Taylor Swift Pays Tribute to Mother Andrea's Cancer Battle With Song on 'Lover' Album

Taylor Swift’s newly released seventh studio album, Lover, pays special tribute to her mother, [...]

Taylor Swift's newly released seventh studio album, Lover, pays special tribute to her mother, Andrea Swift, in an emotional song about her battle with cancer. In the twelfth track on the album, "Soon You'll Get Better," Swift sings about her mother's ongoing health issues and her fears of losing her.

"And I hate to make this all about me / But who am I supposed to talk to? / What am I supposed to do? / If there's no you," the lyrics for the song read.

"You like the nicer nurses, you make the best of a bad deal / I just pretend it isn't real," Swift sings in another line.

Addressing the song during a YouTube Live just ahead of the album's release on Friday, Aug. 23, Swift confirmed that the song was about her mother and that the decision to include it on the album was one made by her entire family.

"What was really, really hard to write, and it was just a family decision whether to even put it on the album," she said. "We as a family decided to put this on the album, and it's something I'm so proud of, but it's just really hard. I can't sing it. It's hard to just emotionally deal with that song."

Swift initially revealed her mother's cancer diagnosis in 2015, sharing the news with fans in a post on Tumblr.

"This is something my family and I thought you should know about now," the pop star wrote at the time. "For Christmas this year, I asked my mom that one of her gifts to me be her going to the doctor to get screened for any health issues, just to ease some worries of mine. She agreed, and went in to get checked. There were no red flags and she felt perfectly fine, but she did it just to get me and my brother off her case about it."

"The results came in, and I'm saddened to tell you that my mom has been diagnosed with cancer," she continued. "She's got an important battle to fight. Thank you for caring about my family so much that she would want me to share this information with you. I hope and pray that you never get news like this."

Four years after first announcing the news, Swift revealed that her mother's cancer has returned, telling ELLE magazine in March of this year that "both of my parents have had cancer, and my mom is now fighting her battle with it again."

As Swifties will recall, "Soon You'll Get Better" is not the first song to pay tribute to Andrea. "The Best Day," released 11 years earlier on Swift's second studio album, Fearless, was a touching song inspired by her mother. During Reputation Stadium Tour, Swift dedicated a performance of the song to her mother on the night before Mother's Day, telling the crowd, "I want to dedicate this one to my mom. And I want you to think about anybody in your life who has mothered you and been there for you and made you who you are."

Lover, Swift's first album under Republic Records and Taylor Swift Productions, is currently available for purchase and streaming.

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