Songfacts®:

• "Florida!!!" is a full-blown power ballad escape fantasy recorded by Taylor Swift for her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. This time, she's not alone. Joining her on this musical road trip is the ever-dramatic Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine.
• A failed relationship is the emotional starting point for "Florida!!!" Swift spends her verses practically spitting about how the town she lives in is driving her insane, while Welch chimes in with some truly colorful desires involving copious amounts of alcohol and questionable swamp-based solutions for ex-boyfriends. Destin, Florida, holds the key: a place where the freedom flows like cheap margaritas and forgetting your troubles is practically mandatory.
• Some eagle-eyed Swifties might have noticed that this sunshine state escape coincides with the very public disintegration of Taylor Swift's relationship with her longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn. And guess what? The Tampa, Florida shows were the first Eras Tour stop after Swift's split with Alwyn was widely publicized.
  
  Speaking to iHeartRadio, Swift said the inspiration behind "Florida!!!" came from the series Dateline NBC. In the interview, she drew a parallel between folks who skip town to Florida for a fresh start after committing crimes, and those seeking solace from a broken heart. In her own words, it's about "reinventing yourself, having a new identity, blending in."
  
  Clearly, Florida was holding a lot of symbolic weight for Ms. Swift when she penned this escape anthem.
• The song has a similar theme to Swift's Reputation track "Getaway Car." Both songs explore themes of escape and have a sense of urgency and a desire to leave a difficult situation behind.
• This is one of two The Tortured Poets Department tracks where Swift shares the vocals with other artists, the other being Post Malone on "Fortnight." The two songs have a cohesive storyline. In "Fortnight" Swift details the emotional turmoil of becoming neighbors with an ex-lover who's now married. This ultimately leads to her fleeing to Florida.
• "Florida!!!" marks a first-time pairing between Swift and Florence Welch. They first met in 2012 and have since expressed a mutual admiration on several occasions. The pair were seen together backstage at The 1975's O2 Arena show in January 2023.
• The song features co-writing and production from Jack Antonoff, a collaborator with both artists. He produced Welch's 2022 album Dance Fever and numerous works for Swift.
• Taylor Swift performed "Florida!!!" live for the first time on August 20, 2024, at Wembley Stadium in London, where she was joined onstage by Florence Welch.
  
  Behind-the-scenes footage in Swift's Disney+ six-part documentary Taylor Swift: The End Of An Era captures Welch rehearsing the performance with Swift and her dancers, including learning choreography and riding the stage lift, an unfamiliar experience for the typically free-roaming frontwoman.
  
  "I have performed on big stages, but I thought I'd just run around because that's what I do at my own shows," Welch said in the documentary. "When I got there, they were like, 'This is your choreography.' I was like, 'No, no, no, wait, you must be confused. I don't do this! I'm gonna f--k this up!'"
  
  Welch described her first time emerging from the stage lift as disorienting and exhilarating. "The feeling of coming up for the first time in that lift, it was kind of like landing on Mars, 'cause I'd never seen the stage lit up before," she said.
  
  Reflecting on the moment, Welch said that performing at Wembley placed her inside a cultural phenomenon she'd previously only observed from afar. "It's like you see this cultural moment from the outside, and I suddenly was inside of it. It was wild, but it was really fun and completely terrifying."
• Swift's father Scott declared "Florida!!!" his favorite song on The Tortured Poets Department, describing it as "one hell of a drug" – a reference to one of the song's lyric.
• Speaking with British Vogue, Florence Welch dished on her collab with Taylor Swift.
  
  "I almost didn't think of the scale of it," she confessed laughing. "There's the sort of bigness of [Taylor Swift the phenomenon], and then there's the Taylor I spend time with in the studio, who is just the sweetest and most down to earth."
  
  She added that Swift had approached her with a concept and a story for the song, which is her favorite way to start songwriting.
  
  The collaboration sounds like a blast – but then reality hit. "We had such a fun time," she recounted. "And then when it came out, I was like, 'Oh, s--t!'"
• In addition to providing vocals, Florence Welch also plays drums, percussion and piano on the track. Jack Antonoff plays the other instruments.
• Nestled amongst the usual suspects in the album liner notes, we find the actress Emma Stone's name with the curious designation – "oddities" - for this track. This set the rumor mill a-churning faster than a Florida gator on a sugar rush.
  
  What exactly are these "oddities?" Did Stone, in a fit of artistic whimsy, contribute a series of perplexing sound effects – a kazoo solo perhaps, or a particularly enthusiastic bout of hiccups? Or maybe she was simply hanging out during recording sessions, a muse perched on the armrest of inspiration, occasionally tossing out a witty remark or a particularly insightful observation on the heartbreak du jour.
  
  The most likely explanation lies in the well-documented friendship between Swift and Stone. Perhaps this credit is a playful wink, a secret handshake for the fans, a subtle way of acknowledging Stone's presence and support during the creative process. It's a little like finding a friend's doodle hidden in the margin of your school notes – a delightful reminder of a shared experience.
• Florence Welch sings in the second verse about being barricaded in a bathroom with a bottle of wine, haunted by ghosts. When Swift asked her to feature on the song, she immediately thought of one of her favorite short story collections by Lauren Groff, specifically referencing the book's ghostly, swampy, and storm-ridden atmosphere, which evokes that kind of imagery.