Mystery solved.
Taylor Swift confirmed on her Disney+ special, “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions,” that her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, co-wrote two songs on her “Folklore” album under the pseudonym William Bowery, according to E! News.
“There’s been a lot of discussion about William Bowery and his identity, because … it’s not a real person,” she told Jack Antonoff and The National’s Aaron Dessner in the film. “So, William Bowery is Joe … as we know.”
Following the release of “Folklore,” fans began to speculate about the identity of Bowery because there was no trace of him online.
In July, Swift credited her “musical heroes” in an Instagram caption, including Bowery and notable names like Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver, for helping her write the album. All were tagged, except Bowery.
Swifties concluded that Alwyn may be William Bowery because one of the couple’s first public outings together was at The Bowery Hotel for a Kings of Leon concert and his great-grandfather, William Alwyn, was a composer.
The British film star — under the name of Bowery — is credited for co-writing “Exile” and “Betty.” “Exile” received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.
Swift said in the Disney+ film of her boyfriend’s musical talents, “Joe plays piano beautifully and he’s always just playing and making things up and kind of creating things.”
The “August” singer then shared Alwyn wrote the “entire piano part” of “Exile” and sang it “the way that the whole first verse is.”
Swift reportedly asked Alwyn to help her write “Betty” after hearing him sing the chorus of the song.
She said, “It was a step that we would have never have taken because why would we have ever written a song together.”