Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn were once a power songwriting couple. Before breaking up in 2023, the former flames collaborated on a handful of Taylor’s tracks from albums Folklore to Evermore and Midnights. Keep reading for all of the songs Joe helped to write under his pseudonym, ‘William Bowery.’
The name William Bowery first appeared in the credits of Taylor’s 2020 album Folklore and his name was un-Googleable, making his identity a mystery for Swifties to mull over for awhile. At the time, there were so many theories on who his identity could be, from Avril Lavigne to BTS’ RM, that Taylor finally set the record straight months later during her Disney+ Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions documentary.
In the documentary, Taylor shared that Joe was singing “the entire fully formed chorus of ‘Betty’ in another room.”
“I came in and I was like, ‘Hey, this could be really weird, and we could hate this, [but] because we’re in quarantine and there’s nothing else going on, could we just try to see what it’s like if we write this song together?’” she said.
This isn’t the first time Taylor has used a pseudonym! Who could forget about the time she used the alias Nils Sjöberg when she cowrote her boyfriend at the time, Calvin Harris‘ song “This Is What We Came Here For.” Oh, and let’s not forget about the time she posted a cover of her track “Look What You Made Me Do” by a band called Killing Eve, which wasn’t even a real group! Fans are still convinced that was actually her brother, Austin Swift, singing the whole time!
Joe spoke to GQ Hype about how writing with Taylor first came about. “It was really the most accidental thing to happen in lockdown. It wasn’t like, ‘It’s three o’clock, it’s time to write a song!’” he explained. “It was just messing around on a piano and singing badly and being overheard and then thinking, you know, what if we tried to get to the end of it together?”
He later added, “It was fun to do together, and I was proud of it. It was nice getting such a positive reception.”
Additionally, it was revealed in October 2022 that Joe helped out with one track on Taylor’s album Midnights! He’s credited in helping out with the song “Sweet Nothing.”
Scroll through our gallery for every song Joe has helped co-write with Taylor.
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