Take this with a grain of salt.
Something’s infiltrated the pop water lately. Something that’s making everyone… unhinged. Combative. This past week, beefs have broken out among pop’s A-list signaling that the era of playing it cool and even subtweeting is over. On Tuesday, Cardi B and Nicki Minaj reignited their years-long feud on X with direct barbs (no pun intended) that quickly, and disturbingly, escalated into territory about their family and children. Now it seems something could be brewing among two other players of music’s elite class: Taylor Swift and Charli xcx.
On Thursday, leaked and unverified photos of alleged lyrics from Swift’s song “Actually Romantic,” off her upcoming album The Life of a Showgirl that’s dropping on Friday, began circulating online. Almost immediately, fans began speculating that they appear to be targeting one brat party princess.
Some of the lines seem telling, centering around a person that Swift implies knows her ex: “High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me.” Should the ex Swift is referring to be The 1975’s Matty Healy, he’s bandmates with Charli xcx’s husband George Daniel. And then there’s a party drug-focused call out that also feels pointed: “I heard you called me ‘boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave.” But one of the more convincing lines of connection lies in the song title itself: “Actually Romantic” — a real, confirmed title on Swift’s album. Squint and you could read it as a reference to Charli xcx’s popular brat track “Everything’s Romantic.” Of course, take all of this with a heavy grain of salt.
Depending on the validity of these lyrics, “Actually Romantic” could be one of the more scathing tracks Swift’s written in her career joining the ranks of “Vigilante Shit,” “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” “Look What You Made Me Do,” and “thanK you aIMee” (famously speculated to be about Kim Kardashian). But there is some merit to the idea that Swift could be writing to the “360” singer.
Charli xcx’s fans have long speculated that the brat track “Sympathy is a Knife” is about Swift. On the song, Charli sings about someone who makes her self-conscious when she sees them “backstage at my boyfriend’s show,” and that she hopes they “break up quick” with their boyfriend. (As a side note, it’s amusing to think that so much of Swift and Charli’s interactions could’ve been filtered solely through their boyfriends.) That song, however, is less of an outright diss and focuses more about managing insecurities especially when you’re surrounded by the upper echelon of celebrities.
Charli xcx herself said in an interview with New York Magazine that there are no diss tracks on brat. And in the same article, Swift herself praised Charli, telling NY Mag: “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 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.”
Should those lyrics of “Actually Romantic” ring true things have clearly changed in the Swift camp. On Friday, I guess the world will find out for sure.