The Taylor Swift and Charli XCX Drama, Explained

If you are even remotely online, you will have heard the discourse surrounding Taylor Swift's alleged diss track about Charli XCX on her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl. But what's the deal? Are they really beefing? And if so, can they work it out on the remix? We break down the rumors and unpack what's actually going on.

Swift's fans have long been known to pick at the artist's lyrics with a fine-tooth comb, set on getting to the bottom of every hidden meaning, whether there is one or not. Early on in her career, Swift included clues in her lyric booklets, capitalizing certain letters to reveal secret messages, while today the hints have expanded to talk show appearances, Instagram captions and other public moments. This has led to fans investigating everything Swift does to try and figure out who she's singing about and what the meanings are.

In her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, the track "Actually Romantic" has attracted a lot of attention, particularly the lyrics: "I heard you call me 'Boring Barbie' when the coke's got you brave." Later adding, "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…" And finally, going on to say that the attention is "Actually romantic."

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

Fans have been quick to suspect that the lyrics are about Charli XCX, who supported Swift on her Reputation World Tour back in 2018. While the pair seemed to have been good friends, both complimenting each other publicly and seen dancing together at award parties, rumors of tensions have been surfacing for a while. After opening for Swift on the Reputation tour, Charli was quoted as saying, "It kind of felt like I was getting up onstage and waving to five-year-olds," a comment which she later apologized for.

The rumors were particularly prevalent after Charli released her acclaimed Brat album in 2024. One track in particular, "Sympathy Is a Knife," seemed to reference her relationship with Swift, sharing feelings of insecurity around her while also potentially referencing Swift's brief romance with The 1975 lead singer Matty Healy, bandmate of Charli's husband, George Daniel. (And is best friends with Healy's fiancé, Gabbriette.) "Don't wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend's show," Charli sang on the tune. "Fingers crossed behind my back. I hope they break up real quick."

However, when Brat dropped, Charli directly addressed the online chatter in a "brat PSA" on TikTok. "Aside from 'Von Dutch', the other tracks in question aren’t diss tracks," Charli explained. "They’re really just about how it’s so complicated being an artist, especially a female artist, where you are pitted against your peers and also expected to be best friends with every single person constantly, when if you’re not, you’re deemed a bad feminist."

"That, to me is just like, such an unrealistic expectation. So yeah, these songs are kind of about how as a woman, as an artist, some days you can feel on top of the world, some days you can feel unbelievably insecure, other days you can feel highly competitive. Sometimes you can feel like literal trash. And it’s really emotional and it’s complicated to deal with, and we’re not supposed to talk about it, but these songs do talk about it. And I’ll probably chastised about it, but whatever, it’s reality."

@charlixcxbrat psa!♬ original sound - Charli XCX

Still, after all this time, the internet is finding it hard to believe Swift's "Actually Romantic" isn't a direct response to "Everything Is Romantic." Adding fuel to the fire, in an introduction on Amazon Music, Swift shared the meaning behind her track, saying it's "a song about realizing that someone else has kind of had a one-sided, adversarial relationship with you that you didn't know about."

Since then, Charli XCX posted a cryptic video to Instagram, confirming she's back in the studio. Could this be a rebuttal track? Here's hoping they work it out on the remix...

For more music news, catch up about the latest here.

Click here to view full gallery at Hypebae