Taylor Swift took home Album of the Year for 2020's folklore during Sunday's 63rd Annual Grammy Awards—making history as the first female to win the honor three times. During her acceptance speech, alongside collaborators Laura Sisk, Jack Antonoff, and Aaron Dessner, Swift thanked longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn.
"[He] is the first person who I play every new song I write," Swift said, "and I had the best time writing songs with you in quarantine."
In November 2020, the singer explained just how crucial Alwyn was in the process of her eighth studio album. In Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, Swift confirmed fan theories that "William Bowery," the songwriter credited on "betty" and "exile" alongside Swift, was, in fact, Alwyn.
"He plays piano beautifully, and he’s always just playing and making things up and kind of creating things," she added in the Disney+ film.
And in an Apple Music interview, Swift explained their working relationship further, saying, “Joe and I really love sad songs. We've always bonded over music. I say it was a surprise that we started writing together, but in a way, it wasn't because we have always bonded over music and had the same musical tastes. And he's always the person who's showing me songs by artists and then they become my favorite songs or whatever."
The couple has been together since late 2016/early 2017. Though the beginning of their relationship was incredibly secretive, the singer and actor have since become slightly more public, even appearing at last year's Golden Globes together. (Though Alwyn wasn't in attendance Sunday night.)
Swift also gave best friends Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds a shout-out during the speech noting that the couple are the "second and third" people she plays her songs for before releasing them.
Lively and Reynolds, of course, are parents to Inez, James, and Betty, who all have songs written about them or named after them on folklore. (Let's not forget James was even featured in Swift’s song "Gorgeous" on her Reputation album.) The couple also gave Swift permission to reveal the name of their youngest daughter, Betty, on folklore.
The A-listers have been close friends since 2015; Lively and Reynolds have been incredibly supportive of Swift's music. After folklore's release, Lively penned on social media, "“Can we all please crawl inside that piano with you and live in this album...Like you, folklore is full of heart, soul, humor, passion, intelligence, wit, whimsy, reality, imagination, strength, vulnerability, and above all things: Love. We <3 you."
