Taylor Swift and Charli xcx Feud Rumors Explode Over ‘Actually Romantic’ Song. How Did We Get Here?
Taylor Swift has dropped her 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” and the hottest topic among many online is the song “Actually Romantic.” The seventh track on the new album has led to widespread speculation that Swift is dissing fellow pop star Charli xcx. But how did we get here?
The two singers appeared to be on healthy ground last fall when Swift praised Charli’s songwriting in a New York Magazine cover story on Charli and her album, “Brat.” But now social media is convinced that Swift has her knives out for Charli on “Actually Romantic,” where Swift calls out a singer who bashed her as a “Boring Barbie” while on cocaine. This singer also congratulated one of Swift’s ex-boyfriends when he ghosted Swift. The internet is now wondering: are Swift and Charli feuding?
Here’s everything we know about their relationship so far.
Charli Is an Opener on the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018)
For all intents and purposes, Charli and Swift were on great terms in 2018 when Swift announced Charli and Camila Cabello would be the opening acts on the Reputation Stadium Tour. Charli performed at all dates of the tour from May to November of that year, totally more than 50 concerts, and she even joined Swift onstage with Cabello at serval stops to perform “Shake It Off” live together.
Charli Disses Swifties (2019)
The first potential sign of bad blood between Charli and Swift came in an August 2019 Pitchfork feature, which was published online shortly before Swift released the “Lover” album. Charli took a shot at Swift’s fans, ubiquitously known as Swifties, when she told the publication: “I’m really grateful that [Taylor] asked me on that tour. But as an artist, it kind of felt like I was getting up on stage and waving to 5-year-olds.” Swifties were not too thrilled.
Taylor, Charli and The 1975 (2023)
Taylor and Charli found themselves in the same orbit years later when they both were dating members of The 1975, the English pop rock band. Swift briefly dated lead singer Matty Healy starting around May 2023 while on The Eras Tour and right after her breakup to Joe Alwyn went public. Charli started dating drummer George Daniel a year prior, so naturally Taylor and Charli started crossing paths a lot more in summer 2023. Swift’s fling with Healy allegedly only lasted around two months, while Charli and Daniels got married this summer.
Charli Releases “Sympathy Is a Knife” on Her Album “Brat” (Summer 2024)
Charli dropped the album “Brat” in June 2024 and captured the pop culture zeitgeist as several of the songs found the singer getting brutally honest about her relationship to the music industry and to fellow female pop stars (see Lorde and “Girl So Confusing.”) By the time “Brat” was released, Swift’s relationship to Healy was long over and even inspired several songs off Swift’s album “The Tortured Poets Department,” which dropped in April before “Brat’s” summer release.
One song from “Brat” is titled “Sympathy Is a Knife” and is widely speculated to be about Swift, but the lyrics were not dissing whoever Charli was writing about. Instead, the song finds Charli being self-critical over how being in the orbit of a much famous singer (i.e. Swift) had negative effects on her mental health. As Charli sings: “This one girl taps my insecurities/Don’t know if it’s real or if I’m spiraling… I couldn’t even be her if I tried / I’m opposite, I’m on the other side.” If the song was about Swift, then it was all about criticizing Charli’s own delusions and insecurities and not Swift herself.
Swift Praises Charli’s Songwriting (Fall 2024)
Charli’s press blitz for “Brat” extended into the fall when she graced the cover of New York Magazine. The story published October 11, 2024 and included a quote from Swift that was highly complimentary of the “Brat” singer: “I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities since I first heard ‘Stay Away’ in 2011. Her writing is surreal and inventive, always. She just takes a song to places you wouldn’t expect it to go, and she’s been doing it consistently for over a decade. I love to see hard work like that pay off.”
And yet, signs of potential bad blood between the two were starting to be called out online. Matty Healy announced his engagement to model Gabbriette in June 2024, with Charli telling New York Magazine: “I’ve always quietly thought they’d be a good couple.” And on the day Swift shared a positive review of “The Tortured Poets Department” in April, Charli quote-tweeted it with the comment: “Everyone’s hype for the Sweat Tour!” Was Charli just being playful or was trouble brewing between the two pop stars? Social media speculation went into overdrive.
Swift Dances to Charli at the Grammy Awards (Winter 2025)
Even if there was some beef between Swift and Charli to close out 2024, you wouldn’t know by watching the 2025 Grammy Awards. The ceremony, held on Feb. 2, featured a high-energy performance from Charli that Swift was clearly a fan of given how rapturously Swift and Margaret Qualley (who introduced Charli at Variety’s Hitmakers event last year) were seen dancing in the crowd while drinking champagne. The clip of Swift rocking out to Charli went viral across various social media platforms. Both Swift and Charli were nominated for album of the year at the Grammys, although Beyonce took home the prize for “Cowboy Carter.”
Swift Releases “Actually Romantic” on Her Album “The Life of a Showgirl” (Fall 2025)
If Charli was only hinting at a potential beef with Swift in 2024, many people now think a feud between the two has all but been confirmed by Swift’s song “Actually Romantic,” which mentions whoever Swift is talking about “wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face.” That lyric alone has convinced many that Swift is obviously writing about Charli and “Sympathy Is a Knife.”
The song begins with the lyrics: “I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave / High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me / Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face.” But then Swift reveals the full conceit of the song, which is how flattering and even arousing it is to hear about someone thinking about you constantly (even if for negative reasons).
Swift explained the song in a track-by-track version of the album that’s streaming on Amazon Music (via E! News), saying: “‘Actually Romantic’ is a song about realizing that someone else has kind of had a one-sided adversarial relationship with you that you didn’t know about. And all of a sudden they start doing too much, and they start letting you know that, actually, you’ve been living in their head rent free and you had no idea.”
“It’s presenting itself as them sort of resenting or having a problem with you, but taking that and you just accepting that as love,” Swift added. “Your just accepting it as attention and affection. How flattering that someone has made you such a big part of their reality and you didn’t even think about this. It’s actually pretty romantic if you really, really think about it.”
The two singers appeared to be on healthy ground last fall when Swift praised Charli’s songwriting in a New York Magazine cover story on Charli and her album, “Brat.” But now social media is convinced that Swift has her knives out for Charli on “Actually Romantic,” where Swift calls out a singer who bashed her as a “Boring Barbie” while on cocaine. This singer also congratulated one of Swift’s ex-boyfriends when he ghosted Swift. The internet is now wondering: are Swift and Charli feuding?
Here’s everything we know about their relationship so far.
Charli Is an Opener on the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018)
For all intents and purposes, Charli and Swift were on great terms in 2018 when Swift announced Charli and Camila Cabello would be the opening acts on the Reputation Stadium Tour. Charli performed at all dates of the tour from May to November of that year, totally more than 50 concerts, and she even joined Swift onstage with Cabello at serval stops to perform “Shake It Off” live together.
Charli Disses Swifties (2019)
The first potential sign of bad blood between Charli and Swift came in an August 2019 Pitchfork feature, which was published online shortly before Swift released the “Lover” album. Charli took a shot at Swift’s fans, ubiquitously known as Swifties, when she told the publication: “I’m really grateful that [Taylor] asked me on that tour. But as an artist, it kind of felt like I was getting up on stage and waving to 5-year-olds.” Swifties were not too thrilled.
Taylor, Charli and The 1975 (2023)
Taylor and Charli found themselves in the same orbit years later when they both were dating members of The 1975, the English pop rock band. Swift briefly dated lead singer Matty Healy starting around May 2023 while on The Eras Tour and right after her breakup to Joe Alwyn went public. Charli started dating drummer George Daniel a year prior, so naturally Taylor and Charli started crossing paths a lot more in summer 2023. Swift’s fling with Healy allegedly only lasted around two months, while Charli and Daniels got married this summer.
Charli Releases “Sympathy Is a Knife” on Her Album “Brat” (Summer 2024)
Charli dropped the album “Brat” in June 2024 and captured the pop culture zeitgeist as several of the songs found the singer getting brutally honest about her relationship to the music industry and to fellow female pop stars (see Lorde and “Girl So Confusing.”) By the time “Brat” was released, Swift’s relationship to Healy was long over and even inspired several songs off Swift’s album “The Tortured Poets Department,” which dropped in April before “Brat’s” summer release.
One song from “Brat” is titled “Sympathy Is a Knife” and is widely speculated to be about Swift, but the lyrics were not dissing whoever Charli was writing about. Instead, the song finds Charli being self-critical over how being in the orbit of a much famous singer (i.e. Swift) had negative effects on her mental health. As Charli sings: “This one girl taps my insecurities/Don’t know if it’s real or if I’m spiraling… I couldn’t even be her if I tried / I’m opposite, I’m on the other side.” If the song was about Swift, then it was all about criticizing Charli’s own delusions and insecurities and not Swift herself.
Swift Praises Charli’s Songwriting (Fall 2024)
Charli’s press blitz for “Brat” extended into the fall when she graced the cover of New York Magazine. The story published October 11, 2024 and included a quote from Swift that was highly complimentary of the “Brat” singer: “I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities since I first heard ‘Stay Away’ in 2011. Her writing is surreal and inventive, always. She just takes a song to places you wouldn’t expect it to go, and she’s been doing it consistently for over a decade. I love to see hard work like that pay off.”
And yet, signs of potential bad blood between the two were starting to be called out online. Matty Healy announced his engagement to model Gabbriette in June 2024, with Charli telling New York Magazine: “I’ve always quietly thought they’d be a good couple.” And on the day Swift shared a positive review of “The Tortured Poets Department” in April, Charli quote-tweeted it with the comment: “Everyone’s hype for the Sweat Tour!” Was Charli just being playful or was trouble brewing between the two pop stars? Social media speculation went into overdrive.
Swift Dances to Charli at the Grammy Awards (Winter 2025)
Even if there was some beef between Swift and Charli to close out 2024, you wouldn’t know by watching the 2025 Grammy Awards. The ceremony, held on Feb. 2, featured a high-energy performance from Charli that Swift was clearly a fan of given how rapturously Swift and Margaret Qualley (who introduced Charli at Variety’s Hitmakers event last year) were seen dancing in the crowd while drinking champagne. The clip of Swift rocking out to Charli went viral across various social media platforms. Both Swift and Charli were nominated for album of the year at the Grammys, although Beyonce took home the prize for “Cowboy Carter.”
Swift Releases “Actually Romantic” on Her Album “The Life of a Showgirl” (Fall 2025)
If Charli was only hinting at a potential beef with Swift in 2024, many people now think a feud between the two has all but been confirmed by Swift’s song “Actually Romantic,” which mentions whoever Swift is talking about “wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face.” That lyric alone has convinced many that Swift is obviously writing about Charli and “Sympathy Is a Knife.”
The song begins with the lyrics: “I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave / High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me / Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face.” But then Swift reveals the full conceit of the song, which is how flattering and even arousing it is to hear about someone thinking about you constantly (even if for negative reasons).
Swift explained the song in a track-by-track version of the album that’s streaming on Amazon Music (via E! News), saying: “‘Actually Romantic’ is a song about realizing that someone else has kind of had a one-sided adversarial relationship with you that you didn’t know about. And all of a sudden they start doing too much, and they start letting you know that, actually, you’ve been living in their head rent free and you had no idea.”
“It’s presenting itself as them sort of resenting or having a problem with you, but taking that and you just accepting that as love,” Swift added. “Your just accepting it as attention and affection. How flattering that someone has made you such a big part of their reality and you didn’t even think about this. It’s actually pretty romantic if you really, really think about it.”