“Where’s the trophy? He just comes running over to me,” the pop star sings.
Fans weren’t sure if Taylor Swift would feature a song about Travis Kelce on her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, which the pop star has been working on since well before their romance began mid-2023. However, many listeners are convinced that one track on the LP’s expansive two-part tracklist is definitely about the Kansas City Chiefs tight end: “The Alchemy.”
A song about an all-powerful, once-in-a-lifetime attraction to a new partner, “The Alchemy” finds Swift making a number of apparent references to Kelce’s chosen sport. “So when I touch down, call the amateurs and cut ’em from the team,” she sings. “These blokes warm the benches/ We’ve been on a winning streak/ He jokes that ‘It’s heroin, but this time with an E.’”
“Shirts off and your friends lift you up over their heads,” Swift continues in a bridge full of lyrics reminiscent of the couple’s post-Super Bowl celebrations. “Beer sticking 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.”
The use of NFL vocabulary was not lost on fans, who quickly took to social media to discuss after Tortured Poets hit streaming services at midnight Friday (April 19). “THE ALCHEMY IS A TRAVIS SONG WE WON,” one fan wrote on X, sharing a video of Swift watching one of Kelce’s games during the 2023-24 season with Ice Spice.
“The Alchemy” is one of 16 tracks on the main Tortured Poets tracklist, which just about doubled two hours after its initial release when Swift unveiled an extended Anthology version at 2 a.m. Friday. Featuring collaborations with Post Malone and Florence + the Machine — as well as seeming references to the 14-time Grammy winner’s past relationships with Joe Alwyn and the 1975’s Matty Healy, as well as her Kim Kardashian feud — the sprawling set follows her Billboard 200-topping 2022 record Midnights.
See what fans are saying about Swift, Kelce and “The Alchemy” below.
taylor swift and travis kelce are the alchemy pic.twitter.com/CnXPmIrgdS
— chynna | (taylor’s version) (@chynnaalexisss) April 19, 2024
THE ALCHEMY IS A TRAVIS SONG WE WON pic.twitter.com/8RINYlhnMZ
— val • (@karmaszone) April 19, 2024
The Alchemy seems to be about Travis and for the first time in my life a Taylor Swift song is giving me chills.
I like it here.
— Kylie Winfrey (@thekyliewinfrey) April 19, 2024
Guys the Alchemy is about Travis without a doubt
— Jack (Travis’s Version) I Saw Taylor (@JackTomo7139) April 19, 2024
Is…….is…the alchemy????? About?????? Travis?????????
— penelope (taylor’s version) (@thisisptrying13) April 19, 2024
taylor putting football references in the alchemy pic.twitter.com/70dNXZz8uT
— cam (@smackcam13) April 19, 2024
Where’s the trophy? He just comes, running over to me – TS, the alchemy pic.twitter.com/24o6qPrt9D
— alexis (@evermorelex) April 19, 2024
the football references in the alchemy pic.twitter.com/NSRKK5F2vY
— connor ♡ benji ‧₊˚ (@ivymidnights) April 19, 2024
We’ll all remember where we were when we realized The Alchemy was about Travis Kelce.
— Alex Goldschmidt (@alexandergold) April 19, 2024
