Champagne Problems

"Champagne Problems" (stylized in all lowercase) is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift for her ninth studio album Evermore (2020). She wrote the song with Joe Alwyn, who is credited under the pseudonym William Bowery, and produced it with Aaron Dessner. "Champagne Problems" is a lo-fi tune driven by oom-pah piano and a guitar riff. Lyrically, the song is a sentimental ballad written from the perspective of a troubled girlfriend who turns down her lover's earnest marriage proposal due to her not feeling ready. It depicts a narrator taking responsibility for the breakup and mourning the faded relationship. "Champagne Problems" received critical acclaim for its portrayal of heartbreak and mental health. The song peaked within the top 25 of Australia, Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK, the US, and the Billboard Global 200. It was included on Swift's sixth headlining concert tour, the Eras Tour (2023). Background and release On July 24, 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdowns, Taylor Swift surprise-released her eighth studio album, Folklore, to widespread critical acclaim and commercial success. In September 2020, Swift and her co-producers and co-writers for the album, Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, and Joe Alwyn, assembled at Long Pond Studio, located in a secluded cabin in upstate New York, to film the documentary Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions. Released to Disney+ and accompanied by a live album released digitally, Swift performed the stripped-down renditions of all 17 tracks on Folklore and recounted the creative process of developing the album. Swift wrote "Champagne Problems" song with Joe Alwyn (under the pseudonym William Bowery), who she was in a romantic relationship with. Despite speculation that Swift wrote it about their own relationship, she explained that she and Alwyn wrote it together and detailed the writing process: "I say it was a surprise that we started writing together, but in a way, it wasn't, because we have always bonded over music and had the same musical tastes, and he's always the person who's showing me songs by artists and then they become my favorite songs or whatever. Joe and I really love sad songs. We've always bonded over music. So it was… We write the saddest [ones]. We just really love sad songs.