Over the last few weeks, have you heard any new music playing in Bartol? Not that one song from “KPop Demon Hunters” – I’m talking about the new Taylor Swift album “The Life of a Showgirl,” released on October 3. Swifties aren’t the only people talking about this album, with listeners linking the track “Actually Romantic” to Charli xcx. Rumors about ruffled feathers between the two have been swirling since last summer, when her dynamic album “BRAT” was released with the track “Sympathy is a knife” describing feeling insecure around a more successful woman (allegedly Swift).
Nicole Ibrahim, a first-year nursing student at Simmons, said that upon first listening to “Actually Romantic,” the song felt like an “attack.” “I didn’t know anything about the actual premise of the song until I was scrolling on TikTok a day later,” she said.
Is Swift actually dissing Charli in “Actually Romantic?” Did Charli complain about Swift in “Sympathy is a knife?” Fans seem to think so, comparing everything about the two songs from track titles to specific lyrics.
“Actually Romantic” – yes, even the title!
One of the songs on “BRAT” is named “Everything is Romantic,” and has recently been gaining traction again after it was used in the trailer for the new “Wuthering Heights” film set to release in February. Fans believe that the track title itself may be a reference to this song from Charli’s album.
“I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave”
Charli has been known to lean into party and drug culture with her music and aesthetic vision. This includes lines such as, “Shall we have a little key? Shall we do a little line?” and “Bumpin’ that” in her song “365.” She also created a white powder-filled record variant for “BRAT.”
“High fived my ex, and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me”
Charli’s husband George Daniel is bandmates with Swift’s alleged ex, Matty Healy. Fans connect this alleged relationship to Swift’s writing in the song “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” where she sings “[Your friend] just ghosted you/Now you know what it feels like.” In “Sympathy is a knife,” Charli included the lyrics, “Don’t want to see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show/Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick,” possibly as a reference to the 1975 and Swift and Healy’s alleged relationship.
“Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face”
Although Charli does not say she’s sick of seeing anyone’s face in “Sympathy is a knife,” she did write, “Oh no, don’t know/Why I wanna buy a gun/Why I wanna shoot myself” to express the depth of her insecurities. She also included the lyric “I don’t wanna share the space/I don’t wanna force a smile,” which could be what Swift is referring to in this line from “Actually Romantic.”
There’s a clear difference between how each of the songs talk about the other and of the tone of the albums themselves. Swift’s new album did not have the lyrical quality that fans have come to expect from albums such as “folklore” and “evermore.” Disappointed fans have expressed similar feelings over social media, saying that Swift’s song feels like a plain diss track where Charli is vulnerable and authentic, while still providing a catchy beat.
The Charli versus Swift debate about these two songs is entirely fan-spurred. But if there’s any truth to the alleged feud, fans hope that the two can work it out on the remix.
