Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff have written more than a hundred songs together. So how do they keep things interesting? Especially when Swift is releasing multiple albums every year — not only rerecorded versions of her past albums but all-new ones, including this year’s sprawling, 31- song “Tortured Poets Department.”

“I never know what’s gonna happen next,” says Antonoff — Variety’s Hitmakers producer of the decade — who is not Swift’s only collaborator but has certainly been the one she’s worked with the most over the past 10 years. “It’s always an off-the-cuff surprise — dinner at the house that turns into messing around in my little studio that turns into a new idea. It’s utterly organic, which is pretty much how I work with everyone — like two people flying a plane, you know? It feels like we’re going somewhere together.”

In yet another year where Swift has been one of the most dominant cultural forces, even a relatively low-key album like “Tortured Poets” scored a hit single, “Fortnight.” She also had traction with a holdover from last year, the anthem “Cruel Summer,” which was originally released in 2019 but scored a second life last year thanks to Swift’s record-crushing “Eras Tour” (more on that in a moment).

Indeed, one way to keep things fresh is to bring in new collaborators like Post Malone, who is on a hot streak of his own this year, featured not just on this song but also Beyoncé’s “Levii’s Jeans” and with country superstarMorgan Wallen on his own “I Had Some Help” (this year’s No. 2 Hitmakers song). He seems an unlikely presence on such a gentle song as “Fortnight,” built around a softly pulsating synthesized bass line from Antonoff, but Post reveals a tender side that one might not have suspected from the face-tattooed hellion rapper behind “Beerbongs & Bentleys.”

“It’s once in a lifetime that someone like Taylor Swift comes into this world,” he wrote on social media (with a few emojis added in) after the song was released. “I am floored by your heart and your mind, and I am beyond honored to have been asked to help you with your journey. I love you so much. Thank you Tay.” More characteristically, he told People last year that she is “a fucking hell of a songwriter. Holy shit, amazing.”

The remarkable comeback of “Cruel Summer” is actually more of a 2023 story — the song was one of two by Swift on last year’s Hitmakers Top 25 — but it was big enough to carry into this year as well, largely due to its placement on the setlist of “The Eras Tour”: After a tiny snippet of “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,” the real start of the show was “Cruel Summer.”

In June of last year, the song suddenly made a streaming-driven reappearance on the Hot 100. On June 15, Republic announced that “Cruel Summer” was going to pop radio — even though the designated radio single of the moment, “Karma,” from “Midnights,” was still on the rise. (“Karma” didn’t exactly get squelched, in the self-competition; that single made it to No. 2.) “Cruel Summer” entered the Top 10 in July and finally reached No. 1 on Oct. 23. As “The Eras Tour” carried on, so did the song.

“Fortnight”
Songwriters Jack Antonoff, Post Malone, Taylor Swift
Producers Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift
Publishers Ducky Donath Music, Isimo Compositions, Posty Publishing, Songs of Universal, Sony/ATV Songs, Tasrm Publishing

“Cruel Summer”
Songwriters Jack Antonoff, St. Vincent, Taylor Swift
Producers Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift
Label Republic Records
Publishers Big Deal Music, BMG Monarch, Ducky Donath Music, Nail Polish Manifesto Music, Peermusic, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony/ATV Tree Publishing, Southern Music Publishing, Taylor Swift Music

Hitmakers
13 Management
Kevin Lipson, chief revenue officer, Republic Corps Collective
Jim Roppo, president and COO, Republic Corps Collective
Manny Simon, senior VP of hot AC promotion, Republic Corps Collective
Gary Spangler, executive VP, Republic Corps Collective