Taylor Swift has addressed speculation that her song “Actually Romantic” is a diss track aimed at fellow pop star Charli XCX, explaining the lyrics are about a “one-sided, adversarial relationship”. The track appears on Swift’s 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, released last week.
Fans had linked the song to Charli’s 2024 track “Sympathy is a Knife”, which includes lyrics about a tense backstage encounter. Swift’s song opens with the line: “I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave.” In an audio breakdown for Amazon Music, Swift said the song is about “realising that someone else has kind of had a one-sided, adversarial relationship with you that you didn’t know about”.
She described it as “flattering that somebody has made you such a big part of their reality when you didn’t even think about this”, adding: “It’s actually pretty romantic if you really think about it.” Swift also discussed the song in a limited-run film released in cinemas on Friday, which earned an estimated $46m at the global box office over the weekend.
Charli XCX has not responded to the rumours. However, both artists have publicly supported each other in recent years. In June 2024, Charli condemned fans who chanted “Taylor Swift is dead” at her concert, calling it “the opposite of what I want”. In August 2024, Swift praised Charli’s “melodic sensibilities” in an interview with Vulture.
