Lavender Haze

"Lavender Haze" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, taken from her tenth studio album, Midnights (2022). The song was written by Swift, Jack Antonoff, Jahaan Sweet, Sounwave, Zoë Kravitz, and Sam Dew, and it was produced by the first four in addition to Braxton Cook. The title references a 1950s-dated common phrase for the state of being in love, inspired by the series Mad Men. Republic Records released the song to US radio on November 29, 2022, as the album's second single.

"Lavender Haze" has an electro-hip-hop-influenced production driven by a thumping bassline, modular synthesizers, and layered falsetto vocals in the refrain. Critics described its genre as pop, ambient house, R&B, and disco. Inspired by the media scrutiny surrounding the romantic relationship between Swift and English actor Joe Alwyn, the lyrics are about a narrator disregarding others' opinions and asserting that she wants to stay in love with her lover. Critics praised the song for what they deemed a sultry mood, a catchy production, and straightforward lyrics.

The single peaked at number two on the singles charts of Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States, and on the Billboard Global 200. It reached the top 10 in many other countries. The "Lavender Haze" music video, written and directed by Swift, was released on January 27, 2023. It incorporates psychedelic and surrealist visual elements and features Dominican-American model Laith Ashley as Swift's love interest. She included "Lavender Haze" in the setlist of her sixth headlining concert tour, the Eras Tour (2023–2024).

Background and production 
American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift announced her tenth studio album, Midnights, at the MTV Video Music Awards on August 28, 2022. She revealed the scheduled release date of October 21, but did not immediately disclose the track list. Beginning on September 21, Swift started to unveil the track list in a randomized order through her 13-episode short-video series Midnights Mayhem with Me on TikTok. In each video, Swift rolls a lottery cage containing 13 ping pong balls numbered from one to thirteen, each representing a track, and when a ball drops out, she discloses the title of the corresponding track through a telephone.

In the ninth episode on October 7, 2022, Swift announced the title of the album's opening track as "Lavender Haze". After disclosing the track title, Swift shared via an Instagram post that she discovered the expression "lavender haze", which describes the state of being in love, when watching season 2, episode 12 of the period drama series Mad Men. Intrigued by its meaning and supposed origin dating back to the 1950s, she saw parallels between the expression and her relationship with English actor Joe Alwyn. To Swift, the title signified an "all-encompassing love glow": "[When] you're in the 'lavender haze' you'll do anything to stay there and not let people bring you down off of that cloud."

Swift revealed the songwriting credits for Midnights on October 18, 2022. "Lavender Haze" was written by an assembly including Swift, Jack Antonoff, Sounwave, Jahaan Sweet, Sam Dew, and Zoë Kravitz. The first four songwriters also produced it and used a vocal sample from jazz musician Braxton Cook, who is credited as an additional producer. Antonoff and audio engineer Laura Sisk recorded the track at Rough Customer Studio in Brooklyn, Electric Lady Studios in New York, and Henson Recording Studio in Los Angeles. Musicians on "Lavender Haze" include Antonoff, who programmed the song and played drums, modular synthesizers, Juno-6, Mellotron, and Wurlitzer; Sweet, who played bass, bass pad, flute, and Juno; Dominik Rivinus, who played snares that were recorded by Ken Lewis at Neon Wave Studio in Pirmasens, Germany. Serban Ghenea mixed "Lavender Haze" at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Randy Merrill mastered it at Sterling Sound in Edgewater, New Jersey. On the vinyl editions, the track was mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound in Nashville, Tennessee.

Composition and lyrics 
"Lavender Haze" is driven by a thumping bassline generated with a synth bass, downtempo rhythms, and swirling modular synthesizers. In the track, Swift sings with her layered, breathy upper register vocals that lead to falsetto in the refrain, accompanied by high-pitched background vocals from Antonoff. Music critics described the production as dreamy, moody, and sensual.

Critical consensus was that the track's music links to a variety of genres. Reviews such as those published in The Times and The Sydney Morning Herald called it a song rooted in synth-pop and dream pop genres, while also evoking ambient house and elements of rhythmic genres like R&B and hip hop. Alex Blimes of Esquire described the song as "slow disco". In Vulture, musicologist Nate Sloan and journalists Charlie Harding and Reanna Cruz said the prominent synth-bass sound evokes an ensemble of dance and club styles of techno, UK garage, and jungle. Harding said the bassline used in "Lavender Haze" is the Reese bass, a synth-bass sound that characterizes a very low bass patch. Some reviewers likened the track's sound to that of Swift's 2017 album Reputation. Ann Powers of NPR thought the layered vocals and synth drums are reminiscent of the music by Whitney Houston, and Neil McCormick of The Telegraph said the falsetto "funkiness" evokes the styles of Prince.

The lyrics are about the tabloid scrutiny and online rumors that Swift and Alwyn had faced, and wanting to stay away from the press with her lover. In the lyrics, a narrator disregards others' opinions on her relationship: "All they keep asking me / Is if I'm gonna be your bride / The only kinda girl they see / Is a one-night or a wife." She disregards the scrutiny on her romantic life as bigoted and outdated ("the 1950s shit they want from me"). She refers to questions surrounding the relationship as "dizzying" and compliments Alwyn's disregard to public inquiries about their relationship. She ultimately shakes off the judgement, "Talk your talk and go viral / I just need this love to spiral." Media publications wrote that the lyrics feature a feminist viewpoint and calls out the misogynistic conceptions about gender roles.

Critical reception 
"Lavender Haze" received acclaim from music critics. Rolling Stones Brittany Spanos described the song as the most explicit on the album about Swift's "forcefield of protection", and compared it to "Cruel Summer" (2019) thematically, both being about "love glow breaking through all the negativity, criticism, and expectations." Sonically, Spanos praised the track's restrained, "subtle and shimmering sound" setting the mood for Midnights as the opening track. Chris Willman of Variety opined that the song harkens Swift "back in autobiographical territory as a lyricist". Paul Bridgewater from The Line of Best Fit picked "Lavender Haze" as one of the album's stronger tracks, and Mary Siroky from Consequence selected it as one of the album's three essential tracks, alongside "Anti-Hero" and "Karma". For Our Culture Mag'''s Konstantinos Pappis, its "stunning" production sets the tone for the "radiant, almost muted glow" of Midnights. Rick Quinn, writing for PopMatters, dubbed the song an "infectiously danceable tune". Paste critic Ellen Johnson said the song has a "sultry" melody with the lyrics expressing "feminist discontent". In congruence, Slate Carl Wilson wrote that "Lavender Haze" references the Madonna–whore complex. Billboard ranked "Lavender Haze" as the 69th best song of 2022.

 Release 
Released on October 21, 2022, as the opening track of Midnights, "Lavender Haze" was released to US contemporary hit radio as the album's second single on November 29, 2022. A tropical house remix of "Lavender Haze" by German DJ Felix Jaehn was released on February 10, 2023. Three more remixes by Tensnake, Snakehips and Jungle, respectively, followed on March 3, 2023, were released. All three, along with the remix by Felix Jaehn, were also released together that same day to streaming services in a remix EP. An acoustic version was made available for digital download and on streaming services on March 31, 2023.

 Commercial performance 

"Lavender Haze" received over 16.4 million plays in its first 24 hours on Spotify globally, becoming the second biggest opening day for a song in the platform's history, behind the album's lead single "Anti-Hero". It debuted at its peak of number two on the Billboard Global 200, behind "Anti-Hero".

In the United States, tracks from Midnights occupied the entire top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100; "Lavender Haze" debuted and peaked at number two (behind "Anti-Hero") with 41.4 million streams, 2,800 digital downloads sold, and 2.4 million airplay audience. With this, Swift received the most number-two entries for a female artist in the chart's history. She became the first artist to occupy the top 10 spots of the Hot 100 simultaneously; and the first act to occupy the entire top 10 of the Hot 100, Streaming Songs, and Digital Songs charts simultaneously. Midnights also became the first album in history to contain ten top-10 songs. "Lavender Haze" spent a second consecutive week inside the top 10 of the Hot 100, alongside "Anti-Hero", "Bejeweled" and "Midnight Rain".

After its release as the second single from Midnights, "Lavender Haze" peaked at number five on the Pop Airplay and number four on the Adult Pop Airplay charts, becoming Swift's milestone twentieth top-10 entry on the former and her twenty-seventh one on the latter; it additionally served as her fourteenth top five entry on the former and her record-tying fifteenth one on the latter. It became her seventeenth song to enter the top 10 of the overall Radio Songs chart, tying Jay-Z, Ludacris, P!nk, T-Pain and Usher for the tenth most top 10 radio singles in history.

Elsewhere, "Lavender Haze" has charted in 21 other countries. It peaked within the top-five in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the Philippines the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore; the top-10 in India, Portugal, Vietnam, Iceland, and South Africa; and the top-20 in Luxembourg, Norway, Lithuania, Austria, Croatia, Hong Kong, the Czech Republic, and Sweden.

Music video
The music video for "Lavender Haze" was teased along with the music videos for "Anti-Hero" and "Bejeweled" during the Midnights album trailer on Amazon Prime Video on October 20, 2022. It premiered on Swift's Vevo channel on YouTube at midnight EST on January 27, 2023.

In the psychedelic video, Swift rises from her bed, where her lover, portrayed by Laith Ashley, lies asleep. A lavender-hued mist appears from underneath the bed and engulfs the room. The video cuts to Swift on a couch watching a weather channel on television, wearing a purple faux-fur coat. She crawls towards the television through patches of lavender flowers and parts the screen like curtains, revealing koi fish swimming through an outer space featuring stars and bright purple clouds. In the next scene, Swift lies seemingly disrobed in a purple-hued pool. The video intercuts between Swift in the pool and the lavender before cutting to her at a party with her lover, where they are dancing, engulfed in the lavender mist. The video ends with Swift back in her bedroom. The walls suddenly fall, revealing the house to be afloat in space and then leaving her on a cloud surrounded by the floating koi fish. The video contains numerous Easter eggs that link to other Midnights tracks.

 Accolades 

 Track listing 
Digital download
 "Lavender Haze" – 3:22

Digital download and streaming – Acoustic
 "Lavender Haze" (Acoustic Version) - 2:54

Digital download and streaming – Remixes
 "Lavender Haze" (Tensnake remix) – 3:34
 "Lavender Haze" (Snakehips remix) – 3:07
 "Lavender Haze" (Jungle remix) – 3:55
 "Lavender Haze" (Felix Jaehn remix) – 2:51
 "Lavender Haze" – 3:22

 Personnel 
Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Midnights''.

 Taylor Swift – vocals, songwriter, producer
 Jack Antonoff – songwriter, producer, engineer, drums, programming, percussion, synths, Juno 6, Mellotron, Wurlitzer, background vocals, recording
 Zoë Kravitz – songwriter, background vocals
 Sounwave – songwriter, producer, programming
 Jahaan Sweet – songwriter, producer, engineer, bass, bass pad, flute, Juno, recording
 Sam Dew – songwriter, background vocals, recording
 Braxton Cook – additional producer
 Dominik Rivinius – snare
 Laura Sisk – engineer, recording
 Ken Lewis – engineer, recording
 Megan Searl – assistant engineer
 Jon Sher – assistant engineer
 John Rooney – assistant engineer
 Mark Aguilar – assistant engineer
 Jonathan Garcia – assistant engineer
 Şerban Ghenea – mixing engineer
 Bryce Bordone – assistant mix engineer
 Randy Merrill – mastering engineer
 Ryan Smith – mastering for vinyl

Charts

Certifications

Release history

References 

2022 songs
2022 singles
Taylor Swift songs
Songs written by Taylor Swift
Songs written by Jack Antonoff
Songs written by Sounwave
Songs written by Sam Dew
Song recordings produced by Taylor Swift
Song recordings produced by Jack Antonoff
American synth-pop songs
American contemporary R&B songs
Psychedelic art
Dream pop songs
American disco songs
American pop songs
Songs with feminist themes
Transgender-related mass media