Chrissie Hynde Praises Taylor Swift’s New Song ‘Cleveland!’: ‘A Girl Who Stays on the Cutting Edge’
Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders performs onstage at the 2023 Ohana Festival held at Doheny State Beach on Oct. 1, 2023, in Dana Point, Calif. Gilbert Flores/Billboard
On new song “Cleveland!,” Taylor Swift gives her critics express permission to hate all they like on her, but Chrissie Hynde has only positive things to say about the pop star and the track.
In a Friday (Oct. 2) post on Instagram, The Pretenders frontwoman gave fans an update, a chunk of which was devoted to Swift’s loved-up Ohio-themed The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore track. “I was thrilled to hear Taylor Swift’s new song, Cleveland,” Hynde wrote. “Now there’s a girl who stays on the cutting edge….in fact, she might be the only person in history who has actually written a song about Cleveland.”
“Although come to think of it, I did commemorate Cleveland on my first album in the song, Precious,” she continued. “Perhaps Taylor is trying to get a leg up in her career by emulating yours truly…… although I strongly suspect it has more to do with her new hunk of a husband, a Cleveland native.”
“Cleveland!” is indeed quite transparently about Swift’s spouse, Travis Kelce. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end was born and raised in the Cleveland Heights area, and the song’s lyrics find the 14-time Grammy winner singing about exploring the city with him while blocking out the rest of the world’s negative opinions. Plus, the “Cleveland!” music video features home footage of the couple driving in the car together as Kelce gives Swift the grand tour.
The track is one of four new songs Swift dropped at the end of September as part of her Showgirl deluxe, which propelled the project back to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for its non-consecutive 13th week on the Oct. 10-dated chart. Regardless, “Cleveland!” was always destined to be a smash hit in Kelce’s heart, with the football player calling it “a banger” on a recent episode of his New Heights podcast.
“Either way, hats off to Taylor for commemorating Akron’s main competition…. Cleveland Ohio,” Hynde added. “I certainly have myriad recollections of adventures in Cleveland.. it’s a hell of a town.”
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