The title of Taylor Swift’s song “Champagne Problems” seemingly alludes to someone whose troubles are not all that dire. Yet Swift is not making a commentary about the seriousness of the problems discussed in the song. According to Swift, It’s a story song about a man who is about to propose to his college sweetheart, not knowing that she is about to break up with him.
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So “Champagne Problems” is a play on the expression. The champagne that the man is left with is a reminder of how his hopes for a life together were rejected by the woman he wanted to share it with. Swift doesn’t have much to say about why her character broke off the relationship. She does, however, delve into how the breakup affected her ex-boyfriend and how the people around them responded to it.
A Celebration That Never Came
Swift begins her telling of the story, not with the proposal or rejection, but with the aftermath. She shows us the ex-boyfriend on a train, distraught and not knowing what to do with himself.
You booked the night train for a reason
So you could sit there in this hurt
Bustling crowds or silent sleepers
You’re not sure which is worse
Then Swift flashes back to the moment of rejection. She describes it through a variety of metaphors. Swift also includes a couple of details that show how he was already seeing his girlfriend as an integrated and permanent part of his family.
Because I dropped your hand while dancing
Left you out there standing
Crestfallen on the landing
Champagne problems
Your mom’s ring in your pocket
My picture in your wallet
Your heart was glass, I dropped it
Champagne problems
Swift picks up on the theme of the boyfriend’s family—and the girlfriend’s forfeited place in it—in the second verse.
You told your family for a reason
You couldn’t keep it in
Your sister splashed out on the bottle
Now no one’s celebrating
More Details, But With Questions Still Unanswered
Then in the second chorus, Swift widens out the circle around the former couple to include friends and townspeople. And, for the first time, she raises the issue of why the girlfriend ended the relationship.
Dom Pérignon, you brought it
No crowds of friends applauded
Your hometown skeptics called it
Champagne problems
You had a speech, you’re speechless
Love slipped beyond your reaches
And I couldn’t give a reason
Champagne problems
By this point in the song, Swift paints some parts of the picture in sharp relief while leaving others murky. We know that the boyfriend is devastated. We also get a sense that people who were a part of their circle, from family to friends to people in town, are sympathetic to him. They may even be siding with him. For all of the distress the girlfriend’s rejection has caused, she doesn’t even have an explanation.
This perspective is coming from the girlfriend as a first-person narrator. Swift’s character continues to throw herself under the bus as the song progresses. In the song’s bridge, Swift questions her character’s soundness, when she sings, “This dorm was once a madhouse” / I made a joke, “Well, it’s made for me.” Swift brings in the townspeople once again to support her unsympathetic self-assessment: “She would’ve made such a lovely bride / What a shame she’s f—d in the head,” they said.
Swift’s story is fascinating for what it leaves in and what it leaves out. We are left to wonder why her character wasn’t ready to say “yes” to the proposal. We can also consider whether the boyfriend could have had reasons to think his girlfriend might have said “no,” but he ignored them. Swift also challenges us to think about whether we accept the narrative of her character being “f—ed in the head” Perhaps the girlfriend had her reasons but didn’t want to face them—or didn’t want the rest of us to know what they were.
About Joe Alwyn
Swift co-wrote “Champagne Problems” with her then-partner Joe Alwyn, credited to his pseudonym William Bowery. Alwyn is an actor who has appeared in more than a dozen films, including Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Mary Queen of Scots, and Harriet. He also appeared in FX’s 2019 version of A Christmas Carol and the 2022 Hulu series Conversations with Friends.
As Bowery, Alwyn co-wrote two songs on Swift’s Folklore album, and under his name, he co-produced six tracks. For his contributions to Folklore, Alwyn won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. On Evermore, he co-wrote “Coney Island” and the title track in addition to “Champagne Problems.” He also co-wrote “Sweet Nothing” with Swift for her 2022 album Midnights.
The Impact of “Champagne Problems”
“Champagne Problems” was not officially released as a single, but that has not put a damper on the song’s popularity. With more than 540 million streams, it is the second-most popular track from Evermore on Spotify. Only “Willow,” with over 750 million streams, has received more plays on the platform. “Champagne Problems” peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went to No. 3 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. It also spent a week at No. 9 on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart.
Musically, “Champagne Problems” is spare, with Swift’s vocals and the National’s Aaron Dessner’s piano carrying much of the song. It doesn’t need more than that, since Swift’s lyrics give us more than enough to devote our attention to. The story is highly compelling as it is, but the questions it raises make it worth coming back to again and again.
(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
