Taylor Swift has long been a firm believer in karma, a fact she channeled into her current single, “Karma.” Her acknowledgment of karma traces back to Vogue‘s “73 Questions With Taylor Swift” in 2016 wherein she stated, “Karma is real.” In her latest hit, she explores the dynamics of that concept even further over the course of three minutes and 30 seconds.
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Meaning Behind the Song
Swift co-wrote “Karma’ with Jack Antonoff, Sounwave, J. Sweet and Keanu Beats, with all of them serving as co-producers, minus Sweet. The first verse finds the singer putting someone on blast who’s addicted to betrayal and looking down at everyone you burned just to get there/It’s coming back around. But when the chorus kicks in, she takes a lighter tone, comparing karma to being sweet like honey, as well as the breeze in my hair on the weekend and a relaxing thought.
The global superstar shares that the song was actually written from a happy place, viewing karma as a reward system for living a good life. “‘Karma’ is written from a perspective of feeling really happy, really proud of the way your life is, feeling like this must be a reward for doing stuff right,” she explained to Zane Lowe on Apple Music (quote via Movin’ 92.5.) “It’s a song that I really love because I think we all need some of those moments. We can’t just be beating ourselves up all the time. You have to have these moments where you’re like, ‘You know what, karma is my boyfriend, and that’s it.’”
She added that the song serves as somewhat of a juxtaposition to the overarching theme of Midnights that deals with the complex thoughts and emotions that come to us in the dead of night. “So one of the themes about Midnights is how you’re feeling in the middle of the night and that can be intense self-hatred,” she continued. “You go through these very polarizing emotions when you’re up late at night and your brain just spirals…It can spiral downward or it can spiral way up and you can just be really feeling yourself.”
“Karma” is yet another hit for Swift. It peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 5 on the Adult Top 40 chart. She released a remix featuring rapper Ice Spice in May 2023.
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