Boom, clap. Taylor Swift is firing back at a hater and fans on social media think it may be fellow singer Charli XCX.
In the track “Actually Romantic,” Swift reframes insults and petty jabs from an enemy, like being called “Boring Barbie,” into a backhanded love letter.
And fans should have seen the line “Hadn’t thought of you in a long time / But you keep sending me funny valentines” coming, after the Spotify “The Life of a Showgirl” exhibit in New York City included a personalized Valentine’s Day card.
Fans of both teams took to X to share their approval or disapproval of track 7 on Swift’s new album released Oct. 3.
@mirrorbull tweeted: “the lyrics to actually romantic are crazyyy coming from tay… oh charli’s DONE!”
@easylovxr said: “this is such a evil thing to do to an industry peer 🙁 we stand with charli xcx of course.”
Charli, who wrote a song called “Everything is Romantic,” performed with Swift as an opening act during the Reputation Stadium Tour. She drew backlash in 2019 after remarks in a Pitchfork interview likened performing for Swift’s audience to entertaining “5-year-olds.”
“I’m really grateful that (Taylor) asked me on that tour,” Charli said. “But as an artist, it kind of felt like I was getting up onstage and waving to 5-year-olds.”
Charli later attempted to clarify her comments in a tweet.
“People on the Internet have taken something I said out of context,” she wrote. “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.”
Ever since the Reputation Tour, there have been squabbles between the two stars’ fandoms. In September, Charli married George Daniel, the drummer of the band 1975. The band’s frontman is Matty Healy, who Swift dated in 2023.
After Charli released “Sympathy is a Knife” in 2024, fans thought these lines may have been about Swift: “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show / Fingers crossed behind my back / I hope they break up quick.”
Swift praised Charli in New York Magazine in 2024 shortly after saying, “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.”
‘And baby, that’s show business’
If Swift turned heartbreak into “The Tortured Poets Department,” she’s turning the spotlight on glamour, glitz and full-on showbiz for her 12th era, “The Life of a Showgirl.” The pop superstar dropped the album announcement on Aug. 13 while on Travis Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast, surprising fans as her website simultaneously updated with a sparkling cover image of her submerged in bathwater donning a bedazzled corset.
“My day ends with me in a bathtub, not usually in a bedazzled dress,” Swift told Jason Kelce during the podcast on the inspiration behind her opulent and vivacious era. “I wanted to glamorize all the different aspects of how (the Eras Tour) felt.”
Blistered heels and sore joints from her three hour concert didn’t slow her down as she flew in and out of Sweden between European stops to collaborate with longtime producers Max Martin and Shellback on the 12 tracks. The trio worked together on her “1989” and “Reputation” albums along with some “Red” songs.
Travis couldn’t hide his excitement on the podcast.
“That’s a banger,” he said of “Cancelled!,” later adding that the entire album is filled with “banger after banger.”
The other 11 tracks are “The Fate of Ophelia,” “Elizabeth Taylor,” “Opalite,” “Father Figure,” “Eldest Daughter,” “Ruin the Friendship,” “Actually Romantic,” “Wi$h Li$T,” “Wood,” “Honey” and the title track.
“This album is going to make you dance,” Travis told Jason. Swift described her fiancé as a “human exclamation point.”
“The Life of a Showgirl” is Swift’s first chapter since she bought her masters. “All of the music I’ve ever made now belongs to me,” she said in a letter posted to her website after fully acquiring her catalog from Shamrock Capital in May.
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Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network’s Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
