Taylor Swift knows how to make a splash, and when she recently dropped her new album Folklore without almost any lead-up, she did exactly that.
It's only been out for a short while, but everyone is discussing all aspects of the album (and why wouldn't they, it's absolutely great).
Most of the mysteries of the album have been uncovered, but one remains - who is William Bowery?
William Bowery was named by Taylor as one of the people she worked with on the album, and William co-wrote Exile and Betty with Taylor. The weird part? They've never had a songwriting credit besides the album.
The National's Aaron Dessner, who worked closely with Taylor on Folklore, also doesn't know who he is, telling Rolling Stone "he’s a songwriter, and actually because of social distancing, I’ve never met him.
"He actually wrote the original idea for Exile and then Taylor took it and ran with it. I don’t actually know to be totally honest." However, thanks to some Internet sleuthing, people are agreeing that it looks like it's the pseudonym of Taylor's boyfriend Joe Alwyn.
The pair have been dating since 2016, and one of their first meetings was at New York's Bowery Hotel. Not only that, but Joe's great-grandfather was a composr and conductor named William Alwyn.
WILLIAM BOWERY theory
on oct 2016, taylor (w her squad) & alwyn were spotted in BOWERY hotel. (smth special mustve happened here, that's why she used d name "BOWERY" i guess?)
WILLIAM alwyn is literally joe alwyns great-grandpa. he was was composer, conductor, and music teacher pic.twitter.com/pDOaBieGgL— a folkWHORE (@taylowkey13) July 23, 2020
Um guys I think it's 100% confirmed that "William Bowery" is pseudonym of Joe who is cowriter of song "Betty" and another song .
Since Joe's great-grandfather name is William Alwyn and Bowery hotel is where Taylor and Joe met first time ???? pic.twitter.com/vol1O8kJzb— Centi | BUY FOLKLORE (@Lorde_IsComing) July 23, 2020
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We'll wait and see whether Taylor confirms or denies the theory. Until then, though - if you've got a mystery to solve, call in the Swifties. They'll figure it out.