"Lavender Haze" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her tenth studio album, Midnights (2022). Swift wrote and produced the song with Jack Antonoff, Jahaan Sweet, and Sounwave. Zoë Kravitz and Sam Dew were co-writers, and Braxton Cook was an additional producer. The title was inspired by a phrase used in the series Mad Men that refers to the state of being in love. Republic Records released "Lavender Haze" to US pop radio as the album's third single on November 29, 2022.
"Lavender Haze" incorporates pop fusion genres, ambient house, and disco, with elements of hip-hop and R&B. Its production is characterized by a thumping bassline, pulsing modular synthesizers, and layered falsetto vocals in the refrain. The lyrics were inspired by the media scrutiny surrounding Swift's relationship with the English actor Joe Alwyn: the narrator disregards others' opinions on her relationship and unwed status, and she affirms her desire to stay in love with her partner. Music critics interpreted the lyrics from a feminist perspective, and they generally praised the track's production as restrained, sophisticated, and catchy.
The single peaked at number two on the Billboard Global 200 chart and on the singles charts of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. It has been certified platinum in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Swift wrote and directed the music video for "Lavender Haze", which was released on January 27, 2023. It incorporates psychedelic and surrealist visual elements and features the Dominican-American model and transgender activist Laith Ashley as Swift's love interest. She included "Lavender Haze" in the set list of her sixth concert tour, the Eras Tour (2023–2024).
Background and writing The American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift conceived her tenth original studio album, Midnights, as a collection of songs about her nocturnal ruminations, detailing a wide range of emotions such as regret, lust, nostalgia, contentment, and self-loathing. She produced the standard edition of Midnights with Jack Antonoff. Swift announced the track listing via a thirteen-episode short video series on the platform TikTok; the title of "Lavender Haze" was revealed in the episode posted on October 7, 2022.
"Lavender Haze" was written by Swift, Antonoff, Sounwave, Jahaan Sweet, Sam Dew, and Zoë Kravitz. Sounwave wrote the initial track within 15 minutes. After experimenting with different sounds, he "[hit] one button by accident", which played a voice memo that Sweet had sent to him: it was a recording of his roommate Braxton Cook singing wordless melodies over some chords. Antonoff, who was in the same room with Sounwave, was fascinated by the sound. They teamed up with Dew and Kravitz to write an R&B groove using keyboards, built on Cook's vocal coos; according to Sounwave, Dew came up with the melodies and Kravitz added some sonic embellishments.
Antonoff shared the track to Swift, who wrote the lyrics based on her personal life, recorded her vocals, and sent the finished output to the other writers. Sounwave recalled their reactions when Antonoff played the finished track: "[...] all our mouths dropped. [Swift] took it to a whole new world and made it her own [by creating] different pockets we did not hear." In the credits of Midnights, Swift, Antonoff, Sounwave, and Sweet are credited as the producers of "Lavender Haze", and Cook as an additional producer.
Music
"Lavender Haze" incorporates four on the floor beats, a thumping bassline generated with a synth bass, and downtempo rhythms. Swift's vocals are layered and sung in her breathy upper vocal register against swirling modular synthesizers, with background vocals from Kravitz, Dew, and Antonoff. In the refrain, she sings in her falsetto range.
Critics categorized "Lavender Haze" into pop fusion genres such as synth-pop, electropop, dream pop, and disco-pop. Some reviews described it as ambient house and "slow disco". The track displays influences of rhythmic styles, like R&B and hip-hop. The bassline is the Reese bass, characterized by a very low bass patch, that evokes dance and club styles such as techno, UK garage, and jungle.
The production elements led to critics deeming the sound dark, "subterranean", dreamy, sultry, and sensual. Some reviewers likened the production styles to those on Swift's 2017 album Reputation. There were comparisons to the music by other artists: Grace Bryon from Paste thought its "bubbling electropop" production is reminiscent of the works by Lorde and Lana Del Rey, Ann Powers of NPR compared the layered vocals and synth drums to the music of Whitney Houston, and Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph said the falsetto "funkiness" evokes Prince.
Lyrics and interpretations
In an Instagram post, Swift shared that she discovered the expression "lavender haze", which describes the state of being in love, when watching the period drama series Mad Men. Intrigued by its meaning and supposed 1950s origin, Swift saw parallels between the expression and her relationship with the English actor Joe Alwyn; she interpreted it as an "all-encompassing love glow".
The lyrics of "Lavender Haze" were inspired by the media scrutiny that Swift and Alwyn had faced. The overall message is that she wants to stay in love with him despite others' opinions. She appreciates his unwavering support for her and disregard of the gossip surrounding her past relationships in the lines: "I've been under scrutiny/ You handle it beautifully/ All this shit is new to me"; "I find it dizzying/ They're bringing up my history/ But you weren't even listening." The song also explores the pressures that come with protecting this love, such as fighting back gender stereotypes ("the 1950s shit they want from me") that demand women to become either a wife or a one-night fling. Swift ignores all of the inquiries into her unwed status: "I'm damned if I do give a damn what people say"; "Talk your talk and go viral/ I just need this love spiral."
According to several media publications, "Lavender Haze" has a feminist viewpoint and calls out the misogynistic conceptions about gender roles. In the view of Slate Carl Wilson, the song sees Swift asserting authority and rejecting others' perception of her as a Madonna–whore complex. The New York Timess Lindsay Zoladz contended that the track represented Swift's shifted attitude towards romance: whereas her 2008 single "Love Story" depicted marriage as the ideal romantic ending with starry-eyed fairy tale imagery, "Lavender Haze" expresses ambivalence towards not only marriage but also the societal expectations and "traditional timelines of adulthood". Writing for the Alternative Press, Ilana Kaplan considered "Lavender Haze" one of the album tracks where Swift grappled with the "good-girl" image that she had constrained herself to, a notion that she had explained in the 2019 documentary Miss Americana.
There were interpretations of "Lavender Haze" from a queer perspective. According to Shaun Cullen, a professor in the humanities, this is due to the lyrics mentioning the color lavender, which is associated with gay pride; and the protest against the "1950s shit", which suggests not only defiance against gender discrimination but also sexuality-based discrimination. Cullen argued that this showcased Swift's increasing awareness of her status as "a white celebrity, artist, and citizen struggling to communicate [...] across the color line", which parallels her departure from "the trappings of Jim Crow-era country and planation nostalgia" suggested by her early country songs.
Release and commercial performance Republic Records released Midnights on October 21, 2022, with "Lavender Haze" being the opening track. "Lavender Haze" was later released as the album's third single to pop radio. In the United States, Republic released the song to contemporary hit radio on November 29, 2022. The track was supported by several remixes released in February–March 2023: a tropical house remix by Felix Jaehn, and three more by Tensnake, Snakehips, and Jungle. An acoustic version was released on March 31, 2023.
"Lavender Haze" debuted and peaked at number two on the Billboard Global 200. It made Swift the first artist to occupy the top five of the chart the same week, alongside other Midnights tracks. In the United States, the single debuted and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. It helped Swift become the first artist to monopolize the top 10 of the Hot 100 the same week, together with other Midnights tracks. It spent two consecutive weeks in the top 10, charted at number five on the Pop Airplay chart and number four on the Adult Pop Airplay chart. As Swift's 27th song to enter the top 10 of the Adult Pop Airplay, it made Swift the solo artist with the most top-10 entries.
The single peaked at number two on the charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand; number three in the Philippines and the United Kingdom; and number four in Singapore. It reached the top 10 in Portugal, Vietnam, Iceland, and South Africa. "Lavender Haze" has been certified four-times platinum in Australia; double platinum in New Zealand; platinum in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom; and gold in Poland, France, Portugal, and Spain.
Live performances Swift performed "Lavender Haze" as the opening number of the Midnights act on the Eras Tour (2023–2024). Before the performance, the stage floor displayed a video of Swift swimming and visuals onstage showed ocean waves. She then appeared onstage in a purple fur coat, climbing up a ladder leading to an elevated platform, as dancers wheeled around with lavender artificial clouds as props. Visuals onstage showed Swift lying in a lavender field, dancing in lavender clouds, and sitting and posing as abstract lavender lines cascaded around her. Variety Chris Willman thought that the performance set the sensual tone for Midnights, the final act of the concert, as "the best after-hours club in the world".
Critical reception "Lavender Haze" received positive reviews from music critics; many deemed it a strong opening track that sets the tone for Midnights. The production was a common point of praise: PopMatterss Rick Quinn and The A.V. Club Saloni Gajjar complimented the sound as catchy and danceable, while Rolling Stone Brittany Spanos and Our Culture Mag Konstantinos Pappis deemed it restrained and muted, with the former adding that it has a playfulness to it. In Vulture, Craig Jenkins deemed it one of the R&B-tinged tracks of Midnights that showcased Swift's abilities to create "a mannered genre reset constantly threatening to cut in an alluring new direction". Elise Ryan of the Associated Press considered it one of the album's more experimental cuts and deemed Swift's delivery "beckoning". Annie Zaleski similarly lauded her vocals as "sophisticated and alluring", and The New York Timess Jon Caramanica picked the track as one of the album's better moments with Swift's great singing. A lukewarm review came from Slant Magazine Paul Attard, who felt that the opening seconds were burdened by excessive reverb and turned out overwhelming.