Taylor Swift’s biggest collaborations: From Ed Sheeran to Hayley Williams 🎶
Everybody wants to work with Taylor!
For over a decade, Taylor Swift has dominated the charts all around the globe and the 34-year-old shows no sign of slowing down. The 12-time Grammy award winner is known best for her country and mainstream hits such as ‘We Are Never Getting Back Together’ and 'Cruel Summer’, as well as some huge collaborations in her time!
Taylor has had so many collaborative hits over the years, so we’ve gathered together some of the ‘Blank Space’ star's biggest and best, including the gorgeous ‘Everything Has Changed’ with bestie Ed Sheeran, the iconic ‘Bad Blood’ with Kendrick Lamar and the Platinum hit 'Fortnight' with Post Malone. Like most of Taylor’s work, her collaborations have been HUGE hits - you will definitely recognise some, if not all the tunes on our list!
Taylor Swift’s biggest collaborations over the years:
'Breathe' with Colbie Caillat - 2008
Written by Taylor and Colbie in 2008, for her second album 'Fearless'. It was a huge hit and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Listen to 'Breathe' on YouTube.
'Half of My Heart' with John Mayer - 2009
American rock legend John Mayer tweeted about wanting to record the song with Taylor in March 2009, he wrote, "Waking up to this song idea that won't leave my head. 3 days straight now. That means it's good enough to finish. It's called 'Half of My Heart' and I want to sing it with Taylor Swift."
Listen to 'Half My Heart' on YouTube.
'Everything Has Changed' with Ed Sheeran - 2012
The track was written by Taylor and Ed, and is taken from her fourth album, 'Red'. It was a big hit getting to Number 7 in the charts. Taylor and Ed are besties after becoming close in 2012, when Ed learnt Taylor had penned his lyrics on her arm on an Australian TV show. Ed then had a meeting with Taylor's manager which then brought the two together and they have been close friends since - how cool is that?
Listen to 'Everything Has Changed' on YouTube.
'Both of Us' with B.o.B - 2012
This track was from B.o.B's second album, when asked how the collab came about the rapper said, "It's crazy because it happened naturally, it wasn't like the label was like, 'We need to get a Taylor Swift feature.' The 'Airplanes' rapper added, "I didn't think she was going to like the song, but she loved it. It turned out tremendous."
Listen to 'Both of Us' on YouTube.
'The Last Time' with Gary Lightbody - 2013
Taylor was making her 'Red' album, when her bestie Ed Sheeran invited Gary Lightbody, from Snow Patrol, to come to the studio to meet Taylor. The pair then wrote 'The Last Time' together and toured together.
Listen to 'The Last Time' on YouTube
'Highway Don't Care' with Tim McGraw & Keith Urban - 2013
Going back to her country music roots, Taylor teamed up with country legends Tim McGraw and Keith Urban for this hit.
Listen to 'Highway Don't Care' on YouTube.
'Bad Blood' with Kendrick Lamar - 2014
This collab went on to win a Grammy Award for 'Best Music Video' along with two MTV Video Awards for 'Video of the Year' and 'Best Collaboration'. This iconic tune is one of Taylor's most famous tracks, from her album, '1989'.
Listen to 'Bad Blood' on YouTube.
OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder – co-wrote ‘I Know Places’ and ‘Welcome to New York’ - 2014
OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder – co-wrote 'I Know Places' and 'Welcome to New York' for Taylor's fifth album, '1989'. The OneRepublic front man has written huge hits including – 'Halo' by Beyonce, 'Burn' by Ellie Goulding and 'Ghost' by Ella Henderson.
Listen to 'I Know Places' on YouTube.
Listen to 'Welcome to New York' on YouTube.
'I Don't Wanna Live Forever' with Zayn - 2017
This track was recorded for the soundtrack to 'Fifty Shades Darker', it was the most popular hit from the movie franchise.
Listen to 'I Don't Wanna Live Forever' on YouTube.
'End Game' with Ed Sheeran & Future - 2017
Another collab with Taylor's good friend Ed Sheeran, who helped write the track. It was the first time Taylor had worked with Future, but it was her third collab with a rapper following 'Bad Blood' with Kendrick Lamar and 'Both of Us' with B.o.B.
Listen to 'End Game' on YouTube.
‘Soon You’ll Get Better’ with The Chicks - 2019
This track is from Taylor's seventh album, 'Lover', it includes backing vocals from American country band The Chicks.
Listen to 'Soon You'll Get Better' on YouTube.
‘Lover (Remix)’ with Shawn Mendes - 2019
Taylor loved this collab with Shawn and revealed the 'Treat You Better' singer had re-written parts of the track, she said, "I love him as a writer, I think his take is so beautiful."
Listen to 'Lover' (remix) on YouTube.
‘Me!’ with Brendon Urie - 2019
Taylor is a big fan of Panic! at the Disco and said listening to their tunes reminded her of being 16. Frontman Brendon shared he wanted to work with Taylor for a while saying, "She's super talented, really smart songwriter and really fun."
Listen to 'Me!' on YouTube.
'Exile' with Bon Iver - 2020
The track was also produced by The National's Aaron Dessner, who sent the track to his friend Bon Iver, who changed some bits on the track and added the male vocal. Like many of the tracks on 'Folklore', Taylor wrote this track with mystery song-writer William Bowery, who fans later discovered was in fact Taylor's then-boyfriend, Joe Alwyn.
Listen to 'Exile' on YouTube.
'coney island' with The National - 2020
Taylor teamed up with American rock band The National on her track 'coney island', which featured on her ninth album 'Evermore'. Taylor wrote the song with her ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn, as well as the members of The National. On top of featuring on the track, Aaron and Bryce Dessner (of The National) also produced the song, which was released as the third single from her album. Taylor had previously worked with Aaron on her eighth album, 'Folklore', with the pair continuing to work together on 'Evermore', enlisting the help of his twin brother Bryce and the rest of The National.
Listen to 'coney island' on YouTube.
'no body, no crime' and 'Gasoline' with HAIM - 2020 & 2021
HAIM and Taylor are no strangers to working together! In 2020 they paired up on Tay's track 'no body, no crime', which featured on her ninth album 'Evermore'. The track landed in the UK Top 20, so it's no surprise fans were over the moon when Taylor then featured on HAIM's track 'Gasoline' a year later in 2021.
Taylor's vocals featured on a re-release of 'Gasoline', after she singer told HAIM it was her favourite song on their album. Speaking about Taylor's feature, the band said she: "brought such amazing ideas and new imagery to the song and truly gave it a new life."
Listen to 'no body, no crime' on YouTube.
Listen to 'Gasoline' on YouTube.
'I Bet You Think About Me' with Chris Stapleton - 2021
Teaming up with Chris Stapleton - an American singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer from Kentucky - Taylor brought us the melodic 'I Bet You Think About Me'. The track featured on her second re-recorded album, 'Red (Taylor's Version)'. which was released in 2021. With Chris describing the collab as 'cool', Taylor even wrote and directed a short movie to coincide with the release.
Watch 'I Bet You Think About Me' on YouTube.
'The Joker and The Queen' - with Ed Sheeran - 2022
On 11th February 2022 Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift released another duet - in the form of 'The Joker and The Queen'. The song features on Ed's album '='.
Listen to 'The Joker and The Queen' on YouTube.
'Snow On The Beach' with Lana Del Rey - 2022
Taylor surprised fans ahead of her 'Midnights' album release with the news that she had created the song 'Snow On The Beach' with Lana Del Rey.
Speaking about the track, she explained: "The song is about falling in love with someone at the same time as they're falling in love with you. Sort of in this, sort of, cataclysmic faded moment where you realise someone feels exactly the same way that you feel at the same moment."
Listen to 'Snow On The Beach' on YouTube - warning, explicit language used.
'Castles Crumbling' with Hayley Williams - 2023
Taylor teamed up with Paramore singer Hayley Williams on the track 'Castles Crumbling', which is one of the previously unreleased vault tracks on 'Speak Now' (Taylor's Version). A close friend of Hayley's, as well as Paramore, the band joined Taylor on the European leg of her 'Eras Tour'.
Listen to 'Castles Crumbling' on YouTube.
'Electric Touch' with Fall Out Boy - 2023
Fall Out Boy feature on 'Electric Touch', which is a vault track on 'Speak Now' (Taylor's Version). Taylor previously joined the band onstage during the 2013 Victoria's Secret fashion show, where she sang the Fall Out Boy track 'My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark'.
Listen to 'Electric Touch' on YouTube.
'Fortnight' with Post Malone - 2024
Featuring on her 11th studio album 'The Tortured Poets Department' is the incredible 'Fortnight', featuring none other than Post Malone. Upon hearing that the rapper/singer was set to feature on the album, fans could barely contain their excitement, with an AI-generated version of the track circulating on TikTok prior to its release. With the official music video dropping on 20th April 2024 - featuring Posy with a totally tattoo-less face - fans began to speculate that lyrics of the song, as well as Easter eggs in the video, may relate to her former relationship with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy. The track proved to be one of the most popular from the album, being certified Platinum in the UK in August 2024.
Listen to 'Fortnight' on YouTube.
Taylor's country collaborations
In early 2021, Taylor released the re-worked version of her breakthrough album 'Fearless (Taylor's Version)', featuring country artists including Keith Urban and Maren Morris.
She then went on to release 'Red (Taylor's Version)' in November, which included a 10-minute version of 'All Too Well' as well as nine additional 'From the Vault' tracks giving us some incredible collaborations.
In 2023, while on her fantastic 'Eras' tour she brought out Maren Morris to perform with her.
Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran's collaborations
Fans were delighted when Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran collaborated back in 2013 and 2017 - and in February 2022, an Instagram post from Ed sparked excitement that there could be another collab between the two, sharing a photo of a CD cover he was signing.
The cover was of a playing card, half Queen of Hearts and half Joker. The dad-of-two captioned his pic: 'Signing some cds for something coming in a bit, keep an eye out'. (sic)
Fans speculated that as the Queen of Hearts has blonde hair a looks a bit like Taylor it could be the collaboration that Ed had previously talked about... And they were right!
Ed and Taylor soon released 'The Joker and The Queen', reuniting the cast of their 'Everything Has Changed' music video for their latest offering at the time. The video is a coming of age story with the teenagers going to college to begin a new life.
Then while on 'Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour', in August 2024, she brought out Ed Sheeran in Wembley, where they performed a mash up of some songs.
We love Taylor and can’t wait to see who else she works with in the future!
Now read:
19 things you probably didn't know about Taylor Swift
37 of Taylor Swift's best career moments so far
Take a look through Taylor Swift's 'Eras' tour setlist