“no body, no crime” Explained.

Do you like murder mysteries? What about Taylor swift? If you said yes to both, you’re in luck.  

Taylor Swift’s “no body, no crime” was a fan favorite song on her album Evermore, which was her ninth album out of her ten and is a sister album to Folklore, the album released before. Evermore came out on December 11th, 2020. The song was a collaboration with the HAIM sisters, and was a made up story about a woman named Este who was cheated on by her husband and killed for finding out and confronting him. Taylor, in the song, then kills Este’s husband as revenge. Este, the main character, is one of Taylor’s real life friends, and is one of the HAIM sisters that helped write the song. Taylor states that she is now the “fourth HAIM sister”. Taylor chose her friend Este to write about, because “she is the one that would totally be siked to be in a song like that”. This was the first time Taylor and the three sisters had collaborated on a song, although they have toured together. 

Fans think that Taylor wrote the song based off of the “country murder mystery” tradition, which usually is when a wife cheats on her husband and gets killed for it. Swift’s “no body, no crime” put a twist on the tradition that put the woman in power instead of the man. She has stated to fans in a Q&A that she enjoys true crime, so she really enjoyed writing this song. Many of Taylor’s songs are based on true stories from her love life, so when “no body, no crime” came out, fans were shocked. No one knew if it was true or not until Taylor addressed it. The song that is on the album before “no body, no crime” is called “tolerate it”, and tells the first part of the story: Este being a loving wife, only to be mistreated by her husband, and eventually cheated on. 

How did the song get its name? In the song, the chorus says “No body, no crime, but I ain't letting up until the day I die” or “She wasn’t letting up until the day she died”, meaning Este’s husband got rid of her body, so the police “think he did it, but they just can’t prove it” because he got rid of the body. At the end of the song, Taylor sings. “They think she did it, but they just can’t prove it, they think she did it, but they just can’t prove it, she thinks I did it, but she just can’t prove it, oh, No body, no crime, I wasn’t letting up until the day he died”. The “she” in this line referred to Este’s husband’s mistress. When she said she wasn’t letting up until the day “he” died, she is referring to Este’s husband, and the way that she killed him and got rid of the body as a form of revenge. The song also sings that Este’s sisters, the other two Haims, claimed that Taylor was with them, so that she could get away with it just as Este’s husband did. The thrilling song combines the talented songwriter’s love for true crime and her storytelling style by taking an existing tradition and making it how she wants. The song alone was a surprise to fans across the world, making everyone wonder what other surprises she’s planning for us.