Taylor Swift Explains How ‘Folklore’ Was An ‘Emotional Life Raft’ During The Pandemic

Taylor Swift had a handful of nominations at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards last night, and she managed to pull out the win in the Best Pop Album category, for Folklore. During her pre-taped acceptance speech, she explained how the album was an “emotional life raft” for her during the pandemic:

“Thank you so much for this award and for honoring an album that I am so proud of. I have to say thank you to everyone at iHeart and everyone at radio who supported Folklore. Folklore was an album that I made in the very beginning of the pandemic. I started writing it, and I feel like it became a sort of emotional life raft for me to pour my feelings into.”

She also thanked Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff, whose creativity she says “has completely changed my life.” Swift concluded with gratitude for her fans: “I have to say thank you to the fans for making this album what it was. We all needed to escape into stories, whether movies or TV or film or music, and the fact that you chose this album, I am so honored by that. You really wrapped your arms around it. Someday we’ll get to wrap our arms around each other when we see each other again.”

Check out Swift’s full acceptance speech below.