Taylor Swift’s “betty” completes the Folklore trio with “cardigan” and “august.”
These three songs form a fictional love triangle involving Betty, James, and an unnamed young woman. “Cardigan” is associated with Betty, “betty” is told from James’s viewpoint, and “august” follows the other girl in the relationship.
Swift used the trio to explore how the same emotional situation can look different from several perspectives. The songs do not function as a literal account of Swift’s own life; instead, they use imagined characters and story arcs.
A frequent mistake is naming “willow,” because Swift performed it with “cardigan” and “august” at the 2021 Grammy Awards. “Willow” belongs to Evermore, while “betty” is the third song in the Folklore narrative.