Blake Lively is a fearless defender of her friend Taylor Swift‘s music.
During an interview on BBC’s Radio 1 Breakfast Show on Wednesday, August 14, the 36-year-old actress was challenged to a game of “Unpopular Opinion” — and one caller took umbrage with some of the songs chosen for Swift’s Eras Tour setlist.
“Oh, that’s rough,” Lively replied after the fan argued “Love Story” should be cut from the Fearless section of the concert.
Asking for the fan’s explanation, Lively teased, “You just hate happiness or joy? Or just your ears? You don’t like your ears?”
The caller, however, continued to stand their ground, saying, “I think it’s a really good song, but I just think another song from Fearless should thrive in the spotlight.”
Lively proceeded to offer a solution to giving some deeper cuts the live show treatment. “Honestly, I wish the [concert] was just, like, 47 hours long so that all the songs could be played at all times,” she said. “So my popular opinion is that [I want] all, like, yes. … What’s the setlist? Yes. My answer is yes.”
Swift, 34, kicked off her Eras Tour in March 2023 with a regular setlist including songs from nearly all of her albums. (Other than when used as surprise songs during the acoustic section, Swift doesn’t perform tracks from her self-titled debut album.)
Throughout the tour — which has spanned North America, Australia, Europe and beyond — Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, have shown Swift support in the crowd. Earlier this year, the couple brought daughters James, 9, Inez, 7, and Betty, 4, to one of Swift’s shows in Madrid. In footage shared via social media, Lively and Reynolds, 47, shared a sweet kiss in the VIP section during the show. (The pair, who have been married since 2012, also share son Olin, who was born last year.)
Lively and Swift have been close friends since 2015, but despite being part of Swift’s inner circle, Lively is still a fan first.
“You can’t ask me to pick one song. That’s a wild question,” the Gossip Girl alum joked during an appearance on the Australian TV show The Project earlier this month. “Honestly, I love her music too much to pick one song. I could tell you my favorite child sooner if you would like to know that answer.”
Lively emphasized that she “genuinely” doesn’t have a No. 1 song in Swift’s discography — even though the pop star has used James, Inez and Betty as inspiration in her lyrics. The names are mentioned throughout Swift’s album Folklore, representing characters in a fictional love triangle.
“There are a few of the characters [in ‘Betty’] that I actually, fun fact, named after real people in my life who I love more than anything,” Swift said during an Eras Tour show in Philadelphia in May 2023, acknowledging Lively, James and Inez in the audience. “And their names are James, Inez and Betty.”
