Taylor Swift has built a real empire, reigning over the music industry. However, she has always publicly supported other artists, especially fellow female artists, giving them a platform and praising their success, but it seems there’s no way to convince fans that she is a girl’s girl, even after her latest admission.
Fans are certain Swift and Charli XCX are feuding — although there’s absolutely no indication that is happening. Swift and the “360” singer go way back and have publicly supported each other over the years. Plus, Charli XCX also opened up for Swift during her Reputation Stadium Tour, alongside Camila Cabello, and the two joined Swift on stage at every show to perform together her hit song “Shake It Off.”
Rumors about the alleged feud started circulating after Charli’s sixth studio album, Brat, was released, a couple of months after Swift’s record-breaking The Tortured Poets Department. In one of the songs from Brat, “Sympathy Is a Knife,” Charli explains her fears of inadequacy and her complicated relationship with a fellow female artist in the music industry. She also admits to a competitive relationship in “Girl, So Confusing.” As Charli admitted the latter was about Lorde, but fans are sure she is somehow talking about Swift.
Further rumors were fueled when Swift announced new variants for The Tortured Poets Department during Brat‘s release week, only available in the U.K., Charli’s home country. The album, despite its massive cultural impact over the summer, debuted at No. 4, far away from Swift’s No. 1 record. However, the two are not feuding, as evidenced by their actions.
The first one to squish the feud rumors was Charli XCX, who heard the chants of people screaming “Taylor is dead” at one of her shows in Sao Paolo, Brazil. “Can the people who do this please stop. online or at my shows,” she shared on her Instagram story on June 23. “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.”
Swift has now publicly shown her support for her album in a new feature for New York Magazine. “I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities since I first heard “Stay Away” in 2011,” Swift gushed. “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.”
Charli declined to further explain her tracks, and noted, “People are gonna think what they want to think,” adding “that song is about me and my feelings and my anxiety and the way my brain creates narratives and stories in my head when I feel insecure and how I don’t want to be in those situations physically when I feel self-doubt.”
In a world where women struggle to lift each other up and show support, some fans do the opposite. Even though, at least publicly, both Swift and Charli XCX denied a feud, fans are constantly pitting the two women against each other for no real reason. As the interview went live, people online refused to believe Swift’s a girl’s girl and that her support was genuine, many going as far as claiming she was paid to speak up.
Just looking at how Swift stands up for every artist at any award show, how she praises the ones opening up on her tour, or simply showing her support, you would realize her words are genuine. On top of that, we have to remember that Swift is a billionaire, so money and other material things would hold no temptation; she can get her own bag.
Unfortunately, no matter what they say, some so-called fans would invent feuds where there aren’t, and don’t remember that all female singers have crowns and that there’s enough space for all of them. Instead of focusing their energy on pitting women against each other, they could learn that, if they don’t have anything nice to say, sometimes it’s better to say nothing at all.