Oh no, he didn’t! Matty Healy seemingly confirmed ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift’s song “Guilty as Sin?” is about him after sharing an Instagram Stories post referencing one of the song’s lyrics.
The 1975 frontman, 35, showed Annie Lennox‘s cover of The Blue Nile song “Downtown Lights” on Monday, November 17, writing underneath it, “If you don’t know this cover, you are welcome.”
Taylor, 34, opened “Guilty as Sin?” off her April album, The Tortured Poet’s Department, with the lyrics, “Drowning in the Blue Nile / He sent me ‘Downtown Lights’ / I hadn’t heard it in a while.”
Swifties had wildly mixed reactions to Matty’s post. One person wrote on X, “Matty Healy just sent all of us downtown lights,” to which another fan responded, “Am I allowed to cry?” while another left crying emojis under the comment.
Others were upset, with one writing, “I’m gonna kms if guilty as sin is about his musty ass … have I been living in delusion this whole time?? Is it about him??” to which another user told the person, “The lore goes back 10 years I’m so so sorry to tell you this. It’s a fun rabbit hole though!”
At least one person thought it was a baller move by Matty, writing, “Matty Healy posting downtown lights on his story giggling. So real for that one king.”
“MATTY HEALY WHAT THE ACTUAL F–K,” a Swiftie shared along with Matty’s post. A fellow fan told the person not to be upset, writing, “Bro why give him attention he is been trying to get Swifties to talk about him just ignore him he is promoting his new album.”
Hours before his Instagram Story post, Matty shared what appeared to be a track list to his X account, where he goes under the name “Truman Black.” He listed what could be 13 song titles in a post in the early morning hours of Monday, November 18. The names included, “Alone Together,” “Oh Yeah?” “The Philmarillion” and “Owe God a Death.”
Underneath the post, several fans asked, “Is this the new album track list?” The 1975 hasn’t released a new album since 2022’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language. It would also mark Matty’s first new music since his romance with Taylor ended in June 2023.
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Taylor and Matty had a history as friends and collaborators but took things to the next level by striking up a romance in May 2023, shortly after the “Lover” singer’s split from her boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn.
Matty attended all three of Taylor’s Nashville, Tennessee, Eras tour stop shows in May 2023, and took in one of her Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, concerts the same month. The pair were also photographed together out and about in New York. Their romance was short lived, as the two split in June 2023.
When Taylor made the surprise announcement at the 2024 Grammys that she had a new album on the way, many fans assumed it was going to address her breakup with Joe, 33. The speculation intensified when she dropped her track list, which included titles that hinted at the English actor, including “So Long, London,” “I Can Fix Him” and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.”
However, when the album leaked on April 18, one day prior to its release, fans heard the lyrics and began speculating that a number of songs were about Matty rather than Joe.
Prior to Matty’s comment about “Downtown Lights, Swifties had other reasons to believe “Guilty as Sin?” was about him. It seemingly referenced the end of Taylor’s relationship with Joe and the beginning of Matty’s era, as she sang of the “boredom” in her relationship.
She admitted to having “fatal fantasies” such as “throwing my life to the wolves or the ocean rocks” for another man but refused to act on them.
“We’ve already done it in my head / If it’s make believe, why does it feel like a vow we’ll both uphold somehow? … How I long for our tryst without ever touching his skin, how can I be guilty as sin?” Taylor sang.
Matty denied listening to Taylor’s album after it dropped, telling paparazzi on April 25, “I haven’t really listened to that much of it but I’m sure it’s good.”
