With the recent release of Taylor Swift’s brand new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” the history between her and a former friend, Charli XCX, has been dug up across social media. Following a supposed diss track on Swift’s new album, she and Charli have faced intense backlash. Let’s talk about it.
Taylor Swift has released her 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” which includes the song “Actually Romantic,” and the media has quickly speculated that this track is about fellow pop star, Charli XCX. This song includes digs suggesting that Charli called her “boring Barbie” while on cocaine. The song also has a lyric suggesting that the singer congratulated Matty Healy, one of Swift’s exes, for ghosting her back in 2023. This is just the most recent event in the two’s history; the two have actually publicly known each other since 2018, when Charli was announced to be an opening act on the Reputation Stadium Tour.
As far as we know, Swift and Charli were on great terms in 2018. Charli performed all her opening acts on the tour for more than 50 concerts, and even joined Swift on stage several times to perform their hit songs together. But all this changed when, in 2019, the first potential beef came to light shortly after Swift released her album “Lover.”. According to Variety, Charli made a dig at Taylor that left fans not too thrilled. “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.” After Charli had seemingly been friends with Taylor just a year prior, this left fans confused.
During the summer of 2024, Charli released the album “Brat,” which features a song titled “Sympathy is a Knife” that is believed to be about her own insecurities of being in the shadow of Taylor and how it takes a toll on her mental health. This song isn’t necessarily seen as a diss track and is not criticizing Swift, but with this album being remarkable for Charli’s unapologetic brutal honesty about her experience in the industry, it definitely left fans speculating.
The last known trace of this relationship between Charli and Taylor before Taylor’s new album was when Taylor applauded Charli’s songwriting on her album “Brat” in 2024, as well as dancing and cheering for Charli during her performance at the 2025 Grammys. This new song definitely leaves a grey area as to where the two stand now.
