Taylor Swift revealed a playful strategy for dealing with people who mock her during the GRAMMY Museum’s recent Icon Session, admitting that she sometimes responds by turning their own words back on them — with a vocabulary lesson attached. The pop superstar joked that she will occasionally use advanced words specifically because she knows her critics may have to look them up before they can understand the comeback.
“Sometimes when people are mocking me it’s really fun to mock them back,” Swift said during The Icon Session with Taylor Swift. “Sometimes I have to use words that they have to look up in order to talk shit about.”
Your daily dose of music news, trends, and fresh drops.
InMusic Newsletter
The remark offered a glimpse into the mischievous side of Swift’s personality that has frequently surfaced throughout her career. Rather than responding directly to every criticism, she described using language itself as a way to turn the joke around, making the exchange more playful than confrontational.
Swift made the comments during The Icon Sessions with Taylor Swift: A 20-Year Retrospective, an intimate conversation held August 18, 2026, at the GRAMMY Museum’s Clive Davis Theater in Los Angeles. Hosted by Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., the invite-only event brought together roughly 100 members of the Recording Academy’s Songwriters & Composers Wing for a career-spanning discussion.
The nearly 49-minute conversation covered Taylor Swift’s development as a songwriter, from her early obsession with music at around age 10 to the creative decisions that shaped two decades of albums. She discussed influences including Faith Hill and Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe scene, as well as learning instruments and studying song structures while remaining focused on storytelling and emotional truth.
Her comments also touched on some of the defining transitions of her career, including the move from country into pop, collaborations with Max Martin and Shellback, the character-driven writing of Folklore and the sharper attitude surrounding Reputation. Swift explained how instinct has often guided her creative decisions even when analytics, expectations or public opinion suggested another direction.
The conversation offered plenty of practical advice for songwriters, too. Swift encouraged artists to continue showing up for the work even when inspiration is absent, arguing that the “Idea Fairy” can arrive once the process begins.
The event also included a piano medley featuring snippets of “I Knew It, I Knew You,” “August,” and “All Too Well.”
Photo: Taylor Swift/YouTube
Leave a Reply