For more than a decade, Taylor Swift’s love life was treated as a public spectator sport. Every breakup became a headline, and every new song became a clue. Millions of fans, many of them young women who grew up alongside her music, hoped she would one day find a man who would treat her as a lady. They wanted someone who would stand beside her as an equal, and who would stay.

This summer she married one. The reaction to her happiness has been curious.

Last Friday Swift released four new songs as an encore to her record-breaking album The Life of a Showgirl. The one drawing the most fire is called “Cleveland!” Critics have labeled it cringeworthy. Even devoted fans have gone online to declare it the worst thing she has ever recorded.

The song is a love letter to her husband, Travis Kelce, and to the corner of Ohio that raised him. She sings about him taking her home to see Cleveland Heights, where he grew up. Yes, she also takes aim at people who have spent years picking her apart. That may be part of what some listeners dislike. But underneath is something tender: a woman delighted that the man she loves wanted to show her the places that shaped him and let her picture the boy........

© Townhall