Charli XCX might be letting her music do the talking amid her rumored feud with Taylor Swift.
The “Girl, so confusing” hitmaker recently sparked speculation after sharing a cryptic video from inside a recording studio, just as fans continue dissecting Taylor’s latest album The Life of a Showgirl for potential digs aimed her way.
— Charli (@charli_xcx) October 5, 2025
On Oct. 5, Charli posted a five-second clip on X (formerly Twitter) that showed an engineer working at a mixing board while haunting string instruments built up in the background. The clip ended with two quick notes, leaving fans curious about what the “Vroom Vroom” singer was hinting at. Charli, whose real name is Charlotte Emma Aitchison, added to the mystery by captioning the post with just a simple heart emoji, no further explanation.
The timing of Charli’s post immediately caught fans’ attention. Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl dropped on Oct. 3, and one of its tracks, “Actually Romantic,” quickly stirred conversation online. Listeners speculated that the song might be directed toward Charli, especially after some drew parallels between Taylor’s lyrics and Charli’s 2024 song “Sympathy Is a Knife,” from her critically acclaimed album brat.
Taylor sings in Actually Romantic, “I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave. High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me. Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face.” Fans were quick to connect those lyrics to Charli’s song, in which she admits to feeling jealous and insecure about another woman’s connection to her partner.
“Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show,” Charli sings in Sympathy Is a Knife. “Fingers crossed behind my back / I hope they break up real quick.” The lines raised eyebrows when the track first dropped, as many believed it referenced Taylor’s past relationship with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy. Charli, who is married to Matty’s bandmate George Daniel, denied that the song was meant as a personal attack and described it instead as a reflection of her own insecurities.
However, with Taylor’s new lyrics appearing to mirror that narrative, fans on both sides have reignited rumors of tension between the two pop stars.
In response to the speculation, Taylor, 35, offered insight into Actually Romantic through Amazon Music’s “Track by Track Version” of The Life of a Showgirl. “It’s a song about realizing that someone else has had a one-sided adversarial relationship with you that you didn’t know about,” she explained. “All of a sudden, they start doing too much and letting you know you’ve been living in their head rent free without realizing it.”
Taylor continued, adding, “It’s actually pretty romantic if you think about it, how flattering that someone has made you such a big part of their reality, and you didn’t even think about them that much.”
While neither artist has directly addressed the alleged feud, Charli’s recent post has only intensified curiosity. Whether her studio teaser is a subtle response to Taylor or just a peek into her next creative project remains to be seen.
For now, fans are keeping a close eye on both stars’ next moves, and if the music world has taught us anything, it’s that pop rivalries often make for the most compelling tracks.
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