6 Times Taylor Swift's Famous Pals Sang Her Praises

Taylor Swift is one of the greatest singers of all time, but when it comes to her personal life, she is every bit as known for her friendships as she is for her continuously record-breaking discography. And whether we're talking about Swift's friendship with professional collaborators like Jack Antonoff, or the iconic Taylor Swift squad from the 2010s, her famous friends have never been shy about saying exactly what they think of her, even if complimenting the person behind the highest-grossing tour in history, and with more No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 charts than any other female musician, has to be one of the trickier assignments a friend can be handed. Just ask any of the high-profile names on this list — say Ed Sheeran, the truth of whose friendship with Swift has been dissected for over a decade — and they'll probably agree, though maintain that it's a tricky assignment they're more than happy to take on.

A generic "she's so talented" isn't going to land with as much impact in an ocean of similar compliments. Saying that she's warm or friendly or professional will only get you so far when a thousand other articles are doing the same on a daily basis. However, some of Swift's famous pals have managed to find unique praises that stick. Not the interchangeable admiration of a co-worker or a fellow celebrity, discussing the billions of streams or the awards won, but oddly specific praise that tells us about who Swift is as a person when the paparazzi aren't around. Whether it's about her prowess as a mentor, her Bolognese, or her being reachable on the phone whenever someone in her orbit needs her, the compliments paint a picture like no magazine profile could. Here are six times Swift's celebrity friends went public with their affection.

Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez have been friends for so long that the friendship is old enough to drive by now. It goes back to around 2008, when both were teenagers trying to make it in the music business. Another thing they had in common was the fact that the two were orbiting the Jonas Brothers, and their friendship survived the romances that introduced them. Recalling those early days on Jake Shane's "Therapuss" podcast, Gomez said one of the first things Swift had her listen to was "Love Story" before it came out. "It was just, like, it was one of those songs I instantly heard and thought, 'This is one of the most beautiful songs ever.'"

That professional aspect of their relationship is apparently reciprocal. Gomez has said she still plays Swift her own unreleased music to gauge whether it's any good, because she wants an honest ear rather than someone who'll just flatter her with compliments. "I value her opinion so much because she's super honest," Gomez said of her bestie in a chat with iHeartRadio in 2025. "I would never be like, 'That's a terrible song.' Because she's so freaking good, but she definitely will say, like, 'Yeah, that one's OK, but I think that one's good.'"

Yes, anyone can call their contemporaries talented, but giving them your unfinished work — the stuff you're creatively insecure about before you've shown it to the world — is a privilege you only extend to someone whose taste you rank above other people. That, in and of itself, is a huge compliment to Swift.

In 2010, Stevie Nicks and Taylor Swift shared a stage at the 2010 Grammy Awards. While Swift had gained a measure of recognition in the industry by that time, she had yet to reach the stratospheric fame of her later years. Even then, Nicks proved it takes a legend to recognize another legend, because when writing Swift's entry for the Time 100 list that year, she compared the 20-year-old to other powerhouse musicians and all but crowned her the future of the genre. "This girl writes the songs that make the whole world sing, like Neil Diamond or Elton John," Nicks wrote. "When I turned 20 years old, I had just made the serious decision to never be a dental assistant. Taylor just turned 20, and she's won four Grammys."

What started as a one-off Grammys duet has deepened into a friendship. Nicks publicly thanked Swift for writing "You're on Your Own, Kid" during a 2023 performance. She said the song helped her deal with the death of her Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie. In 2024, Nicks returned the favor by contributing a poem to the physical editions of "The Tortured Poets Department" album. Considering that work was one of Swift's most experimental albums — and thematically involved her vulnerable reflections on life and creativity as an artist — the decision to let Nicks open it with one of her poems speaks volumes about how highly she regards her, and vice versa.

Sabrina Carpenter catapulted herself to pop superstardom through iconic singles like "Espresso," but she also spent a third of a year opening for Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour. She warmed up crowds across the Latin American, Asian, and Australian legs of the show before wrapping her stint in Singapore on March 9, 2024. Carpenter is a self-described lifelong Swiftie, and her goodbye tribute to the tour on Instagram reflected on the special relationship she has with the singer.

"I feel so lucky to witness the magic that is you and this tour. there is truly no one like you and there never will be! I love you with all my heart and I will cherish this taybrina era (and all the eras) till the end of time," she wrote. "Taybrina" is certainly one way to think about it, and that parenthesis about the eras proves she's definitely a Swiftie. Yet that barely grazes the extent of Carpenter and Swift's close-knit friendship.

In a 2024 Variety profile, Carpenter called Swift "one of my best, best friends, and we grab dinner or text and catch up like you would with your best friend." She also praised Swift for being able to take on practically anything in the industry "with grace." In a 2024 interview with Rolling Stone, Carpenter explained why she would never stack her success up against Swift's. "I hold her to such a different echelon. I could never compare my life, my career, my trajectory to anything close to what she's done," she said. Carpenter also told Gayle King on "CBS Mornings" in 2025 that, "I've been looking up to her since ... the first time I heard a song by her, I was 8 years old on the school bus."

Gracie Abrams, the Grammy-nominated daughter of director J.J. Abrams, has emerged as pop's rising indie-folk darling thanks to hits like "That's So True" and the song "Us," which she co-wrote and recorded with Taylor Swift. Abrams also opened The Eras Tour on select dates, and she's never been particularly close-mouthed about the kind of impact it had on her career. "Being a part of that tour in a tiny way has changed the course of my life in so many ways," she told People at the Grammys in 2024. "She's just the most unbelievable performer and the most generous friend and the fact that she ... took a chance on me is, I think, why I get to be in this room tonight."

Abrams described being an opener on The Eras Tour as an eye-opening experience, framing that time as an apprenticeship on what it's like to command a stadium and perform in front of tens of thousands of people. "It's not lost on me that her belief in me has really just ... done a lot. So, I'm deeply grateful to her, forever," she added. That mentorship has gone on, too. In November 2024, Swift invited Abrams to perform a surprise mashup of "Us" and "Out of the Woods" in Toronto during The Eras Tour. Looking at photos from that night, as seen above, it's evident that you're not so much looking at two chart rivals as two female artists propping each other up. 

When you happen to be the single biggest pop star on the planet, it's difficult for most people to see you past the shadow cast by your artistry and legacy. Unless you happen to be Gigi Hadid, one of Taylor Swift's oldest pals, who, given the floor, opted to rave about her ... chili.

In an InStyle interview from 2023 (per Elle), Hadid didn't hesitate to speak highly of Swift's cooking skills. "Taylor Swift is an exceptional cook, and I love her," she said, delivering what is arguably the most disarming endorsement on this list, if for nothing besides the fact that for once it has nothing to do with Swift's fame or musical talents. And it wasn't just casual praise. It turns out Swift cooks a mean chili: "She also makes a really good bolognese sauce and a really good chili that I love." Hadid went on to explain that cooking for the people you care about is part of what keeps a friendship real.

It's a small window into the version of Swift her friends actually experience, not the artist we see before the stadium lights. And it's not just Hadid. Channing Tatum and Swift's husband Travis Kelce have praised her cooking as well, while the Barefoot Contessa herself Ina Garten raved on the "Today" show in 2022 how, "I just so fell in love with her," when she and Swift cooked together years ago. Shortly before then, Swift had said to Food Network Magazine how, "[Garten] made cooking feel like self-care" (via Today).

Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift have been friends for a very long time, which makes the fact that he rarely opens up about that bond all the more intriguing. In an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Sheeran said he can talk to Swift because she understands him. "I have long, long, long conversations with Taylor about stuff, just because I feel like she's one of the only people that actually truly understands where I'm at, because she's [a] solo artist, she's stadiums," he said.

Sheeran told The Hollywood Reporter that he feels close to Taylor, even in the creative sense. "Obviously, we're the opposite sex, and we're from different countries and cultures, but I feel very intertwined creatively with her," he said, further adding that he cosigns Swift's James Taylor and Carole King framing of their friendship — referring to the singer-songwriters who have spent over fifty years making music together without being romantically involved.

Swift returns Sheeran's sentiment plainly. During a surprise Eras Tour appearance at Wembley Stadium in 2024, he joined her for a medley of their duets, and she introduced him as, "one of my best friends in the world to the point where I feel like he's a second brother of mine" (via Variety). Such is the extent of their bond that Swift helped play matchmaker for Sheeran and his wife, Cherry Seaborn. There's nothing better than two friends who root for each other quietly, with none of the usual rivalry, drama, and theatrics involved.