Why Taylor Swift's new song 'When Emma Falls in Love' is (probably) about Emma Stone

 

Drop everything now, and get out your best detective gear.

 

A new Taylor Swift release in the form of her re-recorded album, Speak Now (Taylor's Version), means a new Easter egg hunt for fans.

 

Since the tracklist for the album — which includes all of the original Speak Now tracks and six new "from the vault" songs — was first revealed, fans have specifically homed in on the curiously titled "When Emma Falls in Love." Would the song be about the Jane Austen classic, Emma? Would it be about Swift's longtime friend Emma Stone? Perhaps Emma Watson, of Harry Potter fame? Or maybe a random or fictional person named Emma?

 

Short of Swift herself admitting who it's about, it's impossible to say for sure, of course. But after carefully sifting through the lyrics to the sweet track, EW can say with some degree of Swiftian confidence that "When Emma Falls in Love" is not only likely about Emma Stone — whom Swift first befriended in 2008 at the Young Hollywood Awards — but is also more of an ode to a friend than the title at first suggests. Let's unpack it.

 

At the beginning of the track, Swift sings: "When Emma falls in love, she calls up her mom, jokes about the ways that this one could go wrong." This is followed up with the lyric, "She waits and takes her time, 'cause little miss sunshine always thinks it's gonna rain."

 

This could point to Stone in a number of ways. First, the Oscar-winning actress has a known close relationship with her mother, having taken her as a date to numerous awards shows over the years and having publicly stayed by her side as she fought breast cancer in 2008.

 

Then there's the "little miss sunshine" lyric. One of the most famous scenes in Stone's film Easy A involves her jubilantly singing along to a greeting card that plays Natasha Bedingfield's hit "Pocketful of Sunshine."

 

It should also be noted that over the years Stone and Swift have taken turns publicly showing their support for each other at events, including at the Easy A premiere in 2010.

 

Then there's the timing of it all. The original Speak Now album came out in 2010, and the songs, which Swift solo wrote all of between 2008 and 2010, also coincide with the heyday of Swift and Stone public sightings. In addition to showing up at events together, they were also seen hanging out in New York multiple times, despite the fact that Stone notably lived in Los Angeles at the time.

 

This feels evident with the lyric in "When Emma Falls in Love" that says, "She's so New York when she's in L.A." Swift also sings at one point that "when Emma falls in love she disappears, and we all just laugh after seeing it all these years," which feels specific to someone you've been friends with for a while versus a casual acquaintance.

 

Whether it's ultimately about Stone might not be totally provable — but it also doesn't feel like the point. In the original album's liner notes, Swift wrote of Speak Now, "Say it to them. Or say it to yourself in the mirror. Say it in a letter you'll never send or in a book millions might read someday. I think you deserve to look back on your life without a chorus of resounding voices saying 'I could've, but it's too late now.'"

 

She continued, "There is a time for silence. There is a time waiting your turn. But if you know how you feel, and you so clearly know what you need to say, you'll know it... I don't think you should wait. I think you should speak now."

 

In that vein then, "When Emma Falls in Love" fits the album's theme perfectly when viewed not just as a girl named Emma falling in and out of love, but about a friend watching it all, writing a letter never sent to a pal she deeply admires.

 

For yes, the song charts the rise and fall of different loves in Emma's life, but underneath it all are little affectionate observations about Emma herself, like how "she's the kind of book that you can't put down" and "she won't lose herself in love the way that I did, 'cause she'll call you out, she'll put you in your place."

 

In the last verse, Swift herself says she's learned from Emma's trials and triumphs in love: "When Emma falls in love... I'm learning," she sings. And, to really underscore Swift's obvious admiration for this friend, she punctuates both the chorus and the song itself by admitting "the truth": "Sometimes I wish I was her." If something that pointed doesn't exemplify the very idea behind Speak Now, we don't know what does.