Charli XCX's New Song "Persona" Seems To Be About Taylor Swift

The brat vs. showgirl feud appears to still be going strong, as Charli XCX’s new release “Persona” has fans convinced she’s expressing her frustration with the lyrical back-and-forth between herself and former friend Taylor Swift. In the song off Charli’s July 24 album Music, Fashion, Film, the singer calls out a fellow artist who isn’t being honest about her true feelings, lamenting that she can relate all too well to masking genuine emotions in favor of bolstering a public persona. The incisive lyrics have led fans to theorize “Persona” is Charli’s response to Swift’s 2025 song “Actually Romantic.”

“Persona” follows the meta, media-focused narrative of Music, Fashion, Film as Charli confronts the demands of putting on a false face for the world when trapped by fame. To illustrate her point, Charli addresses an inauthentic subject who she relates to, but has been frustrated by recently:

Sometimes I wonder if you realize the way you come across / It's kind of crazy / Wish you could be honest about your internal dialogue / It wouldn't faze me

The confessional lyrics seem to highlight the different approaches Charli and her frenemy take to songwriting, as the singer encourages the unnamed subject to experiment with more straightforward confessions. It brings to mind the dichotomy between Charli’s “Sympathy is a Knife,” her 2024 stream-of-consciousness reflection on how being in Swift’s unattainable celebrity sphere makes her insecure, and Swift’s “Actually Romantic,” a more surface-level diss about Charli’s apparent obsession with Swift.

Later in “Persona,” Charli describes the love-hate relationship she’d developed with this person:

You call mе your best friend to keep me at arm's lеngth / I'd write you a letter, but you'd probably burn it / Deflect and then shower me in adoration / You think you're so clever, I think you are too / You know I see you when you see me

This may be a reference to Swift praising Charli’s album Brat, despite the rumored lyrics about her. And it also seems to reference Charli’s history of friendship with Swift before their recent songs.

The overall takeaway from “Persona” is similar to Charli’s 2024 song “Girl, So Confusing,” which was confirmed to be about her uncertain relationship with Lorde. In the end, Charli can see her frenemy is just trying to keep up appearances in a field that’s built on public perception, which is something she relates to as well:

I gotta say, I do respect the commitment to the bit / Now, that's persona / We're both under the influence of life imitating art / And we both know it

While the drama seekers will find plenty of evidence to support a reading of “Persona” being aimed at Swift, it actually seems more likely that Charli is singing about an internal struggle — confronting her own pop-star “persona” from within. Although, fans may never get a concrete answer as to the track’s true inspiration.