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Taylor Swift has been roasted by Charli XCX fans after she appeared to diss her in her new song, Actually Romantic – despite dancing to her performance at the Grammys.
The former tour mates appear to be at the centre of a growing feud, thanks to her seemingly pointed words about Charli’s ‘coke habit’ in the track which features on Taylor’s new album, The Life Of A Showgirl.
Sharing a strikingly similar title to Charli’s 2018 track Everything Is Romantic, Taylor sings: ‘I heard you call me “Boring Barbie” when the coke’s got you brave.’
Many listeners interpreted as a pointed jab the singer, who has openly referenced drug use in her own music.
In February, Taylor was seen dancing as Charli sang Von Dutch at this year’s Grammy Awards – where her album Brat was nominated for a whopping eight gongs.
Fan’s shared their thoughts on social media and claimed Taylor was ‘never a feminist’ and branded her lyrics as ‘ridiculously corny.’
They wrote on X: ‘Taylor Swift making a diss track towards Charli xcx just proves she was never a feminist and released versions only to block women on billboard’;
‘F*** you, Taylor “Boring Barbie” Swift. Just admit you’re jealous of Charli xcx’; ‘Taylor’s new album attempting to diss Charli but the lyrics are ridiculously corny’
‘Charli could make The Life of a Showgirl but Taylor couldn’t make Brat and that’s all there is to it really’;
‘I’m sorry but the life of a showgirl is one of Tay’s weakest albums in my opinion. It’s pretty basic and I don’t understand the random Charli diss.’
Meanwhile, others disagreed adding: ‘Some people are getting way too brave about this album. Taylor’s worst song is still better than Charli’s best song mind you’;
‘The way Taylor was dancing her a** off to Charli’s performance knowing damn well she has a whole song written about her waiting to be released she’s so funny I love her.’
Daily Mail has contacted Taylor’s representative for comment.
Taylor’s lyrics include: ‘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’ – seemingly a reference to Charli’s friendship with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy, whom Taylor briefly dated in 2023.
She also hints that the singer in question is seemingly obsessed with her, adding: ‘But it’s actually sweet / All the time you’ve spent on me / It’s honestly wild.’
The pair have known each other for years – with Taylor bringing Charli out as a support act on her 2018 reputation tour – but, more recently, many have speculated there is growing bad blood between the pair.
Charli, whose real name is Charlotte Emma Aitchison, is married to George Daniels from the 1975, meaning she has grown closer with his bandmate Matty in recent years.
Matty himself is now engaged to model Gabbriette Bechtel, a long-time friend of Charli who has previously appeared in her music videos.
Charli, George, Matty and Gabbriette recently enjoyed a beach trip together as a four on a beach, before Charli and George tied the knot in a stunning ceremony in Sicily last month – a move that seems far removed from her former tour mate.
During Taylor’s 2018 Reputation stadium tour, Charli opened for the 14-time Grammy Award winner on more than 50 nights.
But the first hint of trouble seemed to brew the following year in 2019, as while speaking to Pitchfork, Charli said: ‘As an artist, it kind of felt like I was getting up onstage and waving to 5-year-olds.’
She went on to say following the tour she it made her decide to never open for anyone again.
Charli added: ‘I’ve done so much of it, and it really cemented my status as this underdog character, I need to just own my own f***ing s*** finally.’
Following backlash, she later took to her social media to say her comments had been taken out of context, insisting: ‘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.
‘She’s one of the biggest artists of my generation and the Reputation tour was one of the biggest tours in history.’
She said that, prior to the tour, she had been playing ’18+ club shows’ and performing for ‘all ages’ had been ‘new to me’.
Taylor Swift’s biggest feuds from Katy Perry to Scooter Braun
As Taylor Swift releases her 12th studio album The Life Of A Showgirl and a fresh feud with Charli XCX, the Daily Mail takes a look at some of her biggest beefs.
Former BFF Blake Lively
Taylor Swift’s squad took one of its biggest hits to date as after she allegedly ended her longtime friendship with Blake Lively in the wake of her escalating legal drama with Justin Baldoni.
But the 35-year-old pop superstar has seemingly grown apart over the years from multiple friends from whom she once seemed inseparable.
Taylor’s latest alleged falling-out with Blake comes after the Daily Mail exclusively reported that the 37-year-old Gossip Girl star had threatened to leak embarrassing private text messages from her former bestie unless the songstress agreed to publicly back her in the ongoing feud with her It Ends With Us costar and director, Justin Baldoni.
Back in May, a representative for the pop star issued a blistering statement denying any involvement in Blake’s on-set drama with Justin after his legal team subpoenaed her text messages to use as potential evidence in his $400million defamation suit against Blake, her husband Ryan Reynolds and her publicist in response to the sexual harassment lawsuit she previously filed against him.
Former power couple Kim Kardashian and Kanye West
The feud between Taylor and former power couple Kim Kardashian and Kanye West appears to trace back to the 2016 release of West’s The Life Of Pablo.
In that album’s song Famous, Kim’s ex-husband raps: ‘I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b**** famous.’
The line, which alludes to when the 46-year-old rapper interrupted Taylor’s win at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, was supposedly passed on to the songstress for approval, but she denies ever giving it the OK.
Taylor said she had been contact about the song, but she was ‘never made aware of the actual lyric, “I made that b**** famous.”‘
In an effort to prove Kanye’s version, Kim shared an edited clip from the studio of him calling up Taylor and seemingly getting her approval.
However, the clip shows him conveying the idea, more than the specific lyrics, and when the complete call later leaked it made it clear that the use of ‘b****,’ which seemed to be a major issue for Taylor, was left out completely.
Taylor’s towering model friend Karlie Kloss
Taylor and Karlie Kloss, 32, seemingly became the closest of friends beginning sometime around early 2012, the year that Taylor released her blockbuster album Red.
The two towering blondes showed off their strong connection later the following year when Taylor performed at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and she made a repeat appearance in 2014 that culminated with her and Karlie holding hands as they walked the runway in black lace.
But Taylor’s most overzealous fans began to wonder if the friends were growing apart beginning around 2017, when Karlie was seen spending time with Kendall Jenner on the fourth of July, instead of hanging out with Taylor like she did the year before.
Some fans viewed Karlie spending time with her fellow catwalk fixture as a personal affront, as Kendall is the half-sister of Kim Kardashian, who was at the time married to Taylor’s longtime nemesis Kanye West and had joined in on his feuding with Taylor over the years.
Although Karlie continued to drop stray social media posts to celebrate Taylor’s birthdays and claimed they were still friends in interviews in subsequent years, the two were rarely pictured together aside from a 2018 Instagram photo Karlie shared of the two posing backstage at one of Taylor’s Reputation World Tour stops.
Many fans took her connections to people Taylor has feuded with or had falling-outs with to be evidence that their friendship had fizzled out.
In early 2018, Karlie was spotted spending time with Taylor’s former friend Katy Perry as the two were in the midst of a since-quashed feud, and in 2019 she was spotted grinning ear-to-ear in a photo with former music manager Scooter Braun, who had become infamous for being part of a deal to buy up Taylor’s early master recordings.
Taylor’s fellow pop star Katy Perry
Taylor and Katy Perry’s friendship has taken a circuitous route, as they went from good friends to feuding ex-pals before patching up their tattered relationship.
Although the two never appeared to be as close as some of Taylor’s other friends, she and the I Kissed A Girl singer were spotted hanging out several times beginning in 2009, and they periodically shared friendly posts about each other on social media.
But the first cryptic hints that things had soured between the friendly acquaintances came about in 2014 as Taylor promoted her 1989 single Bad Blood.
In an interview with Rolling Stone at the time, Taylor admitted the song was inspired by another female performer.
‘For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not,’ Swift said in the interview. ‘She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I would think, “Are we friends, or did she just give me the harshest insult of my life?”‘
She added that the person ‘did something horrible’ that made them ‘straight-up enemies.’
Surprisingly, Taylor clarified that it didn’t involve cheating or romances, but instead was purely business-based.
‘She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me,’ she explained. ‘And I’m surprisingly non-confrontational — you would not believe how much I hate conflict. So, now I have to avoid her. It’s awkward, and I don’t like it.’
The interview alone might not have made it obvious that Taylor was referring to Katy, but the day after it was published, the California Gurls singer tweeted, ‘Watch out for the Regina George in sheep’s clothing…,’ referring to the Mean Girls character played by Rachel McAdams.
Katy left little doubt about what she was referring to when she later added, ‘If somebody is trying to defame my character, you’re going to hear about it.’
Then, in a 2015 Telegraph profile, Taylor confirmed bluntly that she was feuding with Katy when she said she was ‘never going to talk about her’ in her interviews.
‘I have my friends. I have my enemies,’ she added.
Justin Bieber’s former manager Scooter Braun
Scooter Braun and Swift had a huge public fallout in 2019 after he shelled out $300m on the rights to her first six studio albums.
At the time, Scooter was the new owner of Taylor’s record label, Big Machine Records – and a heartbroken Swift then re-recorded five of those albums in response, re-marketing them as ‘Taylor’s Version.’
Justin Bieber’s old manager Braun’s company Ithaca Holdings bought the catalog in 2019 before Shamrock acquired it from him a year later.
Taylor eventually bought back her music catalog from Shamrock in May of this year
Taylor’s actress friend Jaime King
Once of Taylor’s lower-profile friendships has been with the Sin City actress Jaime King, 46.
The two reportedly struck up a friendship after meeting at a post-Golden Globes party in 2014, and Jaime subsequently became a regular fixture in Taylor’s squad from then on despite being a decade older than the pop genius.
Their connection was apparently strengthened, as Jaime’s then-husband Kyle Newman went on to direct Taylor’s Style music video the following year.
They were reportedly so close after just a year that the Hart Of Dixie actress asked Taylor to be her son Leo’s godmother in 2015.
But shortly afterward, Jaime’s public appearances with Taylor began to dry up, and the two haven’t not been pictured together in recent years.
In March of this year, a source told The Sun that Taylor and Jaime ‘do not speak’ regularly anymore and are no longer ‘close,’ though what caused them to allegedly drift apart is unclear.
Brief friendship flings with Dianna Agron and Hailee Steinfeld
Taylor has also had friendships that burned brightly for only a short time.
Beginning in 2011, she and the Glee star Dianna Agron were seen hanging out, and she became a regular part of Taylor’s squad by 2012.
That was the year Taylor released her massively successful album Red, and fans detected multiple hints in the song lyrics and packaging that seemed to allude to her friendship with the actress.
But in 2013, unfounded rumors of a romantic relationship between the began to spread in response to a fake article that spread on social media.
The two were still seen together in public a few times afterward, but the last time they were photographed interacting was at the 2014 American Music Awards.
That year, Taylor also released the Alice In Wonderland–themed breakup song Wonderland on a deluxe edition of her hit 1989 album, which led to fan chatter that the song may have been inspired by Dianna, as she had previously spoken about her love for Lewis Carroll’s absurdist children’s novels.
By the time Taylor filmed her video for the 1989 single Bad Blood in 2015, the actress was not included among the squad members featured or named in the video.
But Sinners star Hailee Steinfeld was, after they got close at the same Golden Globes after-party where Taylor met Jaime King in 2014.
Hailee was regularly pictured with Taylor throughout 2015, as she made a habit of bring her evolving squad with her to awards shows and even to her own concerts.
But the True Grit actress seemingly disappeared from the pop star’s entourage almost as quickly as she joined it.
Despite that, there don’t appear to have been indications of a falling out, and Taylor reportedly made a point to ‘like’ a 2024 Instagram post in which Hailee announced her engagement to Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
The move stood out to fans, as she is selective about what she offers a ‘like’ to on social media.
