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Maya Hawke labels Taylor Swift to be 'undeniable influence' on her music


Published by Cover Media
04 May 2026
Maya Hawke is "hugely influenced" by Taylor Swift's music.
The Stranger Things actress has just released her fourth studio album, Maitreya Corso.
Speaking to Rolling Stone about the project, Maya noted that she was inspired by Taylor's songwriting style when she was working on her new lyrics.
"I think she inspired a generation. I think she made a generation of young people listen to music and think, 'Oh wow, my life could matter. My feelings could matter. And the details of it could matter, my personal stories,'" the singer-songwriter gushed. "But I was hugely influenced by her. I've been listening to her music my entire life. You could start any song from any word and I would be able to know where you were and finish it, probably. So it's an undeniable influence."
Maya, who is the daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, went on list Taylor's 2008 hit Love Story, Golden Slumbers by The Beatles, God Bless the Child by Billie Holiday, and Otis Redding's Try a Little Tenderness as some of her picks for the greatest songs of "all time".
Reflecting on Love Story further, the 27-year-old explained that she was impressed by the "extremely powerful" melody.
"Wildly referential - a take on a great myth. And urgent. I've been listening to it for, I don't know, 20 years. And it never loses its potency. Never gets boring, never feels overplayed. And it has an essential human spark inside of it," the Inside Out 2 star smiled.
Elsewhere in the chat, Maya confirmed she made a reference to her Stranger Things co-star, Sadie Sink, in the song Lioness.
"I would never ever, in a million years, not get permission. I think there's a whole other conversation we could have for an hour about the morality of writing about people. And writing about your experiences, whether or not you name drop-them," she added.

Published by Cover Media
04 May 2026