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Taylor Swift may not name names in her songs — but that doesn’t keep fans from speculating over who her music is about.
When Swift, 33, released the rerecorded of her album Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in April 2021, she added six “From the Vault” tracks that were written for the original 2008 record but didn’t make the final cut. “Mr. Perfectly Fine” — the first single Swift teased from the vault — quickly had listeners speculating on the subject of the song, theorizing it may be about ex-boyfriend Joe Jonas, whom she dated in 2008.
Shortly after she released the track, Swift made it clear it was written from her own life experience.
“Me in 2020: life is chill, writing songs based in fiction to avoid drama, feeling pretty grown up. My 2008 music from the vault, in a goblin voice: ‘REELEEEEEEASE MR PERFECTLY FIIIIIIINE,’’ she quipped via X (formerly known as Twitter) at the time.
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Lyrics for “Mr. Perfectly Fine” include Swift dragging an ex for acting superior after their split. “Hello Mr. ‘Perfectly fine’ / How’s your heart after breaking mine? / Mr. ‘Always at the right place at the right time,’ baby / Hello Mr. ‘Casually Cruel’ / Mr. ‘Everything revolves around you’ /I’ve been Miss ‘Misery’ since your goodbye / And you’re Mr. ‘Perfectly Fine,’” she sings in the chorus.
The bridge, however, is particularly brutal, calling her former flame out for his desire to always come out on top and maintain his image.
“So dignified in your well-pressed suit / So strategized, all the eyes on you / Sashay away to your seat / It’s the best seat, in the best room / ‘Oh, he’s so smug, Mr. ‘Always Wins’ / So far above me in every sense / So far above feeling anything,” she belts out with pained frustration.
Swift previously detailed the harsh way Jonas dumped her during her appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in November 2008, in which she revealed he broke up with her on a phone call that lasted less than one minute.
“Oh, it’s OK. okay. It’s all right. I’m cool. You know what? It’s like when I find that person, that is right for me and he’ll be wonderful, and when I look at that person, I’m not even going to be able to remember the boy who broke up with me over the phone in 25 seconds when I was 18,” she told DeGeneres. Swift added that after she hung up she checked to see how long the call really was, adding, “I looked at the call log — it was like 27 seconds. That’s got to be a record.”
Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner Dia Dipasupil/WireImage
“Mr. Perfectly Fine” isn’t the only breakup song from Fearless believed to be about Jonas: Swift’s “Forever & Always” and another vault song, “You All Over Me,” appear to be about him. The track “Last Kiss” from Swift’s 2010 album Speak Now also seemingly documents their romance, as well as “Holy Ground” off 2012’s Red.
When Swift dropped “Mr. Perfectly Fine” in 2021, another woman in Jonas’ life expressed her love for the song: His wife, Sophie Turner. The Game of Thrones alum, 27, took to social media to gush over the tune, writing via her Instagram Story, “It’s not NOT a bop.”
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Turner and Jonas tied the knot in May 2019 and share daughter Willa, 3, and a 14-month-old baby girl whose name has yet to be publicly shared. In September, Jonas filed for divorce after four years of marriage, citing that the pair’s relationship had become “irretrievably broken.” The couple — who sparked split speculation last month when they sold their Miami home for $15 million and Jonas was later seen without his wedding band — confirmed their split in a joint statement via Instagram.
Despite her relationship with Jonas, Turner has always been a self-proclaimed “Swiftie,” even gushing over the singer’s fourth studio album, 1989, in an August 2022 TikTok Live alongside her estranged husband.
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“[1989 is] literally one of my favorite albums of all time,” Turner told fans. She also revealed a little-known fact about Swift’s 2017 album, Reputation, sharing that it “was partly inspired by Sansa and Aria Stark.” (Turner played Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones.)
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Turner later trolled her husband at a Jonas Brothers concert in August 2023, just weeks before the pair called it quits for good. After attending the tour’s opening weekend show in New York City, she took to Instagram to share the friendship bracelets she’d gathered from fans — one of which read, “Mr. Perfectly Fine.”