When Emma Stone hit the 2024 Oscars stage on Sunday night (March 10) to accept the best actress prize for Poor Things, she caught Swifties’ attention by using a phrase that also happens to be a Taylor Swift song title.
“I know I have to wrap up, but I really just want to thank my family – my mom, my brother Spencer, my dad, my husband Dave, I love you so much,” Stone said to finish her speech, before shouting out Louise, her daughter with former Saturday Night Live writer Dave McCary, who was born in 2021. “And, most importantly, my daughter, who’s gonna be 3 in three days and has turned our lives technicolor. I love you bigger than the whole sky, my girl.”
Swift has a song called “Bigger Than the Whole Sky” on her 2022 deluxe album Midnights (3am Edition), which peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 the week after the project’s release. Swift wrote the song solo and co-produced it with her longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff.
While Stone used the phrase in the speech to share her infinite love for her daughter, Swift’s song appears to be about grieving a loss, with the lyric: “Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye/ You were bigger than the whole sky.” In fact, Swift live-debuted the song at an Eras Tour stop in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in November, seemingly in tribute to a fan who had died two days prior after attending her concert.
Swift may not have coined the phrase, though it’s hard to track its definitive origin. Some point out the similarity to an Emily Dickinson poem from 1862 that reads: “The Brain—is wider than the Sky.”
But given Swift and Stone’s longtime friendship – including speculation that the Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) vault track “When Emma Falls in Love” was written about the actress – Swifties were quick to point out Stone’s choice of words on Sunday night, taking to social media to share their delight at the connection.
Find some of the best reaction to Stone’s seeming Swift lyrical reference below: