Toil and Trouble: Taylor’s “Cancelled!” Lyrics Meaning, Explained
The Life of a Showgirl is full of controversial tracks, but Taylor Swift’s track 10, CANCELLED!, might just be the most polarizing of them all.
In this song, our “showgirl” narrator seems to be telling her other celebrity friends that she’ll still be by their side when their inevitable cancellation comes to burn them down. But is that all there is to it? Not quite.
I’m your Swiftie English teacher, and I’m here to break down Cancelled, line by line (and witch by witch). Something wicked this way comes…
- Title: CANCELLED!
- Track: 10, The Life of a Showgirl
- Written By: Taylor Swift, Max Martin & Shellback
- Pen: Glitter Gel Pen
CANCELLED! Narrative Synopsis
- POV: First person, possibly narrated by Hecate and the three witches of Macbeth (more below).
- Setting: Inside the present social climate of “cancel culture”.
- Characters: Narrator (“I”, who has previously been “cancelled”, possibly Hecate), subject (“you,” who is being subjected to cancellation), “they” (society at large), “we” (those who have been burned at the stake, or the 3 witches of Macbeth).
- Mood: Snarky satire & political commentary.
- Conflict: They’re burning all the witches, even if you aren’t one.
- Inciting Incident: “The wrath of masked crusaders.”
- Lesson: Cancellation sucks, but you’ll only get stronger because of it.
Context: Cancelled and MacBeth
Cancel culture and…Shakespeare? That’s right, Ms Swift is all about the Bard again.
In the end of the first pre-chorus of Cancelled, Taylor says, “something wicked this way comes,” directly quoting Shakespeare’s Macbeth. This line is uttered by the three witches, who are pivotal characters in the tragedy.
Taylor is always purposeful in her writing, so we must examine why she’d use the quote in an album where she’s already referenced Shakespeare (The Fate of Ophelia).
The Tragedy of Macbeth centers around the blind ambition of Scottish nobleman Macbeth, who is told by the three witches that he’s destined to ascend the throne. The themes of morality, the natural order of being, witchcraft, and good vs. evil are all on display as Macbeth charges forward in his quest for power.
Macbeth’s three witches (also called “the weird sisters”, and thought to represent The Fates) are evil and chaotic, but Macbeth doesn’t see their scheming. They speak one at a time, then speak some lines in unison, uttering such iconic lines as “bubble, bubble, toil and trouble,” “fair is foul and foul is fair,” and, of course, “something wicked this way comes.”
The witches are ruled by Hecate, the goddess of spells and witchcraft, who also appears in the play. Hecate gets jealous that they’re manipulating Macbeth without her. She wants to play their evil little games, too.
So what does this all have to do with Cancelled?
My theory is that Cancelled is narrated by the characters of Hecate and the three witches, which I’ll explain line by line below. But what do witches have to do with this song?
Taylor has used the metaphor of the witch trials to represent her “cancellation” before. “They’re burning all the witches even if you aren’t one,” she says in I Did Something Bad. Pulling in a quote from the witches in Macbeth in a track all about cancellation points us back to that previous metaphor, as well as pointing to the text of Macbeth directly.
The format of Taylor’s lyrics here is reminiscent of the witches. There are 3 verses (like the 3 witches), and after each verse, each pre-chorus asks 3 questions. In the audio, each question is asked in a different octave, which makes it sound like 3 distinct voices.
But there’s also a “leader” or central narrator, who we can interpret as the voice of the “head witch” character Hecate. In most iconography, Hecate is portrayed as triple-bodied, with 3 faces, and often with snakes and keys and daggers, all common imagery in the TS universe.
All these voices are, essentially, encouraging evil, and tempting the subject to come to the ‘dark side’ where everyone is doing deeds worthy of cancellation. The same thing happens in Macbeth.
The alternative is to read Cancelled as strictly satire, akin to Blank Space. Either way, this track is highly critical commentary on the patriarchy, cancel culture, and faceless internet mobs, but is not meant to be taken literally.
No, she doesn’t only like “cancelled” friends, much like she doesn’t really want a bouquet of “poisoned, thorny flowers”. The critique of cancel culture is there, because she’s experienced it herself. But that doesn’t mean she wants or likes it when it happens to others.
“You find out who your real friends are when you’re involved in a scandal.”
-Elizabeth Taylor
CANCELLED! Lyrics Meaning: Line by Line
Please note, this is only my interpretation of Taylor Swift’s writing. Art is subjective, and the only person who truly knows what these lyrics mean – or what she intended them to mean – is Taylor herself.
What these lyrics mean to you is really what matters, and there is no single “correct” interpretation. I hope my annotations below I can simply point out things you may have missed, open the door to alternate meanings, and draw parallels between Taylor’s other lyrics and art.
Verse 1: First Witch
Our first verse begins in medias res, or in the middle of the action with little to no context. “You thought that it would be okay, at first,” the first witch narrator says, alluding to a scandal creeping up on the subject.
“The situation could be saved, of course,” the witch continues. But “situation” really means “reputation.” They’re coming for her, but whatever the subject has done, it’s been predestined: she’s about to be burned at the stake.
“But they’d already picked out your grave and hearse,” she says of the public at large. They’ll metaphorically bury her. This funeral is reminiscent of Taylor’s own “cancellation” metaphors, most prominently on display in the Look What You Made Me Do song and music video.
“Beware the wrath of masked crusaders,” our first witch warns. The faceless mob of the internet can pile on fast, and the results can end your career.
All the witches take turns sounding off in the pre-chorus that follows, just like they do in Macbeth.
“Did you girl-boss too close to the sun?” the first witch asks in the pre-chorus. Did she attain too much power for a woman? That’s a big no-no in the patriarchy.
“Did they catch you having far too much fun?” the second witch chimes in. Was she too slutty? Too visible? Too loud? All punishable offenses.
“Come with me, when they see us, they’ll run,” the third witch adds. ‘Come join our coven on the dark side,’ she beckons, ‘where we’ve all been burned at the stake.’
“Something wicked this way comes,” Hecate declares, directly quoting from Macbeth. In this context, the witches – and their newest “cancelled” member of the club – are what’s wicked. But it’s also implied that cancel culture itself is “wicked.”
This is a familiar trope that Taylor has used in the past: emerge as the “bad girl” in the face of controversy. Instead of trying to beat the faceless mob at their own game, she’ll join in and satirically embody what they accuse her of. She did it in Blank Space, I Did Something Bad and Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?, to name a few.
Here, as her friends undergo the cancellation ritual of 2025, instead of fighting back, she leans in by imagining them all as members of a dark and twisted coven. And in this satire, she’s Hecate herself, master of the dark arts.
Chorus: Hecate
“Good thing I like my friends cancelled,” the head-witch Hecate narrates in the chorus, “I like ’em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal.” This is, of course, satire. In this glamorous underworld, the naughty are dressed to kill.
“Like my whiskey sour,” she says, comparing her friends to “brown liquor” cocktail with a tangy, sweet aftertaste. Here in this dark coven they even have themed drinks.
“And poison thorny flowers,” Hecate adds. The decor is on theme, too: only deadly plants allowed.
“Welcome to my underworld, where it gets quite dark,” she says, welcoming this new member to the coven. The “underworld” is the dark side of fame and success, and in this ominous lighting, it’s hard to see clearly. You might get lost, and you might not find your way back out into the spotlight of fame ever again.
“At least you know exactly who your friends are,” she says to this new member, “They’re the ones with matching scars.” All the witches and Hecate are true friends, because they’ve been through the same witch trials.
“Matching scars” means they all bear the same metaphorical “wounds” of being cancelled. Taylor described these emotional wounds as scars in hoax : “I still have my scars from when they tore me apart.” They’ve all been marked by the same scarlet letter, and this time, it’s a “C” instead of an “A.”
Verse 2: Witch 2
“It’s easy to love you when you’re popular,” the second witch steps up to narrate, “The optics click, everyone prospers.” It’s easy to be in a friendly relationship when everyone approves of you. In celebrity friendships, you can even enhance each others’ image.
“But one single drop, you’re off the roster,” she says of this hierarchy of fame. If you go down one notch, you’ll no longer be eligible for friendship. The “roster” is made up of celebs that the public approves of, and it’s a mercurial list that changes like the tides.
“‘Tone-deaf and hot, let’s fuckin’ off her’,” she narrates the thoughts of the faceless mob. If you get too successful, and make any blunder small or large, this mob will come after you, and they’ll have your head.
“Did you make a joke only a man could?” the first witch chimes back in in the pre-chorus. Did you stretch the limits of what the patriarchy will tolerate? Did you not stay in your lane as a woman?
“Were you just too smug for your own good?” the second witch asks. Was your tone wrong? Did your facial expression show anything but goodwill toward all? Did you take your privilege for granted?
“Or bring a tiny violin to a knife fight?” the third witch adds. A “tiny violin” is what will play when you use the “poor me” card as a rich celebrity. And it’s no match against the “knives” that the faceless mob will be armed with. They can cut you down off the roster at any given moment.
“Baby, that all ends tonight,” Hecate closes the second pre-chorus. The head witch and her coven are here to show you how to fight back properly. It’s the dark art of manipulating your image for public approval, but if you want your image back, you have to learn it.
Bridge & Verse 3: Judge, Jury, Executioner
“They stood by me before my exoneration,” Hecate says of her fellow witches and friends in the bridge. The true friends – the ones who really understand – will always stand by you, no matter which way public opinion sways.
“They believed I was innocent,” she adds. Her true friends were never convinced that she was two-faced, or a “snake” (though Hecate is three-faced, and loves snakes).
The courtroom jargon is also part of the satire: there was no trial and no conviction in the case of Taylor Swift. But she is now an advocate for justice, helping others navigate this dark underworld of judges, juries, and executioners.
“So I’m not here for judgment, no,” she says, satirically passing no judgment on the dark deeds of others. Instead, she just welcomes newcomers into her dark and twisted world.
“But if you can’t be good, then just be better at it,” the third witch remarks in the third verse. If you’re going to be evil, then you have to get better at disguise.
“Everyone’s got bodies in the attic,” she says, gesturing to this underworld where everyone has a skeleton hiding in the closet. Dark secrets are welcome here, and expected.
“Or took somebody’s man, we’ll take you by the hand,” she continues, “And soon you’ll learn the art of never getting caught.” If you’re marked with the scarlet “A,” you’re part of the club, and this coven will teach you how to cover your tracks. They are, after all, highly experienced.
Final Chorus & Outro: Infamy Loves Company
“It’s a good thing I like my friends cancelled,” Hecate repeats in the final chorus, “I salute you if you’re much too much to handle.” Women are always judged for being “too much” or not enough. All those extremes – or perceived extremes – are welcome here, and applauded.
“Can’t you see my infamy loves company?” she asks this new member of the cancel coven. Both Taylor Swift and Hecate are infamous, and the public will always yearn for more cancellations. They’ll keep growing in number until no one is safe from scrutiny.
“Now they’ve broken you like they’ve broken me,” she says of these witch trials, “But a shattered glass is a lot more sharp.” She hopes that after all these trials, this new “witch” will be smarter, harder, and a lot more deadly to deal with.
“And now you know exactly who your friends are,” she concludes, with the witches chiming back in, “You know who we are: we’re the ones with matching scars.” Now they’re all members of a club they never asked to join.
But there’s power in numbers, and though they’ve all been burned, it’s only helped them prepare for when it (inevitably) happens again. Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.
Thematically-Related Songs: Look What You Made Me Do, I Did Something Bad, Blank Space, Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
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