“Lavender Haze,” the love life-inspired opening Midnights‘ track, captures the feelings of a honeymoon-style relationship and is inspired by the classic 50’s phrase of the same name.

Inspired by a line from a Mad Men episode, Swift wrote this song to convey the desire to focus on the passion of love rather than being swayed by the negative or unwanted remarks of others.

On an October 2022 Instagram post Swift compared her 6-year relationship at the time with British actor Joe Alwyn to the themes of the song, stating:

I think a lot of people have to deal with this now, not just ‘public figures’, because we live in the era of social media. If the world finds out that you’re in love with somebody, they’re going to weigh in on it. Like my relationship, for six years we’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it.

The track was unveiled in Taylor’s TikTok game show, Midnight Mayhem With Me.