Every Musician Taylor Swift Has Name Dropped (Or Hinted At) In Her Songs

Taylor Swift has been collaborating with musicians for almost her entire career — but her lyrical references to musicians date back even further.

“Bubbly” singer Colbie Caillat was the first artist Swift tapped for a feature, joining her on “Breathe” from her second studio album, Fearless, in 2008. Since then, artists across genres, including Ed Sheeran, The Chicks, Kendrick Lamar, Lana Del Rey, Bon Iver and Sabrina Carpenter, have joined the pop superstar for a verse or two.

On the other hand, Swift’s first mention of a musician was on her debut single, “Tim McGraw,” which became her first Billboard Hot 100 hit when it debuted on the chart dated Sept. 23, 2006. “When you think Tim McGraw/ I hope you think my favorite song” was the lyric that took the country world by storm, introducing a then-17-year-old Swift to the music scene in Nashville. Swift was massive fan of McGraw at the time, and his music captured the high school relationship she wrote about in her freshman math class.

“Tim McGraw” was just the beginning. Swift has since name-dropped a number of famous faces in lyrics across her 12. “Dear John” probably includes her most infamous namedrop (albeit, never confirmed to be about John Mayer, but widely speculated). “Style” includes her most popular name drop (“You’ve got that James Dean, daydream look in your eye”). And The Tortured Poets Department album probably contains the most name drops across a handful of different songs.

Below, however, Billboard revisits only Swift’s musician name drops — whether direct or indirect — in chronological order. Check them out: