This isn’t folklore: Joe Alwynis a Grammy winner.
While the British star is most known for his acting roles in The Favouriteand the upcoming series Conversations With Friends, he became a professional songwriter during lockdown, collaborating with his longtime girlfriend Taylor Swifton her albums folkloreand evermore. And when folklore won Album of the Year at the 2020 Grammys, Alwyn—who co-wrote and co-produced songs “betty” and “exile” under the pseudonym William Bowery—scored a trophy.
“That was a surreal bonus of lockdown,” he told The Guardian in a new interview. “That’s an understatement.”
As Alwyn explained to the outlet, he and Swift hadn’t planned on working together, it came about organically. “It wasn’t like, ‘It’s 5 o’clock, it’s time to try and write a song together,'” he shared. “It came about from messing around on a piano, and singing badly, then being overheard, and being, like, ‘Let’s see what happens if we get to the end of it together.'”