Why a global pop hit was originally credited to a fake Swedish songwriter
In short: When Calvin Harris and Rihanna released their 2016 dance anthem, the songwriting credit went to Nils Sjöberg. This mysterious collaborator was actually Taylor Swift, who used the pseudonym to prevent her high-profile relationship from overshadowing the music. The secret eventually unraveled, revealing a complex story of creative partnership and privacy.
The 2016 collaboration between Calvin Harris and Rihanna, 'This Is What You Came For', became a massive commercial success, topping charts in 12 countries and reaching over 2.8 billion views on YouTube by September 2025. While Harris produced the track and arranged the vocals, the songwriting was a joint effort with Taylor Swift. To avoid the public scrutiny that often followed her personal life, Swift opted for the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg, a name she chose because it sounded like a common Swedish male identity.
The ruse was intended to keep the focus on the work itself rather than the celebrity narrative surrounding the artists. Harris later confirmed on Twitter that Swift wrote the lyrics and contributed backing vocals, noting that she had requested secrecy from the start. The truth emerged in July 2016 following media reports and public speculation, leading to an official update in BMI and ASCAP records to credit Swift properly. The song remains a notable example of how artists navigate the tension between creative output and public perception.
Musically, the track is a dance-pop and house song recorded in A minor at 124 beats per minute. Critics noted its mellow, tropical house influence, which departed from the high-energy EDM drops common at the time. The accompanying music video, which featured Rihanna inside a projection-mapped cube, utilized innovative technology to display 3D environments without skewing the image. This visual approach, combined with the song's chilled-out production, helped solidify its status as a defining pop moment of the mid-2010s.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: This Is What You Came For
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