{"id":471874,"date":"2025-10-03T19:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T19:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/471874\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T19:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T19:48:12","slug":"taylor-swift-charli-xcx-feud-timeline-after-actually-romantic-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/471874\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift, Charli xcx Feud Timeline After ‘Actually Romantic’ Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTaylor Swift<\/a> has dropped her 12th studio album, \u201cThe Life of a Showgirl<\/a>,\u201d and the hottest topic among many online is the song \u201cActually Romantic<\/a>.\u201d The seventh track on the new album has led to widespread speculation that Swift is dissing fellow pop star Charli xcx<\/a>. But how did we get here?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe two singers appeared to be on healthy ground last fall when Swift praised Charli\u2019s songwriting in a New York Magazine cover story <\/a>on Charli and her album, \u201cBrat.\u201d But now social media is convinced that Swift has her knives out for Charli on \u201cActually Romantic,\u201d where Swift calls out a singer who bashed her as a \u201cBoring Barbie\u201d while on cocaine. This singer also congratulated one of Swift\u2019s ex-boyfriends when he ghosted Swift. The internet is now wondering: are Swift and Charli feuding?<\/p>\n

\n\tHere\u2019s everything we know about their relationship so far.<\/p>\n

\n\tCharli Is an Opener on the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tFor all intents and purposes, Charli and Swift were on great terms in 2018 when Swift announced Charli and Camila Cabello would be the opening acts on the Reputation Stadium Tour. Charli performed at all dates of the tour from May to November of that year, totally more than 50 concerts, and she even joined Swift onstage with Cabello at serval stops to perform \u201cShake It Off\u201d live together.<\/p>\n

\n\tCharli Disses Swifties (2019)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThe first potential sign of bad blood between Charli and Swift came in an August 2019 Pitchfork feature,<\/a> which was published online shortly before Swift released the \u201cLover\u201d album. Charli took a shot at Swift\u2019s fans, ubiquitously known as Swifties, when she told the publication: \u201cI\u2019m 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.\u201d Swifties were not too thrilled.<\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor, Charli and The 1975 (2023)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor and Charli found themselves in the same orbit years later when they both were dating members of The 1975, the English\u00a0pop rock\u00a0band. Swift briefly dated lead singer Matty Healy starting around May 2023 while on The Eras Tour and right after her breakup to Joe Alwyn went public. Charli started dating drummer George Daniel a year prior, so naturally Taylor and Charli started crossing paths a lot more in summer 2023. Swift\u2019s fling with Healy allegedly only lasted around two months, while Charli and Daniels got married this summer.<\/p>\n

\n\tCharli Releases \u201cSympathy Is a Knife\u201d on Her Album \u201cBrat\u201d (Summer 2024)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCharli dropped the album \u201cBrat\u201d in June 2024 and captured the pop culture zeitgeist as several of the songs found the singer getting brutally honest about her relationship to the music industry and to fellow female pop stars (see Lorde and \u201cGirl So Confusing.\u201d) By the time \u201cBrat\u201d was released, Swift\u2019s relationship to Healy was long over and even inspired several songs off Swift\u2019s album \u201cThe Tortured Poets Department,\u201d which dropped in April before \u201cBrat\u2019s\u201d summer release.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne song from \u201cBrat\u201d is titled \u201cSympathy Is a Knife\u201d and is widely speculated to be about Swift, but the lyrics were not dissing whoever Charli was writing about. Instead, the song finds Charli being self-critical over how being in the orbit of a much famous singer (i.e. Swift) had negative effects on her mental health. As Charli sings: \u201cThis one girl taps my insecurities\/Don\u2019t know if it\u2019s real or if I\u2019m spiraling\u2026 I couldn\u2019t even be her if I tried \/ I\u2019m opposite, I\u2019m on the other side.\u201d If the song was about Swift, then it was all about criticizing Charli\u2019s own delusions and insecurities and not Swift herself.<\/p>\n

\n\tSwift Praises Charli\u2019s Songwriting (Fall 2024)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCharli\u2019s press blitz for \u201cBrat\u201d extended into the fall when she graced the cover of New York Magazine<\/a>. The story published October 11, 2024 and included a quote from Swift that was highly complimentary of the \u201cBrat\u201d singer: \u201cI\u2019ve been blown away by Charli\u2019s melodic sensibilities since I first heard \u2018Stay Away\u2019 in 2011. Her writing is surreal and inventive, always. She just takes a song to places you wouldn\u2019t expect it to go, and she\u2019s been doing it consistently for over a decade. I love to see hard work like that pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd yet, signs of potential bad blood between the two were starting to be called out online. Matty Healy announced his engagement to model Gabbriette in June 2024, with Charli telling New York Magazine: \u201cI\u2019ve always quietly thought they\u2019d be a good couple.\u201d And on the day Swift shared a positive review of \u201cThe Tortured Poets Department\u201d in April, Charli quote-tweeted it with the comment: \u201cEveryone\u2019s hype for the Sweat Tour!\u201d\u00a0Was Charli just being playful or was trouble brewing between the two pop stars? Social media speculation went into overdrive.<\/p>\n

\n\tSwift Dances to Charli at the Grammy Awards (Winter 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tEven if there was some beef between Swift and Charli to close out 2024, you wouldn\u2019t know by watching the 2025 Grammy Awards. The ceremony, held on Feb. 2, featured a high-energy performance from Charli that Swift was clearly a fan of given how rapturously Swift and Margaret Qualley (who introduced Charli at Variety\u2019s Hitmakers<\/a> event last year) were seen dancing <\/a>in the crowd while drinking champagne. The clip of Swift rocking out to Charli went viral across various social media platforms. Both Swift and Charli were nominated for album of the year at the Grammys, although Beyonce took home the prize for \u201cCowboy Carter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSwift Releases \u201cActually Romantic\u201d on Her Album \u201cThe Life of a Showgirl\u201d (Fall 2025)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIf Charli was only hinting at a potential beef with Swift in 2024, many people now think a feud between the two has all but been confirmed by Swift\u2019s song \u201cActually Romantic,\u201d which mentions whoever Swift is talking about \u201cwrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face.\u201d That lyric alone has convinced many that Swift is obviously writing about Charli and \u201cSympathy Is a Knife.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe song begins with the lyrics<\/a>: \u201cI heard you call me \u2018Boring Barbie\u2019 when the coke\u2019s got you brave \/ High-fived my ex and then you said you\u2019re glad he ghosted me \/ Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face.\u201d But then Swift reveals the full conceit of the song, which is how flattering and even arousing it is to hear about someone thinking about you constantly (even if for negative reasons).<\/p>\n

\n\tSwift explained the song in a track-by-track version of the album that\u2019s streaming on Amazon Music (via E! News<\/a>), saying: \u201c\u2018Actually Romantic\u2019 is a song about realizing that someone else has kind of had a one-sided adversarial relationship with you that you didn\u2019t know about. And all of a sudden they start doing too much, and they start letting you know that, actually, you\u2019ve been living in their head rent free and you had no idea.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s presenting itself as them sort of resenting or having a problem with you, but taking that and you just accepting that as love,\u201d Swift added. \u201cYour just accepting it as attention and affection. How flattering that someone has made you such a big part of their reality and you didn\u2019t even think about this. It\u2019s actually pretty romantic if you really, really think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n