Background

“CANCELLED!” is the tenth track from Taylor Swift’s twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, released on October 2025. The song is written and produced by Swift, Max Martin and Shellback.

In this song review of Taylor Swift’s “CANCELLED!”, I explore Taylor’s firm stance on loyalty, the song’s relatability (or lack thereof), and the elements that make it quintessentially Taylor.

They Stood by Me Before My Exoneration

No matter how cringe or disconnected Taylor sounded in “CANCELLED!”, I actually agree with her sentiments on friendship. Swift takes a firm stand on loyalty, and bases her friendship on experiences, and not what the court of public opinion has to say. Bad optics do not change a person’s character in private. A friend is not a brand to be managed. And most of all, if this is about Blake, no matter who is in the right between Blake and Baldoni, is frankly none of our business.

I’ve had a friend who many consider “cancellable”. He ended up getting accused of a crime, one that was never proven in court. And no matter how tempting it was to distance myself from him, I cannot deny that he was there for me during the early days when I moved overseas. And for that, I am grateful.

Back to Taylor, she is in a unique position to defend her friends because she has survived the same scrutiny herself, most notably during the massive backlash she faced in 2016. She understands that cancel culture can often become a “mob mentality” where the punishment is much larger than the mistake (if there’s even a mistake). By refusing to distance herself from controversial figures, she is declaring that the loud voices on social media have no right to decide who she loves or who she trusts. And I stan that (not necessarily the musicality which we’ll get to).

I Like ‘Em Cloaked in Gucci and in Scandal

Maybe Taylor was being intentional and satirical. And I can respect that “creative” decision in the service of art. But this persona feels excessively elite and untouchable, and I’m not a fan. She has earned that right. But so have I to not be a fan of everything. There’s something about the character she built that is distant and unrelatable.

Her earlier work is often context specific (e.g. red scarf and dancing in front of the refrigerator light). But she still focused on universal feelings that made the average listener relate – be it general insecurity or about lovers that got away. But framing her life through the lens of expensive fashion and high-society scandal, she creates a barrier that’s too high to overcome. And I’m the first to admit I’m a stan. But this reality as a billionaire superstar is too different from the everyday experiences of listeners like me.

Can’t You See My Infamy Loves Company?

Even though I would rank “CANCELLED!” amongst my three least favourite tracks in “The Life of a Showgirl”, there are elements of the song that are quintessentially Taylor. She uses high-brow literary references that I’d never be exposed to unless she puts them in a song. And there are a lot of self-referential storytelling (simply put, easter eggs) that residents of her multiverse enjoy. She inserts a Shakespearean line “something wicked this way comes”. She returns to her favourite theme of a witch hunt. She also makes a clever nod to her 2017 track “Call It What You Want”. While she once sang about being outmatched in a “knife to a gunfight,” she now brings a “tiny violin to a knife fight”, showing her growth from a victim of circumstances, to a confident player who can laugh at her own drama.

The track also highlights her signature ability to flip public attacks into a source of personal power. I believe that “Blank Space” still deserved that Grammy Award for Song of the Year for “Blank Space”. But here we are.

Throughout her career, Swift has taken the names people call her, like “snake” or “calculated”, and worn them as armour. By embracing the villain role the media gives her, she strips the “court of public opinion” of its influence, proving that she is most dangerous and creative when her back is against the wall. This transformation of pain into art is a core part of her identity as a songwriter.

Conclusion

I admire her fearlessness and unwavering loyalty. I find elements of “CANCELLED!” familiar. I can spot bits of what makes Taylor Swift brilliant. But in its entirety, I don’t vibe with the track. And I don’t have to… and it’s okay.