What Taylor Swift songs were written about Harry Styles?

Harry Styles & Olivia Wilde's ROMANTIC Italy Vacation

Harry Styles is shedding some light on the inspiration behind his one of his latest singles.

On May 18, the "As It Was" singer stopped by The Howard Stern Show to discuss his upcoming third album, titled Harry's House. Ahead of the album's May 20 release date, the 28-year-old played a few tracks from it, including "Daylight." 

After hearing the track, host Howard Stern mentioned a fan theory online that "Daylight" could be somehow linked to Taylor Swift's 2019 song of the same name. As it turns out, Harry didn't have any time when it came to any romantic speculation about the track. He jokingly replied, "Here we go." 

When pressed by the host if the song was really about Taylor, Harry immediately shut down the idea. 

"You're reading too much into it," he responded. "You know I'd love to tell you that you're spot on, but I can't. No, sorry." 

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But, if you're wondering about Harry and Taylor's relationship, then we've got you covered: The pair originally dated back in 2012. While they ultimately decided to go their separate ways—Harry is now dating Olivia Wilde, while Taylor is in a relationship with Joe Alwyn—their brief romance seemingly spawned a few songs including Taylor's track "Style" and One Direction's hit "Perfect." 

And since then, the pair appear to be on good terms. Last year, the friendly exes were spotted chatting at the 2021 Grammys and Taylor was one of the first people to stand up and applaud for Harry when he received his first award for Best Pop Solo Performance.  

However, when it comes to naming their songs, well, that appears to just be a coincidence. During the interview, Harry described his version of "Daylight" as being about an "infatuation" with someone.  

Instead of dropping any names, the singer, who prefers to keep his dating life private, gave a bit of insight into the songwriting process for the track. 

"'Daylight' was quite an early song on the album. It was it's one of my favorites and it was kind of a stream of consciousness writing that happened kind of late," he said. "This very much felt like, 'OK, we have to find a way to finish this. Now.'" 

Harry added, "We did an all-nighter. We finished it. Went out to the beach to watch the sun come up. And it was a nice moment." 

Long before Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz were on the scene, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift were Hollywood's hottest young couple. Feels like a lifetime ago, right?

The couple dated from late 2012 til early 2013 and finally, seven long years after their breakup, Harry has opened up about his romance with Taylor, as well as commenting on the famous breakup songs she allegedly penned about her time with the One Direction crooner.

During an interview with Howard Stern, Harry got candid on the music Taylor made about him, including songs like Out of the Woods and Style.

“I think about what it means to me to write a song about somebody else and for somebody else to do that, it’s like flattering, even if the song isn’t that flattering, you still spent time on it and ultimately, using Taylor as an example, she’s a great songwriter. So at least they’re good songs,” he said.

“The only time you really think, ’Is this song too personal?’ is if you think about, ‘is this going to be really annoying for the other person?’ Because I do [care],” he finished.

Music fans have long pointed out potential references to Harry in Taylor's music. In one song, Taylor sings about a guy who is "younger than [her] exes but he act like such a man so" which to fans, is the first sign that she's talking about Harry, who's younger than all of her exes as well as her current boyfriend. The next clue is a bit more obvious. In fact, it's a direct reference to Harry's song Two Ghosts as the lyrics read: "Wonder how many girls he had loved and left haunted/But if he’s a ghost then I can be a phantom."

The Sign Of The Times singer first broke his silence about he and Taylor's highly publicised 2012 fling in a cover interview with Rolling Stone back in 2017.

Reflecting on the time he saw those paparazzi pictures of his date with the 'Shake It Off' singer, the star said: "You're on a date with someone you really like. It should be that simple, right? It was a learning experience for sure. But at the heart of it – I just wanted it to be a normal date."

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When asked whether he knew of any Taylor Swift songs about him, Harry insisted that he didn't, saying, "I'm lucky if everything [we went through] helped create those songs. That's what hits your heart. That's the stuff that's hardest to say, and it's the stuff I talk least about."

Back in 2015, Taylor opened up to fans about the anxiety she felt during a relationship with an ex (believed to be Harry) and explained that it inspired her song, 'Out of the Woods' from her 1989 album.

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"The number one feeling I felt in the whole relationship was anxiety. Because it felt very fragile, it felt very tentative," she said on stage.

"And it always felt like, 'Okay, what's the next roadblock? What's the next thing that's gonna deter this? How long do we have before this turns into just an awful mess and we break up? Is it a month? Is it three days?

"And so, you know, I think a lot of relationships can be very solid and that's kind of what you hope for, for it to be solid and healthy but that's not always what you get, she added.

"And it doesn't mean that it's not special and extraordinary just to have a relationship that's fragile and somehow meaningful in that fragility."

Taylor is now happily dating actor Joe Alwyn, who is credited as a co-writer on her latest No1-selling album, Folklore. Taylor and Joe, who have been together for over three years now, worked on the songs Betty and Exile together.

Details of Harry's love life, meanwhile, are not quite so clear. He was last romantically linked to American-Japanese model Kiko Mizuhara but he spoke about being single in the same interview with Howard Stern, earlier this year: "It's always kind of a balance thing, because you want to date normally but then, you also want to protect it so it can be normal. I think a big part of it is like, you wanna be able to spend enough time with each other where you can get to know each other before you have to deal with the extra stuff."

What a man.