Taylor Swift dropping a diss track aboutCharli XCX was not on my 2025 bingo card.
With Taylor Swift releasing The Life Of A Showgirl, we’ve all been busy reading into the lyrics of her 12 new tracks. The big surprise is that Swift appears to have written a snarky track that fans believe is levelled at her fellow pop star, Charli XCX.
“I heard you call me ‘boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got your brain,” Swift’s track ‘Actually Romantic’ begins. “High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me.” But why would Swiftie’s think this is about Charli XCX?
Now, we at marie claire don’t like pitting women against each other. It’s our sole wish—for the peace of pop music fanbases, if nothing else—that there is nothing to see here. Or, at the very least, we hope both of these powerhouse musicians are in on the joke, and we can expect them to ‘work it out on the remix’ in the bonus tracks.
But now the question has been raised: is there really a “feud” between Taylor Swift and Charli XCX? Or is this just another case of the internet connecting dots that don’t exist? Here’s what we know.
Why Do Fans Think Taylor Swift’s Lyrics Are About Charli XCX?
To clarify—nobody knows if this really is about Charli XCX. But if you’re looking to unravel the speculation, you’re in the right place. For the most part, Swifties appear to have seized on the song’s first verse:
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
Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face
Some people might be offended
Conclusions that these lyrics are about Charli have a lot to do with her ‘Brat’ persona as a party girl who writes sweaty pop-dance tracks. The second line, meanwhile, appears to reference Swift’s relationship with the 1975 frontman Matty Healy, whose bandmate is Charli’s husband, George. The pair are confirmed friends, with Healy attending Charli and George’s wedding this year.
The third line could reference Charli’s track ‘Sympathy is a knife’, in which she wrote: “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show” — a lyric Swiftie’s also assumed was about Swift and were indeed very “offended”.
Where Did The Feud Rumours Start?
Tensions (or at least, the perception of them) began all the way back in 2018, when Charli XCX opened for Taylor Swift on the Reputation tour. While this was a major career moment for both popstars, Charli later said in an interview with Pitchfork that it felt like she was “getting up onstage and waving to five-year-olds.” Swifties took it as shade, prompting Charli to clarify that she meant no offence.
She Tweeted: “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.”
Time moved on, and in May 2023, Taylor began dating The 1975 frontman, Matty Healy. Charli’s now-husband, George Daniel, is the 1975 drummer. Given Healy and Swift only dated for a month or so, it’s not known if Taylor and Charli crossed paths during that time. However, it does serve as confirmation that the two were in each other’s orbit. This leads us on to… Brat summer.
What Charli XCX Lyrics Are About Taylor Swift?
In her Brat track ‘Sympathy Is A Knife’, some of Charli’s lyrics raised eyebrows. Lines like “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show” and “I hope they break up quick” led fans to speculate that Charli was referencing Taylor.
Charli again shut down suggestions of a feud, saying the song was not a diss toward Swift, but rather about her own internalised jealousy and anxiety. “People are gonna think what they want to think,” she told the publication. “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.”
Meanwhile, Swift went on to praise Charli’s songwriting. In a 2025 Vulture interview, she gushed about being “blown away” by Charli’s melodic sensibilities and called her writing “surreal and inventive.”
With little to no drama in between, this brings us up to speed with ‘Actually Romantic’. With Taylor unlikely to provide commentary on the track’s real meaning, we can only look to XCX for clarification. Either way, here’s hoping a collab is on the cards.
READ: Every Song On Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’, Explained
