Taylor Swift is a popular singer, and, in case you weren’t aware, she also writes or co-writes all of her songs. Since her debut, Taylor has penned many songs, but just how many, exactly?
Taylor Swift has been writing and performing since she was very young, and got her first publishing contract in 2005, signing the same year with Big Machine Records. She was with her label until 2018, and she released six studio albums, which she is currently in the process of re-recording. Since leaving Big Machine Records, she joined Republic Records, then in 2020 signed a new deal with Universal Music, and released five albums and four re-recordings.
Swift has collaborated with many famous artists, writing with Liz Roz, Max Martin, Shellback, and Jack Antonoff, and received multiple well-deserved awards. However, do we know exactly how many songs she has written, in total?
How many songs has Taylor Swift written?
The easy answer to this question is: a lot. Swift has written most songs in her discography, and wrote her third album, Speak Now, all alone. Swift made history at the 2024 Grammy Awards as she won Best Album for the fourth time for her record-breaking Midnights. She has penned hit after hit, but this isn’t what makes her popular with her hundreds of thousands of fans.
Taylor taking a confessional approach in her songs and putting her personal life on paper made her extremely relatable to people all around the globe. Because she uses her own experience to write songs, and the fact that most of the people she has dated in real life were celebrities, the interest in her songs has also created a new excitement as fans tried to track what or who her songs were all about. Starting with Folklore, Swift has also ventured to build characters and told other stories aside from her own, imagining the famous love triangle inspired by the names of her friends Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively’s children.
As of June 2024, Swift has been credited as the sole writer of 124 songs, including her latest release, The Tortured Poets Department. The singer has included new tracks that she calls “from the vault” for her re-recordings, which increased how many songs she has written.
Some of the songs she’s written by herself include hits like “You Should’ve Said No,” “Our Song” (2006’s Taylor Swift), “Fifteen,” “Love Story,” (2008’s Fearless), the entirety of 2010’s Speak Now and 2023’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), “Red,” “Begin Again,” (2012’s Red), “This Love” (2014’s 1989), “Lover,” “Cornelia Street,” (2019’s Lover), “My Tears Richochet” (2020’s Folklore), “No Body, No Crime (feat HAIM)” (2020’s Evermore), “Vigilante Shit” (2022’s Midnights), and “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me,” “The Black Dog,” (2024’s The Tortured Poets Department).
Swift’s involvement in songwriting has been well-documented in her voice memos, and in documentaries following her process writing 2016’s Reputation. Over the years, many producers praised Swift’s involvement, revealing that the singer usually provides an almost-finished product. Aside from her songs, Swift also wrote tracks for other artists, including Calvin Harris and Rihanna’s “This Is What You Came For,” Little Big Town’s “Better Man,” and Sugarland’s “Babe,” among others.
Taylor has always been fiercely outspoken about her writing talent, and she doesn’t allow anyone to undermine it. When accepting the Best Album Grammy Award for 1989 in 2014, she insisted that her success was hers and hers alone. In 2022, she also replied to Damon Albarn’s claims that “co-writing doesn’t count.”
“I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this. I write ALL of my own songs. Your hot take is completely false and SO damaging. You don’t have to like my songs but it’s really f***ed up to try and discredit my writing. WOW.” She added, “PS I wrote this tweet all by myself in case you were wondering.”
Taylor is always working, whether it’s on an album, a song, or a tour. While some of her songs are accounted for on her albums, we might never truly know just how many songs Taylor Swift has ever written, but we’re happy with every release she graces us with.
