The Ultimate Comeback: Victory and Acclaim in “The Alchemy”

Taylor Swift’s love letter to the Eras Tour.

When The Tortured Poets Department came out in April, a lot of fans were quick to assume that “The Alchemy” was about Taylor Swift’s relationship with Travis Kelce. On account of all of the sports references, this was unsurprising. Nevertheless, a closer analysis of the lyrics and the context that the song has amassed since its release points to a different interpretation entirely. For one thing, the “he” and “you” figures are distinct. Additionally, the song tells of a return and reconciliation, not a whirlwind romance—rather, it’s a celebration of Swift’s triumphant return to live performance with the Eras Tour over the last two years. Through extended metaphor, she compares herself to an elite athlete and the swiftie audiences to sports fanatics.¹

Your Favorite Sport

Since its release, “The Alchemy” has become the first song to play at the end of each Eras Tour concert, replacing “You’re on Your Own, Kid,” another song about Swift’s music career. The song lyrics are not the only connection between swifties and sports fandom. Throughout the Eras Tour, games like Swiftball and Mastermind quickly garnered popularity among fans who watched livestreams of the shows from home. The name Swiftball is adapted from Fantasy Football, a game where players similarly earn points based on predictions and outcomes in the NFL. During the second LA show of the Eras Tour, on August 4th, 2023, Swift acknowledged and applauded this tradition: “Anybody who’s been following this tour like it’s your favorite sport, I just— I love you so much, I appreciate you.” The phenomenon of this level of fan engagement that extends beyond the stadiums might have contributed to the inspiration for this song.

In the first verse, Swift acknowledges how grateful she is to be back on tour: “This happens once every few lifetimes / These chemicals hit me like white wine.” In the past, she toured every era, through reputation in 2018, before the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted this tradition. Four eras or musical “lifetimes” later, Swift began the Eras Tour in 2023. This tour has been a remarkable feat of human history, constantly breaking and setting records. Swift likens performing on this scale to “white wine,” the resultant endorphins being intoxicating “chemicals.” With the crowd in the palm of her hand, she teases her return to the stage: “What if I told you I’m back?” Her dominance of the global live entertainment space answers this question. The beginning of the Eras Tour saw Swift become more prominent in the public eye than ever before, and her popularity continues to grow to unprecedented heights. Notably, this lyric was added to the Eras Tour intro compilation, narrating her return on a nightly basis.

She’s Back

Swift touches on the TTPD mental hospital theme from “Fortnight”: “The hospital was a drag / Worst sleep that I ever had.” The “hospital,” which she treats with casual dismissal, also symbolizes being locked away from the world in isolation. With the cancellation of Lover Fest, which would have taken place in the summer of 2020, and the inability to tour her subsequent albums for three more years, this time away was a forced “sleep” that left her restless. Swift quickly returns to the topic at hand: “I circled you on a map / I haven’t come around in so long / But I’m coming back so strong.” The word “circled” has two meanings here. Not only has she “circled” places on a literal map to select concert locations, but she has also flown around the world without landing at any of the venues for “so long.” After her years off from live shows, she lets everyone know that she’s “coming back so strong.” This is a reference to both her physically rigorous training regimen for the 3.5 hour concert and her confidence in taking on this challenge and impressing the world.

The American football extended metaphor comes into play in the chorus: “So when I touch down / Call the amateurs and cut ‘em from the team.” This lyric is an obvious play on scoring a touchdown, but is also an allusion to Swift’s penchant for travelling by private jet. When she lands in a new city, she becomes the star player of the stadium, replacing the “team” of athletes who typically play there. The term “amateurs” could also be a reference to the other artists that she consistently outsells, or to casual listeners of her music who didn’t buy tickets to the tour. In any case, the resultant “team” is made up of the performers and the dedicated audiences watching her shows.

Midas Touch

Swift then adds an element of royalty to the metaphor: “Ditch the clowns, get the crown / Baby, I’m the one to beat.” This sentiment is the opposite to lyrics from “Call It What You Want”: ”They took the crown” and “All the jokers dressing up as kings.” In that song, Swift describes the general public turning against her before the release of reputation, whereas now, with this tour, she is at the top of her game in the music industry. She is reclaiming her “crown” (and leadership position) that the “jokers” or “clowns” took from her.² With the highest-grossing tour in history and a physically taxing show that is almost perfectly performed every time, Swift is “the one to beat.”³

The end of the chorus comes back to Swift’s relationship with her fans: “‘Cause the sign on your heart / Said it’s still reserved for me / Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy?” These lyrics acknowledge swifties’ unwavering love and support, even during the years without live concerts and face-to-face contact. With a show traversing 18 years of music, Swift commends the loyalty of the fans whose “heart[s]” are “still reserved” for her. The cheeky rhetorical question suggests that this return was inevitable and determined by forces outside of everyone’s control. The word “alchemy,” however, is an interesting choice. It refers to a protoscientific tradition that predates chemistry from when people had a more limited understanding of natural phenomena. The medieval aspect of this term, as well as its magical element of transforming metals into gold, could hearken back to the longevity of Swift’s career and her fandom.

Despite these positive implications, in reality, alchemy never succeeded in achieving the impossible feats it pursued.⁴ In terms of the Eras Tour, this is true of its real-world impact. Every place that Swift performs seems to temporarily turn to gold, with an influx of tourism and economic boost as swifties travel from near and far to see the shows. Several cities have put up new signage and artwork or even renamed themselves in honor of the tour. Once she and her Midas touch leave, however, the effect is reversed and the lasting impact stays primarily with the audiences instead. Swift actually left an extremely straightforward Easter egg for this song and its meaning at the Eras Tour show in Las Vegas on March 24th, 2023, more than a year before it was released: “I’m just curious, what’s the alchemy that makes up a crowd like this?”

Homecoming

The second verse of the song touches on returning swifties or those who might have been initially skeptical about being fans: “Hey, you, what if I told you we’re cool? / That child’s play back in school / Is forgiven under my rule.” Swift directly addresses and offers forgiveness to people who used to be haters or did not recognize her talent. She emphasizes the contrast between then and now by characterizing the former as a juvenile “school” and the latter as her own kingdom. By minimizing the past mistakes as “child’s play” in hindsight, she takes the high road and welcomes everyone into her domain. The second time around, there is a new lyric in the pre-chorus: “I’m making a comeback to where I belong.” Swift has made impressive comebacks throughout her career, and although the Eras Tour is not a response to public disdain, it is a move back into a space she feels she “belong[s].” Indeed, it’s a homecoming of sorts, which adds to the football metaphor.

Main Character Energy

The second chorus repeats the first one but also contains additional lyrics: “These blokes warm the benches / We’ve been on a winning streak.” The players are forced to wait on the figurative sidelines of the stadium while Swift performs and outshines everyone, “winning.” Like the “amateurs,” these benchwarmers might be the athletes who usually play there. On account of “blokes” being British slang, this specificity alludes to her return to the UK, where she lived for several years. The “so long” lyric before the chorus might also then be a play on “So Long, London.” Notably, Swift performed “The Alchemy” as a surprise song at her first show back in London on August 15th, 2024, after the unexpected cancellation of the Vienna concerts. Her “winning streak” still prevailed, as it has throughout the tour with its astronomical ticket demand and the addition of shows and legs.

In the meantime, Swift has continued to release new music: “He jokes that it’s heroin, but this time with an ‘E.’” It is unclear who “he” is in this line, but he is clearly distinct from the “you” figure. In the context of the joke, he is likely a close friend, family member, or collaborator—someone that Swift shares her success with, in any case. The drug reference here has a direct tie to “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”: “Put narcotics into all of my songs / And that’s why you’re still singin’ along.” In a play on words, Swift is both the heroine of her story and the “narcotics” that keep fans coming back. More specifically, the thrill of a live concert gives both the audiences and Swift herself the feeling of a high.

Girlhood

The bridge leans into the sports metaphor even further, with an image of celebrating the team’s win: “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.’” The pronouns in this section are interesting. Based on the rest of the song, the “you” figure corresponds to the swifties and audiences at the Eras Tour. Swift thus applies the traditionally masculine image of sports celebration, with “[s]hirts off,” “[b]eer,” and “cheers,” to the feminine in the celebration of girlhood that the Eras Tour came to represent. The pronoun “they” refers to the people who doubted her success, in a lyric reminiscent of one from “Long Live”: “And the cynics were outraged / Screaming, ‘this is absurd.’”

Of course, Swift quickly proves these people wrong: “Where’s the trophy? He just comes runnin’ over to me.” As she has been the triumphant one throughout the song, she has just won a “trophy,” but before she can receive it, another “he” figure comes over to congratulate her. While winning is a great feeling, it is the relationships and the people that you share your success with that are most important to Swift. This “he” could be the same one as earlier in the song, but the context doesn’t necessitate this. Although we don’t know who Swift means here, the explanation I enjoy the most that I’d like to put out there is that this is a reference to her and Jack Antonoff celebrating with their handshake and hug at the table before she goes up to accept her Grammys.

After a final iteration of the chorus, the first two lyrics of the song return to form an outro. With the hindsight of the end of the song, the “chemicals” tie back to the concept of alchemy, and the simile that they are “like white wine” doubles as a reference to magical transformation. The line that followed in the first verse was “What if I told you I’m back?”, and its absence here sets up a cyclical pattern for the next time Swift makes a momentous return. Ultimately, while the colossal cultural impact of the Eras Tour speaks for itself, this song offers some insight into Swift’s appreciation of her fans as well as her love for her art and performance.

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1. For the sake of the argument, I'll be referring to the speaker in this song as Swift herself.

2. This is also referenced in "peace": "But there's robbers to the east, clowns to the west."

3. This lyric is also hilarious if considered a reference to the Mastermind game, since she literally has the answer key every night.

4. On a more sinister note, this could refer to the relationship between Swift and her fans and how it feels so special and personal but will never be more than one-way idolization. But this might just be because I still have "Bite The Hand" on my mind.