Looking back at Taylor Swift and Emma Stone's friendship
When Swift’s new album, “The Tortured Poets Department” dropped on April 19, fans were expecting collaborations with other stars like Post Malone.
They were surprised to see that one Emily Jean Stone — Emma Stone’s real name — was credited on the song “Florida!!!”
The album, released by Swift on April 19, 2024, names Stone as a performer on the track, which features Florence + The Machine.
It's seemingly not the first shoutout Swift has made to her famous friend through her music.
In July 2023, Swift released the rerecorded version of her third studio album, "Speak Now," which featured six tracks "from the vault," meaning they were written at that point in the singer's life but never released.
One of those songs, "When Emma Falls in Love," led many fans to believe Stone provided inspiration for the track. The actor and Swift maintained a public friendship in the years leading up the original release of "Speak Now."
Stone was (again) asked if the song is about her in a new interview with the Hollywood Reporter, published Jan. 4.
"You’ll have to ask her," Stone responded.
The “Karma” singer and “La La Land” star’s friendship spans well over a decade. Stone is one of Swift’s many longtime famous friends, including Selena Gomez and Blake Lively.
Here’s everything to know about Swift and Stone’s friendship over the years.
April 2008: Taylor Swift and Emma Stone meet at the Young Hollywood Awards
Swift and Stone initially met on April 27, 2008, at Hollywood Life magazine’s Young Hollywood Awards in Los Angeles. At the event, the duo posed for a series of sweet photos in coordinating purple dresses.
In April 2010, Stone shared more details about how their friendship began, telling MTV News, “We met there three years ago, and then I listened to some of her music, and I wrote her an e-mail saying I liked her music, I swear. And then we started talking and hanging out.”
Though Stone said she and Swift were “very different,” the actor said that the singer had “such a sick sense of humor.”
“People are seeing it more now, and she’s so funny and she’s exactly who you think she is, and I love that,” Stone added.
September 2010: Taylor Swift supports Emma Stone at ‘Easy A’ premiere
More than 13 years before Swift supported Stone at the “Poor Things” premiere, she walked the red carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of “Easy A” on Sept. 13, 2010.
The duo posed for several photos at the premiere, with Swift donning an emerald green silk strapless gown while Stone wore a gold and teal sequin mini dress.
May 2011: Taylor Swift and Emma Stone attend the Met Gala
Swift and Stone posed side-by-side at one of the biggest red carpet events of the year in May 2011 at the Met Gala. To celebrate the theme “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty,” Swift was in J. Mendel while Stone wore Lanvin.
June 2011: Emma Stone reveals she got a sneak peek of ‘Speak Now’
Several months after the release of Swift’s third studio album “Speak Now,” Stone revealed to MTV News in June 2011 that she got a sneak peek of the album from her friend.
“I was lucky enough to hear it pretty early on, so it’s so exciting for it to be out and own the songs instead of just be singing them (in my head),” she said at the time. “Taylor’s a pretty normal girl. She’s not (like), ‘I am one of the world’s most popular singers.’”
August 2011: Emma Stone presents Taylor Swift with an award at the Teen Choice Awards
At the Teen Choice Awards on Aug. 7, 2011, Stone presented Swift with the Ultimate Choice Award at the ceremony.
Prior to announcing the award, Stone introduced the singer with touching sentiments about Swift's career and accomplishments up to that point.
October 2012: Taylor Swift opens up about friendship with Emma Stone
Swift spoke about her friendship with Stone and Gomez during an October 2012 interview with Access Hollywood. At the time, she described herself as a “girl’s girl” who kept her friends up to date on her life.
“We have these big group texts where I’ll just like text them everything that’s going on with my day, and one of us in New York, one of us is in Los Angeles, one of us is in Nashville or Paris,” she explained. “It’s just so important to have people that you trust, and Emma and Selena and I, we’ve had so many things in our lives that have changed over the last couple years, but our friendship has stayed the same.”
November 2020: Emma Stone reveals her favorite Taylor Swift song
When Stone was interviewed by children for People in November 2020, she dished about her favorite of Swift's songs, saying it was an “almost impossible” question to answer.
“She has a new album that just came out called ‘Folklore,’ and I really love this song, ‘August’ right now,” she told the kids. “I was just listening to it earlier today. But I like so many of them, so it’s very hard to choose.”
March 2023: Emma Stone attends opening night of Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’
Stone was part of the lucky group of concertgoers who got to attend the opening night of Swift’s epic “Eras Tour,” which kicked off March 17, 2023, in Glendale, Arizona.
She spoke about the concert during a June interview with Vanity Fair, calling the experience “pretty amazing.”
“I was lucky ’cause we’ve been friends for a really long time,” Stone said. “I’ve known her since we were 17 and 18, so she hooked me up, which was very nice ’cause I know those tickets are impossible to get. She’s a wonderful friend.”
Stone also praised Swift for her performance and athleticism, which the singer recently opened up about in an interview as Time’s 2023 Person of the Year.
“She blows my mind,” Stone said. “I mean, the amount of sheer stamina to do three and a half hours and perform 44 songs and to maintain the extreme energy of the audience — I’ve never seen anything like it.”
June 2023: Emma Stone gushes about friendship with Taylor Swift
In her June Vanity Fair interview, Stone dished about her friendship with Swift. The actor also shared whether or not she would ever sing a duet with her friend, to which she responded, “Oh, God, hell no!”
“I can’t sing, like, for a massive stadium,” Stone, who won an Oscar for “La La Land” in 2016, said. “Let’s not even go down that road. She has insane talent — I could never do what she does.”
July 2023: Taylor Swift releases song ‘When Emma Falls in Love’
When Swift dropped the rerecording of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” on July 7, she also released six vault tracks, including a song called “When Emma Falls in Love.”
Fans immediately speculated online that the song was about Stone. However, on the red carpet at the New York City premiere of “Poor Things,” Stone played coy when she was asked about the inspiration for the song by “Entertainment Tonight.”
“You would have to ask her,” Stone said, which she later reiterated to the Hollywood Reporter.
December 2023: Taylor Swift attends screening of Emma Stone’s movie ‘Poor Things’
Swift showed her support for longtime friend Emma Stone when she attended the New York City premiere of Stone’s latest film, “Poor Things,” on Dec. 6, 2023, at DGA Theater.
Searchlight Pictures posted two photos of the duo on the social media site X as they posed for their camera in their glam ensembles.
In another group of photos, Swift and Stone posed with Laura Dern, who portrayed Swift’s evil stepmother in her “Bejeweled” music video.
Swift was spotted arriving and leaving the premiere in a sleek monochromatic black ensemble.
She departed the premiere with Robert Pattinson and Suki Waterhouse, which marked the couple’s first joint outing since the “Daisy Jones & the Six” star confirmed her pregnancy in November.
April 2023: Emma Stone listed in the credits for Taylor Swift’s ‘Florida!!!’ song
Swift named Stone in the credits of one of the songs on her "The Tortured Poets Department" album on April 19, 2024.
Swift and Florence Welch (of Florence + The Machine fame) co-wrote "Florida!!!" and Swift produced it with her longtime collaborator, Jack Antonoff. But Apple Music names Stone as a "performer" on the track in the credits.
(Entertainment Weekly reported that in the liner notes, Stone is credited with “oddities.” Stone is not named in the Spotify version of the song's credits.)
Stone famously sings in the hit movie "La La Land," for which she won an Oscar in 2017, but has previously said she had no intention of singing with her famous friend.
In a June 2023 interview, Vanity Fair asked her if she'd ever perform a duet with Swift.
“Oh, God, hell no!” she replied. “Let’s not even go down that road. She has insane talent — I could never do what she does.”
Stone did not respond to TODAY.com's request for comment on the credit.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
