6 Years Ago Today, Taylor Swift Made Her Return to Country Music Radio With This Aching Ballad Featuring a Teenage Love Triangle

Hey, remember when Taylor Swift was a country star? Six years ago on this day (August 17) in 2020, Nashville’s prodigal daughter returned to the country charts with her single “Betty”, from her surprise eighth album Folklore.

Taylor Swift Goes Back to Her Roots

These days, the 14-time Grammy winner is better known for shimmering pop offerings like “Opalite” and “The Fate of Ophelia” from her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl. It’s easy to forget that Taylor Swift got her start as a precocious 16-year-old country music ingenue.

Indeed, she even took home the Country Music Association’s top award for Entertainer of the Year not once, but twice—first in 2009, then again in 2011.

By the 2012 release of her fourth album Red, however, Swift had one foot in pop music. She dove in headfirst on 2014’s 1989, with its crashing synths and pulsing drum machines leaving no doubt about her musical direction.

The singer’s next two projects—2017’s reputation and 2019’s Lover—also bore little resemblance to her earlier works like “Our Song” (2007) and “Love Story” (2008).

But even in a career defined by dramatic reinvention, sometimes all you need is a return to the basics. Released unexpectedly on July 24, 2020, Folklore, was somehow both.

Sonically, many Folklore songs were reminiscent of her earlier work—piano and guitar-driven ballads tinged with country-folk influences. Lyrically, the album marked a massive shift from Swift’s trademark autobiographical style.

“Betty” Was Part of a Trio

Songs like “Betty” see the 36-year-old star fully inhabiting fictional narratives. Along with its counterparts “Cardigan” and “August”, it is part of a trio exploring a fictional teenage love triangle on Folklore.

On “Betty”, Taylor Swift takes the perspective of James, a 17-year-old boy fumbling an apology to the titular character after cheating on her during a “summer fling” with another teenage girl named Augustine.

Swift’s remarkable storytelling chops are on full display here: Would you trust me / If I told you it was just a summer thing? / I’m only seventeen, I don’t know anythin’ / But I know I miss you.

She Performed “Betty” at the ACM Awards

“Betty” reached number six on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs. This marked Taylor Swift’s highest showing on that listing since 2019’s “Soon You’ll Get Better” featuring the Chicks.

(While “Soon You’ll Get Better” reached number 10 on the Hot Country Songs chart, it was an outlier among the otherwise pastel-colored pop of Lover.)

Additionally, “Betty” brought Swift back to the Academy of Country Music after a seven-year absence. She debuted the song live during the 2020 awards ceremony.

However, “Betty” is not the newly-minted Songwriter Hall of Famer’s most recent showing on the country charts.

[RELATED: Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Names Its Youngest-Ever Inductee]

In June 2026, Swift dropped the upbeat country-pop ballad “I Knew It, I Knew You”—her contribution to the soundtrack for the animated Disney-Pixar film Toy Story 5.

Based on the film character Jessie, “I Knew It, I Knew You” peaked atop the Hot Country Songs tally, giving Swift her first country number one since 2012’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”

And judging from the “Anti-Hero” singer’s track record, a future appearance on the country charts doesn’t seem too far out of reach.

Featured image by Taylor Hill/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

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