Taylor Swift has poured water on the suggestion of a feud between herself and Charli XCX.
Over the weekend, New York journal printed a brand new interview concerning the British star’s big success in 2024 off the again of her hit album Brat.
However what could have come as a shock to some followers is that it additionally contained some glowing feedback from the Shake It Off singer.
“I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities since I first heard ‘Keep Away’ in 2011,” Taylor advised the journal.
“Her writing is surreal and creative, at all times. She simply takes a tune to locations you wouldn’t anticipate it to go, and she or he’s been doing it constantly for over a decade. I like to see onerous work like that repay.”
So, why precisely do folks assume there could have been beef between the pair?
Charli truly supported Taylor on her Fame stadium tour again in 2017, telling Pitchfork two years later: “I’m actually grateful that she requested me on that tour. However as an artist, it form of felt like I used to be getting up on stage and waving to five-year-olds.”
Extra lately, there was widespread hypothesis {that a} monitor on Charli’s album, Sympathy Is A Knife, was concerning the 14-time Grammy winner.
“This one lady faucets my insecurities, don’t know if it’s actual or if I’m spiraling,” Charli sings within the opening verse, later including on the refrain: “I couldn’t even be her if I attempted I’m reverse, I’m on the opposite aspect.”
One other extra specific lyric sees Charli lament that she doesn’t “wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s present”, with Taylor having beforehand dated Matty Healy, the bandmate of Charli’s fiancé George Daniel, for a brief interval in 2021.
“Individuals are gonna assume what they need to assume,” Charli advised New York journal of Sympathy Is A Knife.
“That tune is about me and my emotions and my nervousness and the best way my mind creates narratives and tales in my head after I really feel insecure and the way I don’t need to be in these conditions bodily after I really feel self-doubt.”
Requested if she ever thought of leaving out the “don’t wanna see her backstage” lyric, Charli responded: “No.”
Following an obvious pause, the Apple singer added: “You do the silence sport. However I do know that properly — the place you go silent and wish me to speak extra. However I don’t care about it being awkward. We’ll sit in silence.”
Charli launched Brat in June, and regardless of its acclaim and spectacular gross sales figures, it was held off the highest spot by yet one more iteration of Taylor’s newest album The Tortured Poets Division.
When Charli teamed up with Billie Eilish (one other artist who was blocked from a UK primary by a Tortured Poets reissue) final month, followers additionally speculated that sure lyrics (“You wanna guess what me and Billie have been textin’ about?”) might be interpreted as shade in direction of Taylor.
When followers at a Charli DJ set in Brazil started chanting “Taylor is lifeless” after their chart battle, Charli wrote on her Instagram story: “Can the individuals who do that please cease. On-line or at my reveals. It’s the reverse of what I would like and it disturbs me that anybody would assume there may be room for this on this group. I can’t tolerate it.”
