30 Songs Behind The Taylor Swift Phenomenon. Continues: tomorrow. 

Caffè Lattè looks back on:

30 KEY SONGS BEHIND THE

TAYLOR SWIFT

PHENOMENOM

XIX
July 2020

CARDIGAN

By 2020, Taylor Swift had already won the Album of the Year Grammy Award twice: first for ‘Fearless’ in 2010 and again in 2016 for ‘1989’. In 2020, she joined an elite group, becoming only the fourth artist (and the only female) to win in that category thrice, alongside Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder who had accomplished this feat back in the 1970s and Frank Sinatra, who did it in the preceding decade. Swift’s latest Album of the Year Grammy was for ‘Folklore’.

The album’s lead single was “Cardigan”. Swift co-wrote the song with Aaron Dessner from the group The National, who also produced the track. The single became Swift’s first chart-topping disc in America since 2017. It also reached the summit in Australia. In Britain, the track peaked at #6.

Around the same time as “Cardigan” was released, Swift dropped her ‘Folklore’ album. It topped charts in America, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and various European countries. Swift worked on the album during a COVID-19 related lockdown. It marked another shift in her sound, switching from pop to a more indie-flavoured style.

“Cardigan” was followed on the US Chart by “Exile” which reached #6 and  “Betty”, which stalled just outside the Top 40. The former featured indie folk act Bon Iver. Only five months later, Swift released a new album.