Fans rejoice: the Taylor Swift drought is over.
The pop star has released her new song Carolina to mark the upcoming release of the film Where the Crawdads Sing, which stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as main character Kya.
The song, which was written specially for the film’s soundtrack, is her first original song since 2020, when she released lockdown album Evermore – with its launch announced hours before via social media.
“There are things that only Carolina knows… and you soon will too,” the singer’s Taylor Nation Twitter feed reads. “Taylor’s original song #Carolina is out at MIDNIGHT ET.”
Where the Crawdads Sing is based on the bestselling book by Delia Owen and Swift has been a fan of the book for a while. In March, she wrote on Instagram that she had become “absolutely lost in” the book “when I read it years ago”.
“As soon as I heard there was a film in the works starring the incredible @daisyedgarjones and produced by the brilliant @reesewitherspoon, I knew I wanted to be a part of it from the musical side.”
Perhaps it’s no surprise that her song contains multiple references to the book, specifically Kya’s upbringing in the Carolina marshes and her trial for the murder of popular boy Chase Andrews.
“Oh Carolina knows / Why for years they’ve said / That I was guilty as sin / And sleep in a liar’s bed,” Swift sings, referencing the end of the book.
“But the sleep comes fast/ And I’ll meet no ghosts/ It’s been me, the sand and the sea / Carolina knows.”
In 2018, Fox 2000 snapped up the rights for the film were snapped and brought Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine on board to produce, according to Variety. Witherspoon had supported the book, including it in her Reese’s Book Club.
This is not the first time that Swift has stepped into work on a film project. In 2012, she contributed to the soundtrack for The Hunger Games’ third and fourth films, titled Safe and Sound.
The singer-songwriter has also been busy in recent years re-recording and re-releasing her entire back catalogue.
In 2019, her label, Big Machine Records, sold her back catalogue to celebrity talent manager Scooter Braun.
Despite Swift negotiating to regain ownership of her masters, Braun then sold it onto Shamrock Holdings, with Swift opting to re-record the masters she doesn’t own so she has control over all of her music.
So far she has re-released albums Fearless and Red, with Speak Now and 1989 set to follow.
