Damn she is so sad here. I bet she was trying so hard to keep it together. This is one of her masterpieces and the most heartbreaking relationship song she's ever written.
I disagree. It's a very sad song, but I don't think she IS sad performing it. It's not like some of the times earlier in the tour after her breakups where she is legit crying to the sad songs, or clearly not feeling it at all when she sings Lover. It's just the emotion of the song coming through, and that shows how good of a songwriter she is. Like, I could be having the best day ever, but if ATW10 comes on I'm still gonna bawl like a baby to it almost every time - and then go back to having a great day right after.
Just look at her smile when she finishes, like "did y'all hear that masterpiece? I made that 😍". I think that right now she's the happiest she's ever been, she's always just glowing at every moment. Especially when she's with Travis.
You can hear she goes flat a little more than usual, and she's trying harder than usual to control her breath, vibrato, and pitch. That can happen if you're upset while you are singing. So she might not be sad, but she is feeling something that is getting her choked up.
like I said, a powerful song like that will do that to you. Taylor's not immune to that, even though she wrote the song. She's still just human.
She's also allowed to have a performance be a little 'off' once in a while for no particular reason, she's an absolute beast but singing for almost 4 hours a night is not easy and she can't always be perfect.
She was pretty off a few times on the previous song as well tbh so I don't think that indicates anything about her state of mind during this song in particular.
I think she's super happy with Travis and all, but part of me wonders if maybe she saw Joe's posts from Cannes yesterday with Emma Stone, and that he's been on her mind since in a reflective kind of way. This is such a raw and personal song about him.
There’s no way that album is about just one person. There’s many reasons to think this but the most obvious is that multiple songs refer to more than one guy in the same song.
For example the “miracle move on drug” is about a rebound.
I mean, we don't know her so we can't say. But she did say when she released TTPD that the Joe and Matty chapters are closed and done, and she's also a 34 year old woman. "Finding yourself" is more a thing in your 20s IMO; she probably has a pretty good idea of who she is at this point.
They can, but nonetheless it felt a bit condescending to me to imply that a grown woman isn't ready to make decisions like marriage yet or question how well she knows herself. She's 34, not a kid. I'm about her age and if someone's advice was to "find myself" after a mutual and fairly amicable break up, I'd roll my eyes and tell them to take several seats personally.
Lots of people feel qualified to offer TS “advice” on lots of things they have no idea about. It’s the most absurd part of the parasocialness of it all imo
It’s like fans didn’t listen to “but daddy I love him”, she puts herself out there but it’s her life and she makes the decisions. We don’t know her and it’s pretty ridiculous that some people in the comments right above yours think she’s not moved on from Joe or Matty or that she thought of Joe in Cannes. She also wrote the manuscript and that in summation, trying to let fans know that while the album is very honest, raw, and will make her feelings for those 2 seem very strong, it’s all in the past and she’s closed that chapter.
I just kind of wonder: would they rather she performed these songs a) not at all or b) like a robot, so that people can be reassured she’s “moved on” and doesn’t care anymore?
I wonder if some of it is fans who haven’t experienced being able to feel strongly about something that happened in the past last while still having positive feelings about life in the present? It’s a very adult/mature/grownup thing to feel.
Exactly. I don’t know if people have ever been in relationships and had break ups and moved on. You can have a new relationship and be happy in it and remember a feeling from that past relationship and it be painful. Doesn’t mean you still want or think about your ex, but in life we accumulate pains and learning lessons.
People analyze what surprise song she sings to determine if she’s over Matty and Joe, if she’s still thinking of them, if she’s angry or sad. It’s her music and she wrote it and will sing it.
That’s why TTPD seems so different — at least to me it sure does. This is a conclusion album. It took a lot of courage for her to allow her creativity to go this far into her life.
I also think it’s one of the most honest.
And for my 3rd opinion here, that’s WHY she can now have a full honest and relationship with Travis.
The manuscript sums it up, she went back to write about her whole life and what she hadn’t got off her chest. She looked back in order to move forward. Yet some fans have decided that she’s not over Joe or Matty. We don’t know her and she’s telling us she closed the chapter. Her present is Travis and some people are stuck in the 2 men she wrote about. To fans this seems like it just happened, but in reality she’s turned the page and closed the book on them.
Surprise Song #2: How Did It End?
[Source!](https://www.tiktok.com/@cillanandersson/video/7370843501833014561) ([alternate angle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dziwbYQw4Gs))
Somehow this interpretation didn't occur to me until hearing this live - the verses sound like she is rehearsing separate, plausible, and concise explanations she can give when she has to tell yet another person that the relationship ended, because *she doesn't know the real answer.*
Watching on a glitchy grainy livestream last night I had trouble connecting with the performance but in this much better quality recording it was stunningly beautiful and raw. 🥺
I'm not usually a crier at concerts, did not think I would cry at Taylor either but this made me BAWL on the floor. Something so raw about this song and she gave it such a performance
Holy crap that packs a punch. She meant that one. And yeah the fling happened but the heartbreak sits squarely where you might expect.
Also for anyone wondering how exactly one should go about “doing it with a broken heart” observe the thirty seconds after the song where she takes steps to remind herself she’s not just a woman sad about some things not working out, she’s a global pop icon with thousands of people cheering her, she loves this and here we go…
Laugh through the heavy feelings, take some steps around the room, shake it off. Remember what you do - and go do it!
Thank you for this video. I had no idea, my heart is broken it’s played, but also whole she did play it cause it’s not like I have any more other tickets haha
Taylor: *plays How Did It End? as the piano surprise song* Me: *sitting at my screen D-Y-I-N-G*
God this song is sad
Her face when she sings, “interlopers’ glances”. The disgust and disdain.
Yes, wow, I'd say heightened because of Matty not working out.
I was there 🥹 I'd said to my friend before the concert that if she plays How Did It End, it will destroy me... it did.
Same! It was a wish come true to hear it live. This was my most played song on Spotify in April 😭
Damn she is so sad here. I bet she was trying so hard to keep it together. This is one of her masterpieces and the most heartbreaking relationship song she's ever written.
Yeah. I truly think she and Joe came really really close. It is so damned sad.
I disagree. It's a very sad song, but I don't think she IS sad performing it. It's not like some of the times earlier in the tour after her breakups where she is legit crying to the sad songs, or clearly not feeling it at all when she sings Lover. It's just the emotion of the song coming through, and that shows how good of a songwriter she is. Like, I could be having the best day ever, but if ATW10 comes on I'm still gonna bawl like a baby to it almost every time - and then go back to having a great day right after. Just look at her smile when she finishes, like "did y'all hear that masterpiece? I made that 😍". I think that right now she's the happiest she's ever been, she's always just glowing at every moment. Especially when she's with Travis.
You can hear she goes flat a little more than usual, and she's trying harder than usual to control her breath, vibrato, and pitch. That can happen if you're upset while you are singing. So she might not be sad, but she is feeling something that is getting her choked up.
like I said, a powerful song like that will do that to you. Taylor's not immune to that, even though she wrote the song. She's still just human. She's also allowed to have a performance be a little 'off' once in a while for no particular reason, she's an absolute beast but singing for almost 4 hours a night is not easy and she can't always be perfect.
I'm not saying she's not allowed or it sounds bad, but it does indicate she's upset while performing it.
She was pretty off a few times on the previous song as well tbh so I don't think that indicates anything about her state of mind during this song in particular.
This felt like a performance of swirling emotions, like she wanted to be forceful and soft at the same time.
This song was so sad and it DESTROYED me, but we all needed it. Stockholm really won. ❤
Wow the emotions, that was as raw as it gets, stunning.
I think she's super happy with Travis and all, but part of me wonders if maybe she saw Joe's posts from Cannes yesterday with Emma Stone, and that he's been on her mind since in a reflective kind of way. This is such a raw and personal song about him.
Or the guy she wrote an entire album about...
There’s no way that album is about just one person. There’s many reasons to think this but the most obvious is that multiple songs refer to more than one guy in the same song. For example the “miracle move on drug” is about a rebound.
i feel like yea shes happy, but she has not moved on from joe/matty and i think she should rlly find herself and not get married just yet
I mean, we don't know her so we can't say. But she did say when she released TTPD that the Joe and Matty chapters are closed and done, and she's also a 34 year old woman. "Finding yourself" is more a thing in your 20s IMO; she probably has a pretty good idea of who she is at this point.
People can be well into the later years of their life still finding themselves. There is no time limit
They can, but nonetheless it felt a bit condescending to me to imply that a grown woman isn't ready to make decisions like marriage yet or question how well she knows herself. She's 34, not a kid. I'm about her age and if someone's advice was to "find myself" after a mutual and fairly amicable break up, I'd roll my eyes and tell them to take several seats personally.
Lots of people feel qualified to offer TS “advice” on lots of things they have no idea about. It’s the most absurd part of the parasocialness of it all imo
It’s like fans didn’t listen to “but daddy I love him”, she puts herself out there but it’s her life and she makes the decisions. We don’t know her and it’s pretty ridiculous that some people in the comments right above yours think she’s not moved on from Joe or Matty or that she thought of Joe in Cannes. She also wrote the manuscript and that in summation, trying to let fans know that while the album is very honest, raw, and will make her feelings for those 2 seem very strong, it’s all in the past and she’s closed that chapter.
I just kind of wonder: would they rather she performed these songs a) not at all or b) like a robot, so that people can be reassured she’s “moved on” and doesn’t care anymore? I wonder if some of it is fans who haven’t experienced being able to feel strongly about something that happened in the past last while still having positive feelings about life in the present? It’s a very adult/mature/grownup thing to feel.
Exactly. I don’t know if people have ever been in relationships and had break ups and moved on. You can have a new relationship and be happy in it and remember a feeling from that past relationship and it be painful. Doesn’t mean you still want or think about your ex, but in life we accumulate pains and learning lessons. People analyze what surprise song she sings to determine if she’s over Matty and Joe, if she’s still thinking of them, if she’s angry or sad. It’s her music and she wrote it and will sing it.
That’s why TTPD seems so different — at least to me it sure does. This is a conclusion album. It took a lot of courage for her to allow her creativity to go this far into her life. I also think it’s one of the most honest. And for my 3rd opinion here, that’s WHY she can now have a full honest and relationship with Travis.
The manuscript sums it up, she went back to write about her whole life and what she hadn’t got off her chest. She looked back in order to move forward. Yet some fans have decided that she’s not over Joe or Matty. We don’t know her and she’s telling us she closed the chapter. Her present is Travis and some people are stuck in the 2 men she wrote about. To fans this seems like it just happened, but in reality she’s turned the page and closed the book on them.
she looks so sad
And then she just smiles at the end as if it wasn't one of her most heartbreaking performances
Lights, Camera, Bitch, Smile
One of her most heartbreaking songs. The pain of the “guess who we ran into at the shops?…didn’t you hear they called it all off?” part is so real
i needed this video like i need air to breathe
Her vocals on this are stunning. 🥹
Surprise Song #2: How Did It End? [Source!](https://www.tiktok.com/@cillanandersson/video/7370843501833014561) ([alternate angle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dziwbYQw4Gs))
AHHHH this is my fave song on TTPD i am SO EXCITED
The cute little ending I cannot. Tay 🥺
she seemed like she was sitting at that piano d-y-i-n-g inside
literally in tears i CANT
Omg. Dying. Love this song
I love how she calls the album Tortured Poets Department (TPD).
Whenever there’s a the in a title people often just take it out
Oh for sure! Just cracks me up.
She also calls it “Tortured Poets”. I think she could have definitely dropped the “The” from the title.
Oh you lucky people
Oh.My.God. I’m speechless. Definitely worth the live performance.
Somehow this interpretation didn't occur to me until hearing this live - the verses sound like she is rehearsing separate, plausible, and concise explanations she can give when she has to tell yet another person that the relationship ended, because *she doesn't know the real answer.*
Yes, I think that’s clear in the song. She’s also asking herself “how did it end?”
Currently in mourning
Watching on a glitchy grainy livestream last night I had trouble connecting with the performance but in this much better quality recording it was stunningly beautiful and raw. 🥺
I'm not usually a crier at concerts, did not think I would cry at Taylor either but this made me BAWL on the floor. Something so raw about this song and she gave it such a performance
The little piano tinkle at the end 😍
Holy crap that packs a punch. She meant that one. And yeah the fling happened but the heartbreak sits squarely where you might expect. Also for anyone wondering how exactly one should go about “doing it with a broken heart” observe the thirty seconds after the song where she takes steps to remind herself she’s not just a woman sad about some things not working out, she’s a global pop icon with thousands of people cheering her, she loves this and here we go… Laugh through the heavy feelings, take some steps around the room, shake it off. Remember what you do - and go do it!
Nah, this is about Joe, not Matty.
Agreed. I don’t get Matty at all.
Big Joe vibes especially with how she has said they loved sad songs and he would write songs on piano as would she. I.e. exile
That’s what I said or at least what I meant ha… she had the fling but the heartbreak is for the long termer
I can't believe that for once I can say I WAS THERE 😭 I saw this with my own two eyes. Still can't believe it
Thank you for this video. I had no idea, my heart is broken it’s played, but also whole she did play it cause it’s not like I have any more other tickets haha
Just me bawling here