THE RUNDOWN
- Fans are convinced Taylor Swift’s “Actually Romantic” is a diss track about Charli XCX.
- Swift added fuel to the rumors by tucking a Charli XCX Easter egg into her art for the single.
- The two artists have over a decade of history.
Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl has many love songs about her fiancé, Travis Kelce—and one surprising diss track that seems to take aim at Charli XCX: “Actually Romantic.” The song appears to be a response to Charli’s 2024 Brat track rumored to be about Swift, “Sympathy is a knife.”
“Actually Romantic” isn’t exactly Swift’s most subtle piece of songwriting. The title itself seems to be a play on of Charli’s Brat track “Everything is Romantic,” and its lyrics reference the same subjects “Sympathy is a knife” did. (See a full breakdown here.)
But Swift tucked in a telling Easter egg that points to Charli in the track’s visualizer video. In the art used, Swift lounges while holding a red apple. Charli has a viral Brat track called “Apple.”
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The two artists have over a decade of history together. In 2015, Swift brought Charli onstage to perform “Boom Clap” together during her 1989 World Tour’s stop in Toronto.
Three years later, Charli notably opened for Swift on the Reputation Tour. In 2019, Charli made headlines when she spoke to Pitchfork about the experience: “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.” She added that she’d no longer open for artists: “I’ve done so much of it, and it really cemented my status as this underdog character, which I like now. But I need to just own my own fucking shit finally.”
As fans wondered if they were feuding, Charli clarified her remarks were taken out of context. She meant “absolutely no shade” to Swift, she wrote on X. “As I say in the article and have said many times before, I am extremely grateful to Taylor for inviting me to open for her. She’s one of the biggest artists of my generation, and the Reputation Tour was one of the biggest tours in history.”
In 2023, Swift and Charli were both romantically involved with members of The 1975: Charli was dating her now-husband, George Daniel, and Swift had a brief fling with Matty Healy.
In Charli’s “Sympathy is a knife,” she sings about not wanting to be around someone connected to her partner’s band: “I don’t wanna share the space / I don’t wanna force a smile / This one girl taps my insecurities / Don’t know if it’s real or if I’m spiraling.” Later in the track, she adds, “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show / Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick.”
Fans linked the track to Swift, but Charli dismissed the theories in her August 2024 New York Magazine cover story: “People are going to think what they want to think. That song is about me and my feelings and my anxiety and the way my brain creates narratives and stories in my head when I feel insecure and how I don’t want to be in those situations physically when I feel self-doubt.
“Actually Romantic” begins with Swift calling out the song’s subject for rooting for a breakup: “I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave / High-fived my ex and then said you’re glad he ghosted me / Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face.”
She wrote the track the summer that Brat came out. Around that same time, she also spoke to New York Magazine for its Charli story, praising the English star’s music: “I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities since I first heard ‘Stay Away’ in 2011. Her writing is surreal and inventive, always.”
She added that Charli “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.”
Read a full lyric breakdown of “Actually Romantic” here.
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.elle.com ’
