Charli xcx may have joined the long list of people that Taylor Swift has complained about via the medium of song.
“I heard you call me "Boring Barbie" when the coke's got you brave,” Swift sings on Actually Romantic, the 15th track on Swifts 12th studio album The Life of a Showgirl.
The song title mirrors that of Everything is Romantic on Charli xcx’s smash hit album Brat and appears to confirm the fan theory that Sympathy is a Knife was about the British singer’s complicated feelings about Swift.
“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,” Swift sings. “How many times has your boyfriend said / "Why are we always talking 'bout her?"
On Sympathy is a Knife, Charli xcx unpacks her emotional response to a woman who she feels is the “opposite” of her. “This one girl taps my insecurities / Don't know if it's real or if I'm spiraling,” she sings.
“One voice tells me that they laugh / George says, I'm just paranoid,” adds Charli. “Don't wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend's show / Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick.”
George is George Daniel, Charli’s now husband (the couple recently wed in Hackney and Sicily) and the drummer from English band The 1975. Matty Healy, Swift’s ex-boyfriend, is the frontman.
Fans had long speculated that Swift was they woman Charli was less than thrilled to have backstage at The 1975 gigs, and Swift appears to have confirmed this.
Although it suggests Swift lacks some reading comprehension despite claiming to be America’s English teacher — Charli was clearly singing about the struggle of being negatively compared (even in just her own head) to a more established artist with an entirely different and squeaky clean brand.
Swift also took the opportunity to confirm that she is indeed laughing, she claims, at Charli’s insecurities. “And I know you think it comes off vicious / But it's precious, adorable,” Swift sings on Actually Romantic. “Like a toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse/ That's how much it hurts.”
It’s a big about face from Swift, who had previously been highly complimentary of Charli’s work in public. “I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities,” Swift told New York Magazine in 2024. “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. “
Charli xcx joined Swift for her Reputation Tour in 2018 as her opening act. The British singer later told Pitchfork she was “really grateful” for the opportunity” but that “as an artist, it kind of felt like I was getting up on stage and waving to five-year-olds."
Four years later, Charli xcx fans accused Swift of blocking Brat from the top spot in the music charts by releasing a variation of her 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department.
That was also the album that Swift used to dissect her relationship with Matty Healy. After the breakup with Swift, Healy moved on with the model Gabbriette Bechtel, a friend of Charli xcx who gets a namecheck on her song 360 on the Brat album. Was it Healy that told Swift Charli gave him a high five when they broke up?
Given that Charli is now married to Daniels, Healy is engaged to Bechtel, and Swift is engaged to Travis Kelce, it feels like these 30-somethings should probably move on from any previous backstage tension.
But Swift loves to bear a grudge, and Charli xcx is the latest target. We may not have had many references to London in Swift’s latest album, but it seems some of its residents are still living rent free in her head.
