Taylor Swift is bringing her Eras tour to the UK, so it is time to talk about Taylor Swift. The wildly popular singer-songwriter is the subject of regular speculation about her relationships, her carbon emissions, the coded references on her albums, and the reported bad blood between her and other pop stars – among other things.
But is Taylor Swift truly impossible to avoid (as one writer for The Guardian recently suggested)? Do the public see Red when the conversation turns to her Love Story with Travis Kelce, and would they cut that Long Story Short? And when the conversation ends, do they hope it’s The Last Time, or worry it will Begin Again and go on Forever & Always? If they hear the Eras tour is coming to town, do they need a Getaway Car? Is there Nothing New for them to say about the singer-songwriter? Do they know the details of her career All Too Well? When someone mentions Taylor Swift on New Year’s Day, do they want to go Back to December? Would they prefer to see a Blank Space instead of an explainer column about her rumoured feud with Billie Eilish? Will it be a Cruel Summer if they hear any more about The Tortured Poets Department?
To find out, YouGov asked consumers in 17 global markets whether they’re hearing too much or too little about Taylor Swift.
44% of people aren’t hearing anything about Taylor Swift
Firstly and perhaps most importantly: for all that she might dominate headlines, more than two in five people (44%) across the markets we included in this study simply aren’t hearing about her at all. We don’t know what they’re doing instead, but they aren’t wondering if track five is about Matty Healy.
For a significant chunk of the global population, then, Taylor Swift news is a non-factor. Even more so in European markets such as France (71%), Spain (66%), Italy (60%), Germany (60%), Poland (61%), Denmark (58%), and Sweden (55%), where the proportion who don’t hear anything about her is much higher.
Native English-speaking nations most likely to say they’re hearing too much about Taylor Swift
When we put together all markets in our study, people are twice as likely to say that they want to hear less about Taylor Swift (22% vs. 11%). Again, this varies heavily from market to market, but the percentage who would have less news about the 1989 singer-songwriter in their lives is higher in native English-speaking nations. Australians are most likely to say they would reduce the information they receive about her (44%), although they’re also among the most likely to say they want to hear more (15%). Americans (42% less vs. 6% more) Britons (42% vs. 5%) and Canadians (37% vs. 8%) are close behind.
There are, however, some markets where a higher number of people want to hear more about Taylor Swift, such as India (27% vs. 10%), the UAE (27% vs. 15%), and Indonesia (25% vs. 14%). None of these countries feature on the route for her current Eras tour.
For her part, Swift herself has occasionally indicated that people might be talking about her more often than she’d like.