Beyond Blake Lively: 5 Taylor Swift Inner-Circle Friends Who Could Be the Real Focus of This Song

Swift put a big neon sign on the wall with Track 10 of The Life of a Showgirl. It is called CANCELLED!, exclamation point and all, and it is basically her saying: I stand by my people, even when the internet doesn’t. Naturally, fans want to know who she is singing about. Short answer: probably more than one person. Longer answer: let’s walk through the song’s point, her own explanation, and the roster of friends who have worn the target lately.

What the song is actually doing

On CANCELLED!, Swift isn’t finger-wagging at the mob so much as rolling out the welcome mat for anyone in her orbit who has been through it. She nods to the whole girlboss-too-close-to-the-sun vibe, shouts out designer-luxe-meets-scandal energy, and talks about how the dark stuff can make your circle tighter. There are sly little images fans have already circled in red string: Gucci, whiskey sours, thorny flowers, bodies in the attic, taking somebody’s man, and that razor-edged line about being broken and coming out sharper. She is describing people who got cooked online and saying: yeah, those are my friends, and I am not dumping them because a timeline decided to.

'I don’t naturally just cast people aside just because other people decide they don’t like them. I make my own decisions about people based on how they treat me within my life and their actions. And so this is a song about all those themes.'

That is Swift in the Amazon Music intro, basically laying out the thesis. She has been through mass judgment herself, so when it happens to someone close to her, she trusts they will come out smarter and stronger, and she is not outsourcing her relationships to public opinion.

The shortlist everyone is talking about

1. Blake Lively

   If you have been anywhere near the It Ends With Us frenzy, you know Blake’s name keeps popping up alongside director Justin Baldoni, legal filings, and a whole lot of discourse. Because that mess has been so recent, fans immediately wondered if CANCELLED! points at her - especially since Swift’s name keeps getting dragged into the conversation via proximity, and the internet has spent weeks insisting the two are feuding. The lyrics drop a couple of breadcrumbs Swifties love to chase: Lively has done Gucci campaigns, and her Betty Booze line literally sells sours. The flower imagery fits too - that movie’s marketing and aesthetics were drenched in florals. There is also a bit that reads like gratitude to friends who believed in Swift before any so-called exoneration, which tracks with Lively publicly standing by her in past blowups. And if you are into inside baseball: conservative commentator Candace Owens recently talked about Lively as one of the 'girl bosses who flew too close to the sun' - and the song uses a similar 'girlboss too close to the sun' idea. Coincidence? Maybe. Swiftie bait? Also maybe.

2. Sabrina Carpenter

   Carpenter’s past two years have been a rocket: opening on the Eras Tour, hitting SNL, breaking records, then headlining her own era. Success like that comes with the online tribunal. The long-running rumor mill about a love triangle with Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett started after Bassett was seen with Carpenter during the same season Rodrigo dropped Drivers License, with that line about the older blonde. CANCELLED! has a wry nod to narratives about 'taking somebody’s man' and skeletons in the attic, which is exactly the kind of framing Sabrina got tagged with. She also caught heat for a provocative artwork where she is in a short black dress on all fours next to a man holding her hair - critics called it a bad influence on young girls. Given she is a recent collaborator and a current pop meteor, she is a very plausible muse here.

3. Sophie Turner

   Swift and Turner have a quietly sturdy friendship, and it showed during Turner’s messy split from Joe Jonas. The media turned on Sophie for a minute there, and the timing lines up: Swift was recording Showgirl during the European leg of the Eras Tour, around when Turner told Vogue that Taylor literally gave her a place to stay. The song’s bit about being broken and coming back sharper - and realizing who your real friends are - fits. The 'matching scars' implication isn’t subtle either, considering Jonas famously ended things with Swift via voicemail back in the day. One more inside-baseball detail: the title is spelled CANCELLED! with two Ls, British style. Turner is from the UK. Again, maybe coincidence. Maybe easter egg.

4. Brittany Mahomes

   Since Swift started showing up at Chiefs games, she and Brittany Mahomes have gotten close. The internet promptly tried to cancel Brittany for liking Donald Trump and pro-Trump posts, while Swift publicly backed Kamala Harris. Trump then welcomed Brittany’s support on Truth Social and even praised her and Patrick. The pushback Swift gets for staying friends with someone MAGA-adjacent is very on-brand for what CANCELLED! is addressing: I can be friends with people you disagree with, and I decide that for myself.

5. Selena Gomez

   Selena is one of Swift’s oldest friends and a frequent target for online pile-ons. She has faced waves of backlash over her statements about Israel and Palestine - some pro-Palestine supporters even vowed to boycott Rare Beauty - and an emotional Instagram video where she spoke up for people facing ICE deportations drew fire too. Add the never-ending Stan Wars with Hailey Bieber fans, and she fits the CANCELLED! profile to a T. If the song is a blanket statement for the girls who have taken the heat, Selena is absolutely covered.

The bottom line

CANCELLED! reads less like a diss track and more like a loyalty oath. It is Swift saying: I see what you did to my friends, and I am not dropping them because it makes a comment section happy. The clues are very Swift - Gucci, flowers, British spelling, little winks that let the fandom play detective - but the message is straightforward.

Who do you hear in Track 10? Drop your theories.