Taylor Swift is shutting down Charli XCX fans' theories about bad blood between the two.
Swift shared a statement praising Charli in a New York Magazine profile of the "365" singer that published Monday.
"I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities since I first heard 'Stay Away' in 2011. Her writing is surreal and inventive, always," Swift told Vulture. "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."
For her part, Charli also denied referencing Swift in "Brat," her latest album that spawned a summer of lime green memes, was embraced by Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign and landed on former President Barack Obama's summer 2024 playlist. Fans thought lyrics from Track 3, "Sympathy is a knife," might detail Charli's feelings of jealousy toward Swift, with lyrics such as "Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show."
Charli is engaged to The 1975 drummer George Daniel; Swift was rumored last year to be dating the British band's frontman, Matty Healy, who is now engaged to Charli's friend Gabbriette Bechtel. Charlie was also one of Swift's Reputation Tour openers in 2018.
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"People are gonna think what they want to think," Charli told Vulture. "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."
Though neither artist has commented on the perceived rift, some fans have taken the theories too far, causing Charli to speak out against people eager to pit two women against each other.
"Can the people who do this please stop? Online or at my shows," Charli wrote in a June Instagram Story about fans chanting "Taylor is dead" in Portuguese at one of her shows, according to Deadline and Today.com. "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."
Charli opened up about some of the inspiration for "Sympathy," confessing to struggling with comparing her success as an artist to The 1975's.
"Sometimes I’d look onstage and be like, 'Oh my God … I’m never going to play these rooms, ever.' That made me feel jealous," she said. "I told Matty that. And George. They were both like, ‘Shut up. What are you talking about?'"
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In the cover story, Charli confirmed she and Lorde are on good terms after fans picked up tension between the two singers in the lyrics of Charli's "Girl, so confusing." The two decided to "work it out on the remix" and let bygones be bygones by collaborating on the "Girl, So Confusing Version with Lorde" remix.
"It’s good vibes. It’s good vibes," Charli told Vulture. "Honestly this whole thing has brought us closer."
Lorde was among the attendees at Charli's star-studded 32nd birthday party in Los Angeles earlier this month.
"It’s simply in the history books," Lorde wrote alongside a picture of her and Charli dancing in her Instagram Story.
Contributing: Edward Segarra
