Taylor Swift Honors Her Late Grandma As A Part Of Her Eras Tour

The poignant song is part of the album, Evermore, which the 33-year-old pop superstar surprise-dropped in December 2020, just five months after the release of Folklore.

During Evermore’s release, she took special note of Marjorie, saying that the person who inspired it “still visits me sometimes…if only in my dreams.”

Her grandmother was a classically trained coloratura soprano who sang with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. She died in 2003.

In the song, Swift honors Finlay in a moving way. It is an emotional remembrance of their relationship and the words of advice she gave her in her younger years.

“Never be so kind, you forget to be clever / Never be so clever, you forget to be kind,” the song begins.

She remembers her grandma as if she was still alive.

“And if I didn’t know better / I’d think you were talking to me now,” she sings.

In some lines, she recalls the sweet moments they shared together and also expresses regret that she didn’t get to know her better.

“I should’ve asked you questions / I should’ve asked you how to be / Asked you to write it down for me,” she sings.

Towards the end, there’s a line that says, “I’d think you were singing to me now.” And in what is perhaps the most poignant part of the song, her grandmother’s operatic voice can actually be heard.

She explained how that came to be in an interview with Zane Lowe two years ago.

“One of the things about this song that kind of still rips me apart when I listen to it is that she’s singing with me on this song,” she told him.

“My mom found a bunch of her old records, of her singing opera, and I sent them to Aaron [Dessner] and he added them to the song,” she continued.

Although Finlay was a successful opera singer, she didn’t reach the level of fame her granddaughter achieved.

She didn’t even get to witness Swift’s rise to stardom because she died when her granddaughter was only 13, a year before she signed her first deal.

But there’s an unmistakable bond between the two women when it comes to their music careers. And Swift addresses that in the track when she sings, “All your closets of backlogged dreams / And how you left them all to me.”

By including Finlay’s voice in her song, Swift has honored her in a grand way and highlighted the bond they shared.

When she sang Marjorie at the State Farm Stadium on the opening night of her tour, she also gave her grandmother’s voice an audience of 69,000.

Incidentally, she broke Madonna’s 36-year record of 63,000 for the most attended single female concert in US history.

In the emotional performance, Swift’s voice could be heard cracking a little as she sang about her grandma’s “backlogged dreams.” And she wiped away tears as Finlay’s voice filled the venue.