In addition to the release of Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated The Tortured Poets Department, the singer surprised fans with 15 additional tracks in a secret double album. Of those tracks, “thanK you aIMee” is the one everyone is talking about.
Hours after her album dropped, Swift announced at 2:00AM on April 19 that it was a dual album release. She also dropped The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, which featured 15 additional songs and served as a continuation of the original album. It was quite exciting as, while she dropped the tracklist for The Tortured Poets Department ahead of time, no one had even seen the titles of the 15 extra songs. It took mere hours for listeners to begin honing in on “thanK you aIMee.” It’s no surprise Swift kept this song title secret, as the caps hint at exactly who the song is about: “KIM.”
It is well-known that Swift had a very volatile and public feud with Kim Kardashian and Kardashian’s ex-husband, Kanye West. The animosity began when Swift was just 19 and West infamously disrupted Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Award. Then, West took things further, including a misogynistic reference to Swift in his song “Famous” and the music video. He and Swift’s teams disputed whether Swift had approved the song ahead of time. Then, Kardashian entered the fray when she posted audio of a phone call that seemingly demonstrated Swift supporting “Famous.”
However, the entire call has since been released, which seems to support Swift’s allegation that West never played her the song’s final version. Swift has since publicly accused Kardashian of illegally recording and editing the call to make her look like a liar. Her album Reputation is also believed to be about the feud. Based on “thanK you aIMee,” though, it seems Swift still had a bit more to say on the matter.
“thanK you aIMee” lyrics meaning
On the surface, “thanK you aIMee” appears to be about Swift’s experiences with a bully dubbed “Aimee.” It begins by describing Aimee as a school bully associated with Swift’s hometown. However, the references to Kardashian begin immediately as Swift associates her bully with a “bronze spray-tanned statue,” and Kardashian is quite famous for her spray tans. The first stanza reads:
When I picture my hometown
There’s a bronze spray-tanned statue of you
And a plaque underneath it
That threatens to push me down the stairs, at our school
In the chorus, Swift goes on to explain how the bully’s efforts backfired, as the pain she experienced made her stronger:
All that time you were throwin’ punches, I was buildin’ somethin’
And I couldn’t wait to show you it was real
Screamed “Fuck you, Aimee” to the night sky, as the blood was gushin’
But I can’t forget the way you made me heal
The Kardashian references get stronger in verse 2, when Swift seems to directly address Kardashian’s betrayal, stating, “And it wasn’t a fair fight, or a clean fight / Each time that Aimee stomped across my grave.” This isn’t the first time Swift has alluded to graves; in her “Look What You Made Me Do” music video, she included a gravestone reading “Here lies Taylor Swift’s reputation,” referencing how Kardashian and West had killed her reputation. The following lyrics refer to Kardashian going to the media with the phone call, “And then she wrote hеadlines / In the local paper, laughing at each baby step I’d take.”
Meanwhile, Swift doubles down on the fact that the bully actually helped her, singing, “But when I count the scars, there’s a moment of truth / That there wouldn’t be this if there hadn’t been you.” It seems to refer to how Reputation would’ve never been released, and Swift may never have continued reinventing herself as an artist without being pushed to find her voice through Kardashian’s actions. Finally, in the bridge, Swift admits that “Aimee” is a fake name. The lyrics read, “And so I changed your name and any real defining clues.” However, despite the name change, she remained confident Kardashian would know the song was about her.
In a reference to Kardashian’s daughter, who often films TikToks dancing to Swift’s songs, the bridge continues, “And one day, your kid comes home singin’ / A song that only us two is gonna know is about you.” She sings the chorus one last time but changes “f**k you, Aimee” to “Thank you, Aimee.” Much of the song seems to back up what Swift said in a December 2023 interview, in which she explained just how badly Kardashian and West impacted her. She described being “taken down psychologically” and feeling frightened and untrusting of everybody.
At the same time, though, Swift ended up coming back from the incident stronger than before. Reputation marked a huge turning point in her life, as it was her final album with Big Machine Records, signifying a major shift in her music style and her reinvention as an artist. Despite being brought to her lowest point by Kardashian and West, several years after the incident, she established herself as one of the most successful music artists in the world. Hence, while her song acknowledges that she’ll never forget how Kardashian made her feel, she also feels the necessity to thank her for giving her the feeling that pushed her to become the artist she is today.
(featured image: Kevin Mazur/Getty)
