Songfacts®:

• The word "glitch" usually refers to a malfunction in a machine or computer program. Here, Taylor Swift reflects on a friendship that unexpectedly turned into a romantic relationship. The singer can't believe their union has worked out so well and lasted such a long time. "It must be counterfeit," Swift sings, "I think there's been a glitch."
• Fans believe Swift wrote "Glitch" about her relationship with the English actor Joe Alwyn. There are a couple of clues:
  
  We were supposed to be just friends
  You don't live in my part of town, but maybe I'll see you out some weekend
  
  Swift and Alwyn started with a casual flirtation before developing a serious romance. On the Lover track "Paper Rings," she sings: "Darling, you're the one I want, and I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this."
  
  It's been two-thousand one-hundred ninety days of our love blackout
  
  Swift and Alwyn first went out together in the summer of 2016. 2,190 days is the equivalent of six years later – the summer of 2022, when Swift likely wrote "Glitch."
  
  The reference to "2,190 days of our love blackout" isn't a disparaging one. Rather, it's a continuation of the song's breaking-down theme, whereby things aren't functioning the same way for Swift as they did in the past. Before she and Alwyn started dating, the pop star had a reputation for short-lived relationships. Now, she's found someone to settle down with permanently.
• Swift wrote "Glitch" with longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff, Kendrick Lamar producer Sounwave, and Chicago singer-songwriter Sam Dew. Antonoff, Sounwave and Dew originally wrote it during the same studio session that produced "Lavender Haze."
  
  Antonoff passed over their track to Swift, who wrote the lyrics.
  
  "Not to toot my own horn, but I like the weirdness of 'Glitch,' Sounwave told Rolling Stone. "The breakdown part is everything it was meant to be. This is so amazing to me."
• "Glitch" isn't on the standard edition of Midnights, but is one of seven bonus tracks on the digitally available 3am Edition. Swift wrote but ultimately excluded the seven tracks from the album to limit the standard track list to 13 (Swift's lucky number). Midnights (3am Edition) is named because Swift surprise released the collection at 3:00 a.m. EDT, a few hours after the rest of the record.