Taylor Swift & Charli XCX Just Expertly Brushed Off Their Feud
Kevin Mazur
When Charli XCX released her uber-popular, highly-acclaimed sixth studio album brat earlier this summer, many online claimed that “Sympathy is a knife” was about Taylor Swift, and both stars have now been asked about the feud in a new story by Vulture.
As the new cover star of the publication, Charli XCX was asked whether or not her song was inspired by her relationship with Taylor Swift. (ICYMI: Charli and Swift toured in 2018 during Swift’s Reputation era. In 2019, Charli told Pitchfork she felt like she “was getting up onstage and waving to 5-year-olds” during her experiences with Swift, a statement she later apologized for.)
Fans started speculating that “Sympathy is a knife,” in which Charli compares herself to a bigger artist, could be about Swift mainly because of the lyrics: “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show / Fingers crossed behind my back / I hope they break up quick.”
Fans believed the lyrics could be about Swift’s short-lived fling with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy since Charli is engaged to the band’s drummer, George Daniel.
Speculation reached an all-time high after Charli quote-tweeted a post in which Swift shared a positive review of The Tortured Poets Department, with Charli adding: “everyone’s hype for the sweat tour!”
Though Charli later claimed there were “no diss tracks” on brat, the theories were writing themselves. “‘Von dutch’ kind of is, but the other tracks in question aren’t diss tracks,” Charli said in a video. “They are really just about how it’s so complicated being an artist, especially a female artist, where you are pitted against your peers but also expected to be best friends with every single person constantly. And if you are not, you are deemed a bad feminist.”
Now, Swift has been asked about the feud, and, of course, she expertly brushed it off. “I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities since I first heard ‘Stay Away’ in 2011,” Swift told New York Magazine. “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.”
For her part, Charli said in the interview that “people are gonna think what they want to think,” likewise brushing off speculation. “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,” she added.
Taylor Swift & Charli XCX Just Expertly Brushed Off Their Feud
Prior to the interview, Charli had already slammed online posts trying to pit her against Swift. “Can the people who do this please stop. Online or at my shows. It is the opposite of what I want and it disturbs me that anyone would think there is room for this in this community. I will not tolerate it,” she posted on IG stories in June, resharing a video of fans at a Charli-inspired DJ set in Brazil who were chanting, “Taylor is dead!”
“We’ve got past the point of the media always pitting women against one another,” Charli told The Guardian earlier that month in relationship to another brat track, "Girl, So Confusing,” which featured Lorde on its remix. “Relationships between women are super-complex and multi-layered,” Charli continued. "You can like someone and dislike them at the same time; you can feel jealous of somebody but they can still be your friend."
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
Want more great Culture stories from Teen Vogue? Check these out:
Solve the daily Crossword
