Taylor Swift has everything, and that includes the publishing rights to “This Is What You Came For.” Yeah, that’s Calvin Harris and Rihanna’s hit, but it turns out it was ghostwritten by Swift under the pseudonym of Nils Sjoberg. A representative for Swift confirmed her role in making the hit to Rolling Stone, and Harris himself came clean.
And she sings on a little bit of it too 🙃
Amazing lyric writer and she smashed it as usual https://t.co/vW3yGOIJit— Calvin Harris (@CalvinHarris) July 13, 2016
I wrote the music, produced the song, arranged it and cut the vocals though. And initially she wanted it kept secret, hence the pseudonym
— Calvin Harris (@CalvinHarris) July 13, 2016
TMZ originally reported that Swift recorded a demo of the song on her iPhone and sent it to Harris. The duo then recorded it as a piano ballad and agreed to give it to Rihanna because they thought their relationship would overshadow the song. So Rihanna got another Top 5 hit, Swift used the odd pseudonym on the songwriting credits, and all was well.
But, according to one TMZ source, the release day for “This Is What You Came For” marked “the breaking point” for Harris and Swift’s relationship. Back on April 29, the producer appeared on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show, where the host asked, “Will you do a collaboration with your girlfriend?” Harris responded by saying, “You know, we haven’t even spoken about it. I can’t see it happening though.”
TMZ‘s source claims that Swift was “hurt” and, as you probably know by now, the two eventually split ways, with Swift holding the collaborative track’s publishing rights. This is bad news for Harris, because Swift can exercise her right to ban her ex from performing the song. That would be an all-too-fitting bit of karma: Harris previously banned Rita Ora, another ex of his, from performing “I Will Never Let You Down,” a song he wrote and produced. But TMZ reports that Swift isn’t likely to do Harris like that, saying she “doesn’t plan to exercise that right.”