22 (Taylor’s Version) Lyrics
It feels like a perfect night
To dress up like hipsters
And make fun of our exes
Uh-uh, uh-uh
It feels like a perfect night
For breakfast at midnight
To fall in love with strangers
Uh-uh, uh-uh
[Pre-Chorus]
Yeah
We're happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time
It's miserable and magical, oh yeah
Tonight's the night when we forget about the deadlines
It's time, oh-oh
[Chorus]
I don't know about you
But I'm feelin' twenty-two
Everything will be alright if
You keep me next to you
You don't know about me
But I'll bet you want to
Everything will bе alright if
We just keep dancin' like we'rе
Twenty-two
Twenty-two
It seems like one of those nights
This place is too crowded
Too many cool kids
Uh-uh, uh-uh (Who's Taylor Swift anyway? Ew)
It seems like one of those nights
We ditch the whole scene
And end up dreamin'
Instead of sleepin'
[Pre-Chorus]
Yeah
We're happy, free, confused, and lonely in the best way
It's miserable and magical, oh, yeah
Tonight's the night when we forget about the heartbreaks
It's time, oh-oh
[Chorus]
(Hey)
I don't know about you
But I'm feelin' twenty-two
Everything will be alright if (Ooh)
You keep me next to you
You don't know about me
But I'll bet you want to
Everything will be alright if (Alright)
We just keep dancin' like we're
Twenty-two (Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh)
Twenty-two (I don't know about you)
Twenty-two
Twenty-two (Ooh)
It feels like one of those nights
We ditch the whole scene
It feels like one of those nights
We won't be sleepin'
It feels like one of those nights
You look like bad news
I gotta have you
I gotta have you
[Bridge]
Ooh, oh
Yeah, hey, yeah
[Chorus]
(Hey)
I don't know about you (I don't know about you)
But I'm feelin' twenty-two
Everything will be alright if (Ooh, oh-oh)
You keep me next to you
You don't know about me (You don't know about me)
But I'll bet you want to
Everything will be alright if
We just keep dancin' like we're (Dance like we're twenty-two)
Twenty-two (Ooh, woah-oh-oh-oh)
Twenty-two (Dancin' like)
Twenty-two (Yeah, yeah)
Twenty-two (Yeah, yeah, yeah)
It feels like one of those nights (Twenty-two)
We ditch the whole scene
It feels like one of those nights (Twenty-two)
We won't be sleepin'
It feels like one of those nights (Twenty-two)
You look like bad news
I gotta have you
I gotta have you
About
22 (Taylor’s Version) is a song that Taylor wrote about her friends and the night of her 22 birthday party. Taylor posted a snippet of the song in her Instagram story, along with the song “I Knew You Were Trouble” in her version.
Lyrically, the song is about having fun with your friends and celebrating turning 22. The song was inspired by some of Taylor’s friends: Dianna Agron, Claire Kislinger and Selena Gomez.
Taylor also said:
I wrote that about my friends, like finally I’ve got this amazing group of girlfriends and we tell each other everything, we’re together all the time. And I think that was kind of the marker of me being 22, like having all these friends and there’s all these question marks in your life, but the one thing that you have is that you have each other.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
The song “22” is kind of an idea I got while I was on a plane, and I ran into the studio with Max Martin and Shellback and I was like, “You guys, listen to this!”, and they loved it too, so we worked on it. I wanted to write a song about what my summer had been like, with my friends, with that kind of attitude of like, “We are in our 20s and we don’t know anything and it’s awesome,” it’s kind of fun to embrace that. And, I gotta say, that’s probably one of the biggest choruses on the record.
— Swift via a Red (Track by Track) YouTube video.
In addition to “it feels like a perfect night” originally being “it seems like a perfect night,” a photo has surfaced of the page on which Taylor wrote the song, with these different lyrics written:
Sometimes it hits me
We’re moving quickly
Toward something hazy
A future I can’t see
Let’s break the old rules
While we’re still 22
You look like bad news
I gotta have you
These lyrics were likely part of the original bridge, since the final two lyrics carried over into the studio version.
The song debuted at #52 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the week ending November 26, 2021. The original version of the song peaked at #20 in 2012.
- 6.22 (Taylor’s Version)
