Ahead of the start of her Eras tour on March 17, Taylor Swift surprised fans by releasing four previously unreleased tracks. In addition to her re-recordings of "Eyes Open" and "Safe & Sound" from the 2011 "Hunger Games" soundtrack, as well as a "Taylor version" of the Speak Now bonus track "If This Was a Movie," the batch of deep cuts also includes A new song called "All the Girls You've Loved Before." The song was originally written during the recording sessions for Swift's 2019 album Lover and ultimately did not make it onto her seventh studio album.
As with much of "Lover, " Swift was quick to speculate that "All Of The Girls" was about her romance with boyfriend Joe Alwyn, including songs that specifically mentioned Alwyn, such as "London Boys" ” and “Cornelia Street.” The song, co-written by Drake producer Frank Dukes and Miley Cyrus collaborator Louise Bell, sees Swift thanking her exes who collectively helped make her partner the man he is today. She also touched on the beginning of their relationship and their efforts to stay out of the public eye. Lyrics like "We sneaked into town" seemed to line up with reports that the couple secretly spent the summer of 2017 at Cara Delevingne's home.
However, the song now has a new context, considering fans were unaware of what was going on behind the scenes. On April 8, it was reported that Swift and Alwyn had split after more than six years of dating, with a source telling Entertainment Tonight that their split was "not dramatic" and actually happened a few weeks ago . This meant that All Of The Girls, which was undoubtedly a love song to Alvin, was only released after their breakup, making its release very bittersweet.
Earlier this year, a group of Swifties banded together to "buy" a leaked version of All Of The Girls You Loved Before on the social media platform Discord, before officially releasing the album. They raised a total of $2,600 (£2,144), then the server was mysteriously taken private, and soon after, various Swift tracks started leaking. Swift is understandably delighted that it's now officially released, and agrees that Alvin is a lucky man to have a song like this written about him.
Even though Swift and Alwyn are no longer together, "To All The Girls You've Loved Before" proves how strong their relationship is.
