The ‘Lucy’ Taylor Swift name dropped in her latest album is no longer a mystery.
Lucy Dacus of the band boygenius confirmed to People that she is the ‘Lucy’ in Taylor’s 2024 song, The Tortured Poets Department.
The 29-year-old revealed Swift, 35, sought her ‘approval’ to include her name in the song via a text message.
The song is believed to allude to Swift’s ex Matty Healy, 35, who runs in the same circles as Lucy.
‘I think it’s fair game to say ‘yes,”‘ Lucy, who is friends with Healy, said. ‘She actually texted me and asked for my approval.’
The lyrics in which Lucy’s name appear read: ‘Sometimes, I wonder if you’re gonna screw this up with me/But you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave/And I had said that to Jack about you, so I felt seen /Everyone we know understands why it’s meant to be / ‘Cause we’re crazy.’
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Lucy Dacus of the band boygenius has confirmed she is the ‘Lucy’ in Taylor Swift’s 2024 song, The Tortured Poets Department; pictured last year
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Lucy was once friends with Taylor’s ex Matty Healy; pictured 2023
Lucy called it an odd experience hearing the superstar say her name in the track.
‘This is the first Taylor record to come out since meeting her, and listening to a friend’s record feels so much different than a stranger’s record,’ she explained of listening to the song for the first time.
‘So I was like, “This is really weird. This voice that I’ve heard basically what feels like my whole waking life saying my name.”
Fans have already suspected Dacus was the sung-about ‘Lucy’.
Matty, who briefly dated Taylor following her split from Joe Alwyn, is known to move in the same circles as Lucy, as he’s friends with her boygenius bandmate Phoebe Bridgers.
While they reportedly had a good relationship in the past, Lucy now shares a distain for Matty after a heated Twitter spat in September 2023.
Referencing Lucy and Phoebe’s indie group, Matty posted: ‘I told Lucy Dacus that “Boygenius” had inspired me and George [Daniel] to start a new band called “Girlr*****”. I don’t really hear from her that often.’
Amid disgust online, Lucy responded bluntly: ‘You don’t hear from me at all.’
Matty went on to deactivate his account.
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The 2024 song is from the album of the same name
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Swift posed with Lucy, boygenius, and Jack Antonoff at last year’s Grammy Awards
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Dacus is a singer-songwriter from Richmond, Virginia.
Aged just 17 she released her debut EP, Girls Girly Back Home, in 2012 but gained traction with her first full album four years later – No Burden.
In 2018, she released her acclaimed second album, Historian, and also formed boygenius with Bridgers and Julien Baker.
A self-titled EP was released by the group later that year before the members went back their separate ways to pursue solo projects.
In 2021, Dacus released Home Video, another acclaimed album and her first to hit the charts in both the UK and US.
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Dacus is a singer-songwriter from Richmond, Virginia; pictured in 2022
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Boygenius returned to huge critical success in 2023 with a debut LP, the record, winning three Grammys – Best Alternative Music Album, Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance.
The trio also won Best International Group at the 2024 BRIT Awards.
After the record’s release, Swift prescribed it to ‘make your life better’ and she joyously celebrated its Grammy success with the supergroup.
As of February 1, 2024, boygenius is back on a hiatus ‘for the foreseeable future’