Explained: This is why people think Taylor Swift and Charli XCX have huge historic beef

After Taylor Swift said something nice about Charli XCX in a magazine, and Charli XCX seems to have teased that Swift will appear on the next Brat remix, people have decided that Swift and Charli’s beef is at an end. But why did people think the pop girlies had bad blood in the first place? We explain the history of the so-called beef between Taylor Swift and Charli XCX.

Charli XCX compared Swifties at the Reputation tour to five-year-olds

 In 2018, Charli XCX was an opening act for every show on Swift’s Reputation Stadium Tour. Charli XCX would perform a few of her hits including “Boom Clap” and “I Love It”, then later on she and Camilia Cabello would dance about to “Shake It Off” alongside Swift. In 2019, Charli revealed to Pitchfork magazine: “As an artist, it kind of felt like I was getting up onstage and waving to five-year-olds.”

Swifties were outraged online that they’d been compared to small children (those of them who weren’t small children, anyway). Charli tweeted a screenshot of her apologising in her Notes app.

just to clarify 💕💕 pic.twitter.com/KpNQQx9SK0

— Charli (@charli_xcx) August 6, 2019

People started saying ‘Sympathy is a knife’ is about Taylor

The brat song “Sympathy is a knife” is widely believed to be about Taylor Swift. Charli posted on X on 19th April 2024, the day that Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department came out, “Sympathy is a knife” with no other context. Mysterious.

sympathy is a knife

— Charli (@charli_xcx) April 19, 2024

When the song finally came out on 7th June, people were quick to notice parallels between the song and Taylor Swift.

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For context, Charli XCX is currently dating George Daniel, who is the drummer and producer in The 1975. Taylor Swift had a short-lived romance with his band member Ratty… sorry, Matty Healy in 2023. The song is seemingly about another pop star making Charli feel insecure. 

The song goes: “This one girl taps my insecurities / Don’t know if it’s real or if I’m spiralling / One voice tells me that they laugh / George says, “I’m just paranoid”.”

These lyrics are particularly sus: “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show

Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick.” 

People have interpreted this as meaning that Charli wanted Matty Healy and Taylor Swift to break up soon. And honestly, didn’t we all?

Charli’s album Brat could have been The 1

On 13th June, Charli’s album brat was poised to become the UK number one and dethrone Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department. According to Official Charts, there were only 1000 album sales between them. Swift then released yet more editions of The Tortured Poets Department – three UK-exclusive versions of the album with live recordings of the songs from The Eras Tour, which were only available for sale until midnight on 13th June. The Tortured Poets Department then stayed at the top of the UK charts. 

People have accused Swift of releasing additional album variants to block other pop girlies from the top spot. Swift revealed three new digital editions of The Tortured Poets Department including draft versions of “The Black Dog”, “Cassandra” and “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” on 16th May, the same day as Billie Eilish’s album Hit Me Hard and Soft came out. On 23rd May, when Hit Me Hard and Soft was a strong contender for number one, Swift dropped another three limited edition versions of The Tortured Poets Department called the Live From Paris Acoustic Collection. This coincided with an interview in which Eilish seemingly shaded Swift for releasing multiple physical editions of albums to boost sales and called three-hour concerts (such as The Eras Tour) “literally psychotic”.

People also dragged Swift for dropping yet two more album variants with live recordings on 16th August, which stopped Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess from reaching number one in the US.

At the time of writing (because who knows how many other vinyls Swift might have stashed away in the attics of her mansions), Swift has released 34 different versions of The Tortured Poets Department. I mean like it, but not that much.

‘Bully a Swiftie today’ shirts were spotted at Charli XCX’s concert

People at Charli XCX’s concerts have been spotted wearing tops with slogans such as life is short bully a Swiftie today!!” and “death to Taylor Swift”.

pic.twitter.com/yKNKSdJIDq

— shirts that go hard (@shirtsthtgohard) August 3, 2024

I’m not quite sure how Charli XCX is supposed to be responsible for her fans’ clothing choices, but Swifties still managed to take offence.

Charli XCX called out her fans for their behaviour on Instagram
(Image via Instagram)

At a Charli XCX concert in Brazil on 23rd June, the audience started chanting “A Taylor Morreu”, which is Portugese for “Taylor is dead”. Lovely. Charli then wrote on her Instagram story, “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.”

Related articles recommended by this author:

• All the major clues Charli XCX is dropping teasing that Taylor Swift is on the next Brat remix
• Charli XCX has spoken out against fans who were chanting ‘Taylor Swift is dead’ at her show
• Ready for it? Taylor Swift is apparently filming an Eras Tour documentary, and there’s proof

Feature image credit: Taylor Swift in the “Ready For It?” video via YouTube, and Charlie XCX in the “360” video via YouTube.