Taylor Swift may have created her newest album, folklore, in quarantine, but that doesn’t mean she made it alone. When the singer surprised the world today by announcing surprise album, she dedicated most of her time to thanking those who collaborated with her on the album. Eagle-eyed fans noticed, however, that while all of the names Swift credited are either well-known, officially registered as a songwriter, or Googleable, one name remains a mystery: William Bowery.
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Most of the time, when an artist name drops someone they worked with, fans assume that there are bound to be some unknowns — it’s a big industry, after all, and some people just don’t like to bare it all on social media (who can relate?). But this isn't any artist, it's Taylor Swift, and that means everything is intentional, and everything you assume can be upended in an instant. And because Swift has a penchant for pseudonyms, fans are theorising that "William Bowery" is a moniker for someone else.
Fans have put on their detective hats and seem to have thrown out every possible guess, doing everything from rearranging the letters in "William Bowery," to speculating that it's a friend like Lorde, her brother Austin Swift, BTS' RM, or even Joni Mitchell.
I’m calling it, William Bowery is Austin Swift
— Suz (@gottenbread) July 23, 2020
someone said WILLIAM BOWERY might actually be JONI MITCHEL'S pseudonym??? there were speculations that taylor's song the lucky one is about her. she's a famous
— devon (@taylowkey13) July 23, 2020
FOLK singer & songwriter. she has a painting called BOWERY bum. her father's name is WILLIAM anderson — pic.twitter.com/JmdtJTl92m
The idea that it may be Swift's younger brother isn't too farfetched, as many fans already believe that he may have been the one singing a mysterious cover of Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" that appeared in the opening credits of Killing Eve. The song is credited to band called Jack Leopards & The Dolphin Club, which doesn't exist, and one of the producers credited on the song is Nils Sjöberg, Swift's pseudonym when co-writing ex Calvin Harris's "This Is What You Came For." And on top of that, the Daily Mail reported that Swift had once allegedly asked Killing Eve's creator, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, to feature her brother on the show's soundtrack.
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The reigning theory, however, is that William Bowery is another name for Swift's long-term actor boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. According to fan sleuths, William is the name of Alwyn's musically-inclined great-grandfather, and "Bowery" could refer to the private Kings of Leon concert that the two separately attended at New York's Bowery Hotel in October 2016, a month after her breakup with actor Tom Hiddleston. While fans speculate that they originally met in May 2016 at the Met Gala ("Flashback when you met me / Your buzzcut and my hair bleached," from her song "Dress"), that Bowery concert could be a significant event in the couple's relationship.
WILLIAM BOWERY theory
— devon (@taylowkey13) July 23, 2020
on oct 2016, taylor (w her squad) & alwyn were spotted in BOWERY hotel. (smth special mustve happened here, that's why she used d name "BOWERY" i guess?)
WILLIAM alwyn is literally joe alwyns great-grandpa. he was was composer, conductor, and music teacher pic.twitter.com/pDOaBieGgL
William Bowery at the Grammys receiving the award for co-writer of the year pic.twitter.com/2SsUSFyuGt
— O~ (@OrliMD) July 23, 2020
It's definitely a salient theory, but it helps that it's also certainly the most romantic. And while it's uncertain whether or not Swift will come clean about the identity of this so-called "William Bowery," for now, the world will continue to delight at the idea that Swift spent quarantine co-writing two songs with her capital-L Lover.