to ball, I know Aristotle” deeply checks out. It also feels necessary to call out “You knew what you wanted and, boy, you got her,” which clearly references how their relationship started. (The football star’s full government name is actually Travis “Mastermind” Kelce, after all.)

One of Swift’s less obvious references was the line “Are you gonna marry, kiss, or kill me? (Kill me) It’s just a game, but really (Really).” Um, Taylor…you already know the answer!

Back in 2016 Kelce was asked to play a round of Kill, Marry, Kiss while choosing among Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, and Swift. “That’s messed up; I don’t want to kill any of them,” he said at the time, per InStyle. “Ariana, I’d kill, unfortunately. Love you, but you’re gone. And then Taylor Swift would be kiss and Katy Perry…Katy Perry would be the marry.”

Here are the “So High School” lyrics:

I feel so high school every time I look at you
I wanna find you in a crowd just to hide from you

And in a blink of a crinklin’ eye
I’m sinkin’, our fingers entwined
Cheeks pink in the twinkling lights
Tell me ’bout the first time you saw me
I’ll drink what you think and I’m high
From smokin’ your jokes all damn night
The brink of a wrinkle in time
Bittersweet sixteen suddenly

I’m watchin’ American Pie with you on a Saturday night
Your friends are around, so be quiet
I’m trying to stifle my sighs
’Cause I feel so high school every time I look at you
But look at you
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah

Are you gonna marry, kiss or kill me? (Kill me)
It’s just a game, but really (Really)
I’m bettin’ on all three for us two (All three)
Get my car door, isn’t that sweet? (That sweet)
Then pull me to thе backseat (The backseat)

No onе’s ever had me (Had me), not like you

Truth, dare, spin bottles
You know how to ball, I know Aristotle
Brand new, full throttle
Touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto
It’s true, swear, scout’s honor
You knew what you wanted and, boy, you got her
Brand-new, full throttle
You already know, babe

I feel like laughing in the middle of practice
To that impression you did of your dad again
I’m hearing voices like a madman

And in a blink of a crinkling eye
I’m sinking, our fingers entwined
Cheeks pink in the twinkling lights
Tell me ’bout the first time you saw me
I’ll drink what you think and I’m high
From smoking your jokes all damn night
The brink of a wrinkle in time
Bittersweet 16 suddenly

I’m watching American Pie with you on a Saturday night
Your friends are around, so be quiet
I’m trying to stifle my sighs
’Cause I feel so high school (Feel so high school) every time I look at you
But look at you

Truth, dare, spin bottles
You know how to ball, I know Aristotle
Brand-new, full throttle
Touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto
It’s true, swear, scout’s honor
You knew what you wanted and, boy, you got her
Brand-new, full throttle
You already know, babe
You already know, babe

“The Albatross”

While fans immediately connected “The Alchemy” and “So High School” to Kelce, it took a little bit longer for fans to begin theorizing that “The Albatross” was also written for Kelce.

An albatross, by the way, is a large white bird seabird often used as a metaphor for an emotional burden, or as Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it: “Something that greatly hinders accomplishment.”

Before the Chiefs’ big Super Bowl win, some sports fans and media pundits were quick to blame Swift for a few team losses, claiming she was a distraction. Travis Kelce seemed unbothered by the negative attention, telling reporters, “As long as we’re happy, we can’t listen to anything that’s outside noise—that’s all that matters.”

“Cautions issued, he stood/Shooting the messengers/They tried to warn him about her,” Swift sings before the chorus: “Cross your thoughtless heart/Only liquor anoints you/She’s the albatross/She is here to destroy you.”

“Travis Kelce is the one that’s being warned in ‘The Albatross,’” says TikTok user @TaylorSizzle, who also shared some literary references to back up her theory.

Here are all the lyrics to “The Albatross”:

Wise men once said
“Wild winds are death to the candle”
A rose by any other name is a scandal
Cautions issued, he stood
Shooting the messengers
They tried to warn him about her

Cross your thoughtless heart
Only liquor anoints you
She’s the albatross
She is here to destroy you

Wise men once said
“One bad seed kills the garden”
“One less temptress, one less dagger to sharpen”
Locked me up in towers
But I’d visit in your dreams
And they tried to warn you about me

Cross your thoughtless heart
Only liquor anoints you
She’s the albatross
She is here to destroy you
Devils that you know
Raise worse hell than a stranger
She’s the death you chose
You’re in terrible danger

And when that sky rains fire on you
And you’re persona non grata
I’ll tell you how I’ve been there too
And that none of it matters

Wise men once read fake news
And they believed it
Jackals raised their hackles
You couldn’t conceive it
You were sleeping soundly
When they dragged you from your bed
And I tried to warn you about them

So I crossed my thoughtless heart
Spread my wings like a parachute
I’m the albatross
I swept in at the rescue
The devil that you know
Looks now more like an angel
I’m the life you chose
And all this terrible danger
(This terrible danger)

So cross your thoughtless heart
She’s the albatross
She is here to destroy you

This post may be updated with more theories.