Um, Did Taylor Swift Just Release A Charli XCX Diss Track?
Can we work it out on the remix, guys?
It sounds like Taylor Swift has heard Charli XCX’s 2024 song “Sympathy Is a Knife”... and she’s brought out a blade of her own. One track on the pop star’s new album The Life of a Showgirl has raised fans’ eyebrows, since its lyrics very clearly seem to be taking aim at Swift’s former friend.
On “Actually Romantic,” Swift sings about someone who she’s heard has been bad-mouthing her and wishing her ill behind her back: “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.”
Swift recently opened up about an ex who ghosted her on her Tortured Poets Department track “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” which is strongly believed to be about Matty Healy. Charli XCX is famously close friends with Healy, who is in the band The 1975 with her husband George Daniel.
The most telling lyric of all is Swift singing, “Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face.” She seems to be referencing Charli’s song “Sympathy Is a Knife” in which the Brat singer laments a close friend’s girlfriend who makes her feel insecure: “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show / Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick.”
Elsewhere in “Actually Romantic,” Swift hints at her history with the person she’s singing about: “Hadn’t thought of you in a long time / But you keep sending me funny valentines.” Swift and Charli worked together in 2018 when Charli was an opener for Swift’s Reputation Tour. But they haven’t spent much time together since then. However, fans believed that Charli referenced Swift in the rollout of her 2024 album Brat.
Swift also brings up this person’s partner in “Actually Romantic,” imagining he must be tired of his girlfriend always mentioning Swift: “How many times has your boyfriend said, / ‘Why are we always talking about her?’” This seems to be another callback to Charli’s lines about her “boyfriend’s show” in “Sympathy Is a Knife.”
For now, there’s no real confirmation of who “Actually Romantic” is about, but it sure does seem like the knives are out — with sympathy nowhere in sight.
