What Taylor Swift doesn't say is so loud.

"Sorry, was I loud? In my own house, that I bought, with the songs that I wrote, about my own life?" a sarcastic Taylor Swift quipped in her 2020 documentary Miss Americana.

She was adamant: nothing would silence her.

Flash forward to 2024, and Swift has shrouded herself in deafening silence.

But far from hiding in the shadows, retracting her voice still sends a powerful message, loud and clear. It's never been more obvious than in recent weeks.

You see, Taylor Swift's fans have been under attack. A stabbing in Southport, England at a Taylor Swift themed dance class saw three children lose their lives, while her concert in Vienna was cancelled after police uncovered a planned terrorist attack.

On both occasions Swift, who is usually in near-constant contact with her fans, did not respond immediately. She said nothing.

Once Southport was confirmed not to be a terrorist attack, she sent her condolences to the families. However, with Vienna's terror confirmed, she waited until the end of the tour to address it and used the opportunity to reveal why she keeps 'silent' on certain issues.

But that's not the only topic she's biting her tongue on.

Listen to this episode of Mamamia Out Loud here. Post continues below.

The US election is reaching fever pitch, as Donald Trump faces off against Kamala Harris. If Harris wins, she will be the first woman to be enshrined as President.

Since 2018, Swift has been open about her disdain for Trump and his overly conservative values that restrict the rights of women and the LGBT community. She's a Kamala Harris supporter, or she was in 2020. But she's said nothing this time around.

And anger is growing amongst fans following her appearance at the US Open, where she was photographed spending time with her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and his friends, Patrick and Brittany Mahomes.

Mahome's political views made international headlines this past week, when she was seen "liking" a pro-Trump post on social media.

At the Chiefs' NFL game following, Swift and Mahomes sat separately. News outlets including The Cut, Glamour and The Daily Mail ran pieces on how Swift seemed to be taking a stand at last.

But then the foursome were spotted having fun together a few days later, and the photos caused controversy online.

The sentiment seems to be that while fans don't expect Taylor to exclusively hang out with people who share her political views, it's the combination of this friendship and her silence on the election that's causing them to turn.

"I don't need a celeb to validate my stances or my vote but damn do I miss the Taylor that gave a f**k," one fan wrote on Twitter (X).

One quoted Swift's lyrics, writing "spineless in my tomb of silence".

"I don't think Taylor Swift is a Republican but I do think she's an out of touch Democrat billionaire who believes that you can separate politics from relationships because she will be protected from everything," one wrote, with more than 57,000 likes on X.

"I don't think people are 'calling Taylor out' I think people are trying to call her back in. She made an impassioned speech in Miss Americana — yes not what the doc was about — but she still said those words, and publicly embracing a person who supports Trump is disappointing," one fan account shared.

And they're not the only ones. Fans across all social media channels have called on Swift to remember her words from the Miss Americana documentary in 2018.

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In Miss Americana, Swift reflected on a lawsuit she'd recently won and how she would dedicate her voice to keeping others safe.

"Like, something is … completely and unchangeably different since the sexual assault trial last year … and no man in my organisation or in my family will ever understand what that was like. … This is something I know is right," she told her team regarding her plan to publicly denounce Tennessee senator Marsha Blackburn. "I need to be on the right side of history."

"It really is a big deal to me," she said with determination. "She votes against fair pay for women, she votes against the re-authorisation of the Violence Against Women Act, which is just basically protecting us against domestic abuse and stalking… It's really basic human rights, and it's right and wrong at this point."

While her team agreed with her from a moral standpoint, they wanted her to be silent for her safety.

"From a security standpoint, 'Taylor Swift comes out against Trump…'" they trailed off.

"The bottom line right now, I'm terrified," her dad Scott Swift added. "I'm the guy that went out and bought armoured cars."

It was her safety on the line, and she spoke up anyway. But when it comes to her fan's safety, Swift has a new approach.

Swift tells her team that she'll make her stance in politics known whether they like it or not. Image: Miss Americana

Swift told ELLE in 2019 that one of her biggest fears was a terror attack, and that she carries around army-grade bandages in case of gunshot or stab wounds.

"After the Manchester Arena bombing and the Vegas concert shooting, I was completely terrified to go on tour this time because I didn't know how we were going to keep 3 million fans safe over seven months. There was a tremendous amount of planning, expense, and effort put into keeping my fans safe," she said. "My fear of violence has continued into my personal life."

That was for the Reputation tour. Her most recent Eras Tour saw her bring in as many as 4.3 million fans in 2023 alone. She's been going for another year since then. It's no small feat to keep them safe.

Taking to Instagram after her final London show, Swift confirmed why she hadn't put out a public statement about the Vienna terror plot and alluded to the growing calls for her to speak on the US election, writing she would wait to express herself at the right time.

"Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows," she wrote. "In cases like this one, 'silence' is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it's right to.

"My priority was finishing our European tour safely, and it is with great relief that I can say we did that. And then London felt like a beautiful dream sequence… it brought me back to a place of carefree calm up there."

The Eras Tour feels like the safest place in the world, because Taylor made it that way. Image: Getty

Until now, the time has not been right for Swift to speak about the election. The stakes were too high. But now fans are calling on the singer to make her political stance known.

With more Eras Tour concerts to come in the US and Canada, with dates up until November 2024, it's not certain she'll speak out about the election until her tour is over. If she does at all.

Featured image: Getty

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