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We heard our first snippet of “Carolina” when the trailer for Where the Crawdads sing was released. Now, as we are only weeks away from the film’s theater debut, we’re finally getting the Taylor Swift single we’ve been waiting for!

In March, Taylor shared the trailer for Where the Crawdads Sing based on Delia Owens’ bestselling novel of the same name and teased her part in the film’s creation.

“Where The Crawdads Sing is a book I got absolutely lost in when I read it years ago. As soon as I heard there was a film in the works starring the incredible @daisyedgarjones and produced by the brilliant @reesewitherspoon, I knew I wanted to be a part of it from the musical side. I wrote the song ‘Carolina’ alone and asked my friend @aarondessner to produce it. I wanted to create something haunting and ethereal to match this mesmerizing story.”

“Carolina knows why, for years, I roam / Free as these birds, light as whispers” Taylor sings in the new song.

While it has been a while since Taylor shared an update on her album re-recordings (Red (Taylor’s Version) was released November 2021), the singer has been busy with singles for movies and TV. “Carolina” follows Taylor’s release of “This Love (Taylor’s Version),” a re-recorded 1989 song that she shared for Prive Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty based on Jenny Han’s bestselling YA trilogy of the same name.

“Carolina” is deep and haunting, and it seems that Taylor tapped into the darker elements of Where the Crawdads Sing for lyrics, isolation, misunderstanding, and fear experienced by the main character Kya growing up in the marshes of North Carolina, but it isn’t all so dark. Taylor finds the optimism in the story and in the characters persistence and dependence.

“About a year and half ago I wrote a song about an incredible story, the story of a girl who always lived on the outside, looking in. Figuratively and literally. The juxtaposition of her loneliness and independence. Her longing and her stillness. Her curiosity and fear, all tangled up. Her persisting gentleness… and the world’s betrayal of it. I wrote this one alone in the middle of the night and then @aarondessner and I meticulously worked on a sound that we felt would be authentic to the moment in time when this story takes place. I made a wish that one day you would hear it. ‘Carolina’ is out now 🥺”

Where the Crawdads Sing makes its way to theaters July 15.

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Veronica Good has been with Showstopper Magazine since 2016. When she isn't keeping you updated on the latest trends, she is at home with her many pets or probably playing The Sims 4. Veronica has a BA in English and an MA in writing from Coastal Carolina University. She is also a writer of fiction and poetry, and her work can be found in Archarios, Tempo, and Scapegoat.