Lover (album)

While promoting the album in a YouTube livestream on August 22, Swift revealed that the album was originally titled Daylight before she wrote the song "Lover" which changed her mind; she stated: "I decide an album title based on something that has a nice theme to it and a ring; it's very mood board how I go about [it]. The only time I ever started with a title was Reputation. That was the only time I started an album with a title so I began writing songs around that word. For this album, I actually thought the title of this album was going to be Daylight for a couple months. Then I wrote 'Lover' and I was like 'That's the title'".[32] In the voice memos for Lover, which are found on the deluxe editions of the album, Swift further explained that after she wrote the song, she knew it would be the title and that it would "depict the tone for the record, and it's been a real catalyst for what this album has become."

[Lover is] an album about all different forms of love. Even when love hurts, this album is about the full spectrum that love makes us feel, so I was like, this album is definitely going to be called Lover.

— Swift on choosing the album title, On Air with Ryan Seacrest[33]

Swift wrote Lover from an "open, free, romantic, whimsical place"; she added that the album felt "aesthetically very daytime", whereas its predecessor Reputation (2017) was "all cityscape, darkness, full Swamp Witch".[39] Swift stated that she tried "not to go into making an album with any expectation"; she started to "write so much" that she "knew immediately it [Lover] would probably be bigger" than her other studio albums.[10] Swift was the sole writer of three tracks—"Lover", "Cornelia Street" and "Daylight"; the rest were co-written with the producers. She co-produced every song and served as the sole executive producer of the album. Swift also highlighted that every song on Lover were written specifically for the album, devoid of leftovers from other albums; citing "This Love" as an example, which she had written closer to Red (2012), but ended up being on 1989 (2014). Her percussion credits for the track "Paper Rings" made Lover her first album since 1989 that she actively participated in instrumental recordings.[40]

Jack Antonoff, Swift's frequent collaborator since 2013, co-produced the majority of Lover.

Swift produced Lover with frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff, as well as first-time collaborators Joel Little, Louis Bell, Frank Dukes, and Sounwave.[36] Swift and Antonoff first worked together on the song "Sweeter than Fiction" for the 2013 film One Chance; Antonoff went on to write and produce on two of Swift's albums—1989 (2014) and Reputation (2017), as well as the song "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" for the 2017 film Fifty Shades Darker. Antonoff co-wrote eight and co-produced eleven songs in the album. Little, known for being the lead singer of the punk band Goodnight Nurse and for his work with Lorde, co-wrote and co-produced four songs, including the singles "Me!" and "You Need to Calm Down". Bell and Dukes, who worked with artists including Camila Cabello and Post Malone, co-wrote and co-produced three songs. Swift co-produced tracks with Bell, Dukes, and Little from November to December 2018. Meanwhile, Swift worked with Antonoff on the album from January to February 2019. Sounwave has co-writing and co-producing credits on the song "London Boy"; other artists with writing credits include St. Vincent, Cautious Clay, and Brendon Urie.

I was sitting up at the piano up in my loft, and I had the chorus. It just kind of happened immediately. It was one of those ones that I wrote very, very, very quickly; and I was working out the cadence of the first verse and it just sort of fell together. But then I took some time to write the bridge, because I wanted to really level up with that bridge. That one would for me would be less of a ranting bridge and more of a story-time fable type bridge. Sometimes, I like to imagine a bridge as like a sort of fairytale lullaby fable expanding upon a song that has been not as detailed until that point. "Can I go where you go/ Can we always be this close forever and ever" is less detail, then when you go to the bridge and you realize like, oh, it just got really personal in the bridge. It expands on it all.

— Swift on writing the title track, Rolling Stone[41]

"Lover", the title track, was written by Swift on piano, late at night at her home in Nashville, Tennessee; Swift messaged a voice memo of the song to Antonoff. The next day, Swift flew to New York City to work on the song with Antonoff and recording engineer Laura Sisk, at the Electric Lady Studios. Swift played the song on the piano for them; herself and Antonoff produced the final version of the song during a six-hour recording session, using a "space echo" reverberation effect, a Paul McCartney-inspired bassline, a "washy" piano, a "dream sequence wedding" mellotron, a 12 string, live drums and a "snare hit really hard with a brush".[42][43]

I think that when people make art, other people make art and especially women who make art, I find it highly inspiring. I watched this movie on Netflix called Someone Great. I cried watching the movie. For about a week, I start waking up from dreams that I'm living out that scenario—that that's happening to me. I'd have these lyrics in my head based on the dynamics of these characters and I went in the studio with Jack Antonoff.

— Swift on writing "Death by a Thousand Cuts", E! News[44]

"Death by a Thousand Cuts", the tenth track on Lover, was inspired by the character dynamics between the lead characters of Someone Great, the 2019 Netflix romcom film written and directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.[44]

Lover is primarily a pop record,[46] encompassing synth-pop, pop rock,[47][48] electropop[49][50] and retro elements,[51] with motifs of different styles of music such as country, pop punk, indie-pop, folk rock, and quiet storm.[52] The album's texture has been described as lighter, brighter, dreamy, glossy and breezy,[28][47][53][49] departing from the dark, heavy, hip hop-influenced sound of its predecessor Reputation,[54][55] returning to the 1980s-inspired synth-pop of 1989.[56][49][53] Rebecca Lewis of Metro described Lover as a solid mix of "upbeat pop bangers, dreamy pop songs, heavy bass beats that make you want to clap along and devastatingly sad ballads",[57] while Time's Dana Schwartz thought the album spans from "earnest, twangy love songs to unapologetically bubblegum anthems".[53] Variety's Chris Willman called it "one big pop bubblegum blast of a record".[58]

The A.V. Club critic Annie Zaleski noticed a uniform sonic mood board last heard on 1989, from how Lover mixes "contemporary touchstones" and indie-electropop with plenty of piano and modernized retro elements.[51] Rolling Stone writer Nick Catucci found the album's dominant sound to be "sleekly updated" 1980s pop-rock and dreamy throwback.[47] Apple Music noted that most of Lover is "baked in the atmospheric synths and '80s drums favored by Jack Antonoff".[59] The Daily Telegraph stated that Lover balances the assets of Americana songcraft with slick, modern pop production, making use of "clean and lean" sound from standard chord progressions and mid-tempo rock rhythms, "subtly updated with ear-snagging digital sparkles".[49] The funk and rock and roll elements of Lover were compared to works by Prince (especially the albums 1999 and Sign o' the Times) and Bruce Springsteen.[60][61][62][49] Tracks such as "Lover", "Paper Rings" and "Soon You'll Get Better" tease Swift's return to her country roots.[53] Billboard deemed Lover a pop record of varying tempo—heightening intensity in some tracks, while offering some of Swift's most straightforward song structures in others, thus preventing any "jarry transitions" or "notable swoons" across the track-list.[63]

Dubbed as Swift's most romantic and free-spirited work yet,[64][59] Lover has been described by the singer as "a celebration of love, in all its complexity, coziness, and chaos"[65] and "a love letter to love, in all of its maddening, passionate, exciting, enchanting, horrific, tragic, wonderful glory",[64] presenting her most mature understanding of love yet.[56][58] The album is characterized by themes of contentment, emotional evolution, and moving-on from the past, with forward-thinking songs,[55][47] and thus, is designated as Swift's recalibration from the themes of Reputation.[66][55] Hope, new beginnings and flourishment were highlighted as the album's principle mood;[57] however, the lyrical scope covers diverse themes such as self-love, individuality, romantic devotion, feminism, political criticism, grief, mental health, familial love, friendship, and LGBT rights, weaving them into a single concept.[63][67] Stephen Erlewine of AllMusic stated that Lover comprises the full range of human emotion, in which Swift embraces "all aspects of her personality".[68]

The highly detailed lyrics have been found reminiscent to that of Swift's old-school work, where characters had novelistic aspects,[69] especially the personal lyricism of Speak Now (2010)[53] and the confessional songwriting of Red (2012).[70] Deborah Krieger of PopMatters observed that the songs on Lover largely stem from contentment and satisfaction "in the middle of a strong relationship", rather than chronicling its downfall, which she cited as the main difference between Lover and its predecessors like Speak Now, Red and 1989.[71] In agreement, Larry Fitzmaurice saw Swift reaching a point of contentment in her art and self-perception In Lover.[72] The album has been found to be saturated in Swift's personal stories, packed with autobiographical details, emotional clarity and wisdom;[62][49][51][73] Variety's Chris Wilman highlighted "the minor war between past doubts and current happiness" which adds sophisticated layers to the lyrics.[58] Critics further noticed how Lover provides glimpses into Swift's inner life using specific lyrics; Dana Schwartz of Time described it as "lifting a curtain to reveal the three-dimensional interiority behind two-dimensional paparazzi photos", while The A.V. Club's Annie Zaleski thought that it delves into "love's day-to-day joys" that "drop just enough breadcrumb hints into reality to make songs more believable".[53][51]

Open-hearted love songs dominate Lover, and examines all aspects of love. The songs consist of diaristic lyrics, emotional bridges, ebullience, witty couplets and turns of phrase; while also celebrating Swift's sense of humor, departing from the serious Reputation persona. As seen in "The Man", "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" and "You Need to Calm Down", the album incorporates politically charged lyrics, a previously less explored territory for Swift, while also embodying Americana-inspired songwriting.[53][46][49][57][58] The Daily Telegraph attributed the "romantic zippiness" of "Paper Rings" and "I Think He Knows" to that of Broadway musicals.[49] Many songs on Lover continue Swift's self-assertive attitude and a sense of authority that has been observed in her preceding works.[74]

The album has also been theorized as a part of a trilogy. MTV opined that if1989 is Swift's "pop magnum opus, a high-pitched trumpeting into a newfound universe of freedom and independence", and Reputation "reflects the scorn felt when the reality of the world's cruelty drives her to distress", then Lover completes the trilogy—"a pastel-hued compromise between the good and the bad, not in spite of who she's been, but because of who she's been".[67] The Quietus argued Lover could be the finale to a Red and 1989 trilogy (considering Reputation as an odd standalone), or the first part to a new trilogy constituting Swift's future projects.[75]

Jason Lipshutz of Billboard defined Lover as a distillation of all of Swift's accomplishments, condensing different components of her music to reflect her current interests and strengths as a singer-songwriter.[76] MTV's Terron Moore called the album a "dazzling, bursting compendium of pompous hope, modest love, and sobering grief, as well as a journey to make peace with the past".[77] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone compared the album's introspection to that of David Bowie's Low, Joni Mitchell's Hejira, Al Green's The Belle Album and Carole King's Tapestry, and opined that Lover also has many sharp "therein lies the issue" moments like Reputation; however, Swift diminishes the "Therein Factor" to make room for "a whole avalanche of emotion".[62]

Detailing the emotional weight of the lyrics, Craig Jenkins ofVulture called Lover a song cycle that celebrates the feeling of "meeting someone you'd happily spend the rest of your life with".[69] Zaleski opined that Lover finds Swift in a confident headspace, with the knowledge she is not required to prove herself to anybody.[51] Moore broke down the album into three different parts: Swift and love, Swift and fame, Swift and her audience, with its 18 songs traversing "a hard road to the freedom that exists in surrendering to the best and worst this world has to offer" with peaceful grace.[67] Metro writer Rebecca Lewis outlined that all 18 tracks of Lover work together, with lyrics bouncing between happiness, anger, lust, infatuation and heartache, enabling a showcase of the "full spectrum of love".[57]

The opening track "I Forgot That You Existed" is a light-hearted pop rap and post-tropical house song, where Swift declares her indifference to her detractors and farewell to the events that inspired Reputation, with a reference to Drake and his 2018 song "In My Feelings".[55][78][47][79] The song is set to a minimalist and syncopated arrangement of piano and finger snaps.[79][80][61] "Cruel Summer" is a breezy synth-pop and industrial pop song,[81][55][82] about the tumultuous feelings ensued from a summer romance.[78][83] The song is accompanied by pulsating synthesizers, and robotic, distorted vocals.[84][73][74][82] The title track "Lover" is a slow-paced country and indie folk waltz. It features reverberated vocals and vintage instrumentals, and romantic lyrics that reference traditional marriage vows.[85][60][86][87][54]

In the fourth track, "The Man", Swift imagines the media's treatment of her if she were a man,[58] over a production featuring flashy harmonies, murky synths, and rumbling beats.[27] The song is a commentary on patriarchy and sexist double standards that women experience, and namechecks actor Leonardo DiCaprio.[86] "The Archer" is a 1980s-styled vulnerable synth-pop, dream pop, and alternative ballad with a slow groove,[87][88] building a tense production with kick drum thumps, reaching a climax as it progresses.[89][90] In the song, Swift channels her insecurities, anxiety, and existential crisis.[56][48] "I Think He Knows" is a sparse funk-inflected tune with elements of post-punk and the atmosphere reminiscing Broadway musicals. It sees Swift examining the blossoming of a relationship, speculating how much the subject can surmise her feelings for him, and mentions the neighborhood Music Row.[46][91][90][49] The song's humorous tone starts with Swift's chant-like vocals over stripped-down finger snaps and a prominent bass, building into a dramatic chorus sung in falsetto register, dotted by breathy sighs and downbeats.[92][87][60][59]

"London Boy" begins with a spoken-word intro by English actor Idris Elba (pictured left) and name checks English fashion designer Stella McCartney (pictured right).

The gloomy seventh track "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" is a melodramatic synth-pop protest song telling the story of a high school parable. Marked with peppy cheerleader chants,[93][60] Swift expresses her disillusionment at the state of US politics, using the song as a metaphorical critique.[93][51][49] The high-spirited "Paper Rings" is a 2000s-throwback[74] pop rock, punk rock,[56] new wave, and surf-pop[51] song with a power pop arrangement[90] and rockabilly rhythm.[58] It sees Swift committing to a relationship,[55] declaring she would marry her lover with just rings made of paper.[94] "Cornelia Street" is a narrative ballad named after a street in Greenwich Village where Swift rented a townhouse.[95] In the song, she expresses fears that her fledging relationship might not survive,[48] over a lush, stuttering synth base and a flute-like keyboard line, ending with a final crescendo.[87][57][74][67]

The tenth track, "Death by a Thousand Cuts", is a fast-paced alt-country torch song, with an ornate guitar, a tinkling piano section and quivering synths.[87][51][55][49][54] A recollection of a lost romance,[86] the song was inspired by the 2019 romcom film Someone Great, which in turn was inspired by the song "Clean" from Swift's 2014 album 1989.[44] "London Boy" is a dub-influenced paean with swinging rock and roll beats.[47][49] The song features a spoken intro from actor Idris Elba, Swift's co-star in the 2019 musical Cats, and mentions Stella McCartney, with whom Swift launched a fashion line inspired by Lover.[78][46][96] It mentions various London locations: Camden Market, Soho, Highgate, Brixton, Shoreditch, West End, Hackney, Bond Street, and Hampstead Heath.[97] The country ballad "Soon You'll Get Better" features slide guitars and the Dixie Chicks contributing banjo, fiddle, and backing vocals.[83][61] Swift addresses her parents' battle with cancer, especially her mother's second diagnosis, over a production similar to lullabies and prayers.[98][86][87]

"Soon You'll Get Better" features backing harmonies by American country band the Dixie Chicks.

The thirteenth track, "False God", is a sensuous, slow-burning R&B and quiet storm ballad[99][47] with elements of jazz[49] and trip hop over trap beats.[57][46] A lone saxophone and hiccuping vocal samples intertwine with Swift's sultry vocals and lyrics invoking religious imagery.[57][90][83][48][87] The song sees her discussing redemptive sex and the worthwhile "trials and tribulations of love".[57][86] "You Need to Calm Down" is an LGBT-friendly electropop song that takes aim at internet trolls, bullies, and homophobes,[70] over synth beats and cascading chorus echoes.[87] "Afterglow", the fifteenth track, is a stadium anthem[100] and ballad that sees Swift apologizing to a romantic partner for the impending failure of a relationship,[58][51] propelled by a slow and heavy bass.[57]

In the bubblegum pop and synth-pop song "Me!",[101][102] driven by a marching band drumline,[103] Swift duets with Brendon Urie about self-affirmation and individualism.[72][91] In the indie pop cut "It's Nice to Have a Friend", Swift paints the progression of a romance from childhood into adulthood,[91][104] backed by steelpans, harps, tubular bells and punctuated by a trumpet solo and church bells near the middle.[104][54][83] The song samples the track "Summer in the South" from the album Parkscapes by the Toronto-based Regent Park School of Music.[105] The final track "Daylight" is an introspective ballad that documents her past and where she heads in the future.[51] Advancing from a slow build to a smooth pop melody,[87] the song makes reference to Swift's 2012 song "Red", which shows Swift's growth in perspectives.[56] The album concludes with a spoken word monologue from Swift: "I want to be defined by the things that I love. Not the things I hate, not the things I'm afraid of, the things that haunt me in the middle of the night. I think that you are what you love."[58]

The cover artwork of Lover was shot and edited by 24-year-old Colombian photographer and collage artist, Valheria Rocha; she, along with Swift, handled the art direction of the photographs used for the album's campaign.[106] Murals painted by street artist Kelsey Montague were also used to support Lover.[107]

I think about Lover, and all the glitter heart eyes it inspired and the way people photoshopped themselves on the cover: everyone, from my neighbor to Ellen DeGeneres. There's a level of iconicness and relatability that made the cover influential. People saw they could easily make their own versions of Lover and I think it makes them feel a little closer to Taylor.

— Valheria Rocha, Art director of Lover, "We've Entered a New Age of Kitschy Album Artwork", Entertainment Weekly[108]

The cover artwork features Swift in her signature red lips, with a heart-shaped pink glitter arrangement surrounding her right eye, before a cloudy sky dominated by pink and blue hues, as well as a yellow light leak. The album title is etched above Swift's head, in a slanted, pink, glittery, cursive font.[106] PicsArt, in collaboration with Swift, made a special "Taylor Swift Replay" feature available, using which the users can edit themselves on to the cover art.[109]

The logo of Lover is the album title, written in a slanted, deep pink, glittery, cursive calligraphy font.

The aesthetic of Lover has been described as daytime,[39] summer,[91] and spring,[110] incorporating butterflies,[86] hearts,[111] floral[110] and kitsch,[108] and consisting heavily of pastel colors.[112] The aesthetic has also been employed in several public appearances and live performances throughout the Lover era.[113][114][115][116] Swift teased the aesthetic on Instagram before the album was announced, departing from the dark, gothic, serpentine black and white color scheme of its predecessor, Reputation (2017).[110][117] Swift further defined Lover as open fields and sunsets;[29] calling it a "festival-y" album, while discussing the album's accompanying tour, the Lover Fest.[118]

Swift teased the details about Lover through cryptic hint-dropping and "easters eggs" on social media. Entertainment Weekly wrote, Swift "has perfected the pop culture feedback loop: She shares updates about her life and drops hints about new music, which fans then gobble up and re-promote with their own theories, which Swift then re-shares on her Tumblr or incorporates into future clues. It's like a T-Swift-built Escher staircase of personal memories and moments that tease what's next". Swift commented that she loves "that they [fans] like the cryptic hint-dropping. Because as long as they like it, I'll keep doing it. It's fun. It feels mischievous and playful". The magazine added that Swift "has designed the ultimate artistic scavenger hunt – and it's easy to get swept up in its drama, even if you don't listen to her music", and that she makes the audience "feel like they're on the journey with her".[10]

A few weeks before the expected release of Lover, Swift invited a select group of fans to private listening parties called Secret Sessions, to listen to the album, a tradition which began with 1989 in 2014. These sessions were held in London,[125] Nashville, and Los Angeles,[126] where "Swift met personally with each fan and posed for photos until 5 a.m."[127] These fans were asked to keep information about the album confidential until its release.[128] Audio recordings of the sessions were played on iHeartRadio.[78] In these recordings, we hear Swift talk about her thought process while writing several songs on Lover. When talking about the second track on the album, Cruel Summer, she said, "It deals with the idea of being in a relationship where there's some element of desperation and pain in it, where you're yearning for something that you don't quite have yet." When speaking on her song The Man, she revealed, "I often think about what my career would have been like, and what my headlines about my career would have been like if I had been a man instead of a woman."[129]

Swift partnered with Amazon in the lead-up to the release, with Amazon featuring Lover-themed designs on some of their cardboard delivery boxes.[130] On August 20, Swift released an exclusive playlist on Spotify, which incrementally revealed lyrics from the album.[131] The next day, Swift unveiled a line of clothing and accessories designed in collaboration with British fashion designer Stella McCartney.[132] She gave interviews on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon; the earlier was Swift's first talk show in three years.[133][134] She appeared on the magazine covers of Rolling Stone,[135] Vogue's coveted September issue,[136] British Vogue,[137] Entertainment Weekly[138] and People.[139]

The New York Times highlighted Swift's "old-fashioned" way of releasing Lover, from the release of its lead single "Me!" till the album release. The newspaper stated that Swift is "steady in her traditional pop playbook, with radio singles, music videos, magazine covers, television appearances and a stream of things for sale, all on schedule", even though the majority of the music industry has adapted to the digital era.[35]

Swift performed songs from Lover on several televised events. On May 1, 2019, Swift and Urie made the first live performance of "Me!" at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards at Las Vegas, Nevada.[140] The duo performed the song again at the season finale of the sixteenth season of The Voice on May 21.[141] Swift performed "Me!" solo at the finale of the fourteenth season of Germany's Next Top Model on May 22.[142] On May 24, she appeared on The Graham Norton Show as a musical guest, performing "Me!".[143] On May 25, Swift performed "Me!" at the quarter-finals of the eighth season of The Voice: la plus belle voix, the French edition of The Voice.[144]

On July 10, Swift headlined the Amazon Prime Day Concert 2019 in New York City, performing "Me!" and for the first time "You Need to Calm Down", as well as a selection of songs from her previous albums.[145] On August 22, the day before the album's release, Swift performed a free concert at Central Park in New York City on Good Morning America.[146] Swift then performed "The Archer" on a YouTube livestream later that day.[147] Swift opened the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards with a medley of "You Need to Calm Down" and "Lover" on August 26, where she also won three awards.[148] On September 2, Swift performed "London Boy", "Lover", "The Archer" and "You Need to Calm Down" for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.[149]

On October 5, Swift performed "Lover" and "False God" on Saturday Night Live, hosted by actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge.[150] On October 11, she performed "Lover", "The Man", "Death by a Thousand Cuts", along with "All Too Well" from Red (2012), on NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concert at Washington, D.C.[151] On October 19, Swift performed "Me!", "Lover", and "You Need to Calm Down" at the We Can Survive charity concert in Los Angeles.[152] On November 7, she performed "Me!" for Nippon TV's Sukkiri Morning Show in Tokyo, Japan.[153] On November 10, Swift headlined the Alibaba Singles' Day Countdown Gala in Shanghai, China, where she performed "Me!", "Lover", and "You Need to Calm Down", televised across China.[154] On November 24, Swift performed a medley of her greatest hits, including "The Man" and "Lover", at the 2019 American Music Awards in Los Angeles, where she received the Artist of the Decade trophy.[155] On December 8, she performed "Me!", "London Boy", "Lover", and "You Need to Calm Down" at Capital FM's Jingle Bell Ball 2019 in London.[156] On December 13, Swift performed "Me!", "Lover", and "You Need to Calm Down" at iHeartRadio Z100's Jingle Ball in New York City.[157] On December 14, she performed "Lover" at the finale of BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing.[158] On April 18, 2020, Swift performed "Soon You'll Get Better" for the One World: Together at Home concert, which raised funds for the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.[159]

On September 9, 2019, to celebrate the album release, Swift played a one-off City of Lover concert at L'Olympia in Paris, France, where she performed "Me!", "The Archer", "Death by a Thousand Cuts", "Cornelia Street", "The Man", "Daylight", "You Need to Calm Down", and "Lover", along with songs from previous albums.[160] On May 17, 2020, the concert was aired as a one-hour special, titled Taylor Swift: City of Lover, on ABC; the special was also made available for on-demand streaming on Hulu and Disney+ since the following day.[161][162] Following the ABC premiere, the live versions of the Lover tracks "Me!", "The Archer", "Death by a Thousand Cuts", "Cornelia Street", "Daylight", "You Need to Calm Down", and "Lover", recorded at the City of Lover concert, were released to digital music and streaming platforms,[162] except the live version of "The Man", which was already released to the platforms on February 18, 2020.[163] The ABC premiere attracted 3.63 million viewers.[164]

On September 17, 2019, Swift announced the Lover Fest, a concert tour set to begin in the summer of 2020, starting on June 20, 2020, in Werchter, Belgium and concluding on August 1, 2020, in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Swift intended to play two shows at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles as part of the "Lover Fest West", and two shows at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough as part of the "Lover Fest East", in addition to ten festival dates in Europe and two shows in Brazil. Swift explained on social media that "The Lover album is open fields, sunsets, + SUMMER. I want to perform it in a way that feels authentic. I want to go to some places I haven't been and play festivals. Where we didn't have festivals, we made some."[165] The tour was to be her first visit to a number of European countries and her first official concerts in Latin America.

Due to the growing concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, all 2020 festival dates planned for the tour were cancelled, with the US and Brazil shows postponed and to be rescheduled to sometime in 2021.[166]

"The Archer" was released as the album's only promotional single on July 23, 2019.[178] Swift explained it would not be a single and it was meant to showcase a side of the album unseen by fans with the first two singles ("Me!" and "You Need to Calm Down"). Therefore, the song would not receive an accompanying music video; however, a lyric video accompanied the song's release.[179] On the Hot 100, the song debuted at number 69, eventually peaking at number 38.[175]

Numerous publications placed Lover in their 2019 year-end best-albums lists. Most notably, Rolling Stone critic Rob Sheffield and Variety critic Chris Willman named Lover the best album of 2019. Some of the album's tracks were also included in many 2019 year-end lists: Billboard ranked "Cruel Summer" and "Lover" at the tenth and twenty-first spots in its list of 100 best songs of 2019, respectively;[186] Rolling Stone placed "Cruel Summer" at number four in its list of 50 best songs of 2019;[187] Herald-Tribune listed "You Need to Calm Down" as the second best;[188] Uproxx named "Cornelia Street" as the seventh best song of 2019;[189] Slate placed "Lover" amongst the top 10 best songs of 2019;[190] "The Archer" and "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" were named the sixth and nineteenth best songs of 2019 by Slant, respectively;[191] Stereogum placed "The Archer" in the top 10 of its 100 best songs 2019;[192] The Fader placed "I Think He Knows" at number eight on its list of 25 best pop songs of the year.[193] Furthermore, Good Morning America listed Lover among the 50 most notable albums of the 2010s decade.[194]

With 178,600 pre-adds on Apple Music within one day, Lover is the most pre-saved album by a female artist as of July 2019; it is also the most pre-saved pop album on the platform.[169][251] Republic Records founder and chairman, Monte Lipman, reported album pre-sales worldwide were nearly one million.[253] Target confirmed Lover is its best-selling music pre-order of all time, surpassing the record previously held by Swift's own Reputation (2017).[254] In China, Lover sold over 201,300 pre-sales units on NetEase Music, 15,882 units on KuGou and 4.69 million song downloads on QQ Music. It became the fastest western album to receive a 3× diamond certification in the history of QQ Music and made Swift the first female artist to have three albums, after 1989 (2014) and Reputation (2017), reach this mark. Two days before its release, Lover had exceeded a total digital sales volume of ¥8.7 million in China.[255]

In the US, Lover sold around 450,000 copies in its first day, earning the biggest sales week of 2019, breaking the first-week sales record of Jonas Brothers' Happiness Begins (357,000) in a day.[256] Lover debuted at number-one on the Billboard 200 chart, generating more than 867,000 units with around 679,000 pure sales, immediately becoming the country's best-selling album of 2019, and the biggest sales week since Swift's own Reputation. It is the singer's sixth number-one album in the country; she also became the first female artist in US history to have six albums sell more than 500,000 copies in a single week. Lover earned more than 226 million streams across all platforms in the US in its first week, marking the second largest streaming week of all time among albums by women.[257][258]

Additionally, Lover outsold all the other 199 albums on the chart combined in its opening week, the first album to achieve this feat since Reputation.[259] Billboard noted that the album's opening week was aided by its four Target-exclusive deluxe CD editions as well as dozens of merchandise bundles sold through Swift's website,[257] and reported that Lover accounted for 27% of the total album sales in the US that week.[258] Swift tied Beyoncé for most consecutive number-one debuts on the Billboard 200 for a female artist, at six albums.[260] Amazon asserted that Lover is the biggest debut in the history of Amazon Music.[261] In its second week on the Billboard 200, Lover moved 178,000 units and descended to number two, a decrease of 79% from the previous week, marking the largest second-week sales of 2019.[262] Lover went on to spend 18 weeks inside the top 10 of Billboard 200, six more weeks than its predecessor, Reputation.[263] In August 2020, following the release of Folklore, Swift's eighth studio album, Lover climbed back to number 18 on the chart.[264]

All 18 tracks from Lover charted simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100, breaking numerous records—the most simultaneous Hot 100 entries among women, the most simultaneous Hot 100 debuts among women, the album by a female artist with most simultaneous Hot 100 entries and the album by a female artist with the most simultaneous Hot 100 debuts—all of which were previously held by Billie Eilish and her 2019 debut studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?.[175] Bolstered by Lover, Swift held the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 Songwriters chart for three consecutive weeks,[265] and returned to the top spot of the Billboard Artist 100 chart for a thirty-seventh week, extending her all-time record as the longest running number-one act on the chart.[266]

By the end of 2019, Lover had sold 1.085 million copies in the US (which includes 386,000 digital copies and 699,000 physical copies), making it the top selling album of 2019 in both physical sales and overall sales. It is Swift's fourth album to become the best-seller of the year, following Fearless in 2009, 1989 in 2014 and Reputation in 2017. Lover was also the only 2019 release to reach the one-million mark. The album also generated more than 2.191 million album-equivalent units in 2019, landing third on the Nielsen Music/MRC Data's list of the year's most-consumed albums and fourth on the 2019 Billboard 200 Year-End chart.[267][268] As of February 2020, Lover has moved over 2.3 million units in the US.[269] In March 2020, the album was certified 2× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, denoting 2 million units moved in the country.[270] On the 2020 Billboard Year-End charts, Lover landed at numbers 9, 8 and 15 on Top Album Sales, Top Current Albums Sales and Top Billboard 200 Albums charts, respectively, accompanied by Swift's eighth studio album, Folklore (2020), at number one on the two earlier charts and fifth on latter.[271]

In Canada, Lover debuted at number-one on the Billboard Canadian Albums Chart, selling 47,000 units in its first week,[251] becoming Swift's sixth consecutive chart-topper in the country.[272] By the end of 2019, the album had moved over 181,000 units (including 61,000 pure copies) in Canada.[273] Lover landed at number 13 on the 2020 year-end Top Canadian Albums list; Swift was the only woman with two albums inside the top-15, with Folklore at number 9.[271]

In Europe, Lover gave Swift her highest debuts on many charts thus far in her career. In the United Kingdom, it debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart with 53,000 units, consisting of 35,000 traditional sales. It made Swift the first female artist to have four chart-topping albums in the 2010s decade.[274] It also was the year's fastest-selling female digital album in the UK, surpassing Ariana Grande's Thank U, Next.[275] The album is certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry for selling over 100,000 copies in the country. In Ireland, the album debuted at number one on the Irish Albums Chart, making Swift the only female artist with four chart-topping albums in the country in the 2010s decade.[276] Lover also went number-one in Belgium, Estonia, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain and Sweden.[251]

In Australia, Lover debuted at number one on the ARIA Albums Chart, becoming Swift's fifth consecutive chart-topper in the country. It also posted the biggest first-week sales of 2019 in the country and all of the 18 tracks from the album appeared in the top 75 of the ARIA Top 100 Singles Chart.[277][278] The album was certified 2× Platinum in the country, denoting over 140,000 copies earned. Lover also debuted atop the albums chart in New Zealand, becoming Swift's sixth number-one album in the country.[251]

In China, Lover was a massive success, topping the best-selling digital albums lists of all major Chinese music platforms. It became the first international album in Chinese history to surpass 1 million units within a week of its release, setting the record for the biggest sales week for an international artist in the country.[279] By the end of 2019, it became the best-selling and most consumed album of the year in China.[280] Lover has been certified 3× Diamond by QQ Music.[255] It is one of the best-selling digital albums of all time in China. Following 1989 and Reputation, Lover is Swift's third album to rank in the all-time top 10, making her the first non-Chinese act to achieve this; all the three releases have exceeded 1 million digital units in the country.[280][241] In Japan, Lover debuted at the third spot on the Oricon Albums Chart with only three days of tracking, moving over 27,500 units.[251]

• ^a signifies a co-producer
• "The Archer" contains an interpolation of the nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty".[284]
• "London Boy" contains a sample of "Cold War" by Cautious Clay and a snippet of James Corden interviewing Idris Elba.[36][58][285]
• "Me!" is stylized in all caps, and the album version does not contain the spoken lyrics "Hey, kids, spelling is fun!"[286]
• "It's Nice to Have a Friend" contains a sample of "Summer in the South" by the Toronto-based Regent Park School of Music.[287]