Taylor Swift Asked One of Harry Styles's Favorite Bands to Handwrite Lyrics as a Birthday Gift for Him When They Were Dating
The Temper Trap said Swift “came to our green room with a piece of paper" during an awards show to ask for the favor

Show of hands: Was anyone expecting new Haylor lore in *checks watch* 2025? (And that's "Haylor" as in Taylor Swift and Harry Styles together, as a singular unit/couple, which they were, circa 2012/2013, just to be clear.) And lore that didn't come in the form of song lyrics or, for that matter, from Swift or Styles at all? Us either, but that's where we are and we're not mad about it.
The Haylor intel in question came courtesy of Australian indie rock band The Temper Trap, who posted a new video on TikTok this week to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their debut studio album, Conditions. In it, the band oh-so-casually revealed that Swift once asked them to help her with a birthday gift for her then-boyfriend, Styles.
@thetempertrap ♬ Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap
In the video, Temper Trap lead singer Dougy Mandagi explained that the group first became aware that Styles (who was hitting peak One Direction fame at the time) was a fan when he revealed he'd gotten a tattoo of lyrics from one of their songs, “Sweet Disposition"—or had attempted to at, at least.
Unfortunately, according to Mandagi, the lyrics in Styles' tattoo weren't exactly correct, and left the group “laughing about how it was wrong."
According to People, while Styles' script-font tattoo read, "Won’t stop ‘til we surrender,” the actual lyrics are "“And won't stop 'til it's over / Won't stop to surrender."
A while after The Temper Trap learned about Styles' flattering (if not-totally-correct) fan tattoo, Mandagi says, the group was approached by the singer's then-girlfriend, Swift, at the ARIA Awards.
According to Mandagi, the "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart" singer was a “presenter or something” at the awards show and “came to our green room with a piece of paper" and a sweet request.
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“She goes, ‘Oh, can you write it? Can you write the lyrics for my boyfriend, it’s his birthday?’ We’re like, ‘Okay, cool,'" Mandagi revealed, adding that he immediately wondered which version of the lyrics he should write. “Do I write the right lyrics, or do I write the wrong lyrics?”
Unless Swift or Styles would like to weigh in, the world will never know which version he ultimately wrote, however, since the Temper Trap singer insists he “can’t remember which one [he] wrote.”
Which version of the lyrics he wrote might be a little murky, but the way the indie band feels about their very famous fan is still crystal clear: They love him right back and harbor absolutely no hard feelings about the whole getting-the-wrong-lyrics-to-their-song-as-a-tattoo thing.
“Harry, we still love you even though you got the wrong lyrics to 'Sweet Disposition' tattooed,” the band captioned the TikTok post—before low-key capitalizing on their Haylor connection to promote their latest release. “Still a few copies of the 'Conditions' 15th anniversary limited vinyl pressing available, if you love the record as much as Harry did.”
Subtle? No, but then, neither is getting the wrong lyrics as a tattoo or having a very famous girlfriend who approached your favorite band to help her make you a birthday gift, so guess we'll call it even?
Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with over 10 years of professional experience covering entertainment of all genres, from new movie and TV releases to nostalgia, and celebrity news. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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