Featured Image Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Topics: Taylor Swift, Music
Emma Rosemurgey
Topics: Taylor Swift, Music
Her new album might have only been released a mere hours ago, but fans of Taylor Swift have already been hard at work decoding all the hidden messages in her new lyrics.
And while a lot of fan theories tend to be on the money, their latest theory could be about to ignite some serious popstar beef.
Swifties are convinced that 'Actually Romantic, from her new album Life of A Showgirl, is a diss track aimed at British singer Charli XCX.
On the track, Taylor sings about someone who is 'brave' while taking cocaine, and how they 'wrote a song saying it makes you sick to see my face,' which suggests it could be a rebuttal to Charli's song, 'Sympathy Is A Knife'.
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Though it's unconfirmed who the Brat singer was referencing in her track, where she discussed being affected by the public's perception of her, despite her image of being unbothered.
In one lyric, she talks about her now-husband, The 1975 drummer George Daniel, who is of course bandmates with Matty Healy, who himself enjoyed a brief relationship with Taylor in 2023.
In the track, Charli sings: “Don’t know if I’m spiralling / One voice tells me that they laugh / George says I’m just paranoid / Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show / Fingers crossed behind my back / I hope they break up real quick."
Fast-forward to today, 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 said you’re glad he ghosted me / Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face / Some people might be offended / But it’s actually sweet.”
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Taylor's lyrics about cocaine, while the person she is singing about is unconfirmed, come after Charli released a limited edition of her Brat vinyl filled with 'white powder'.
The controversial offering paid homage to the chaotic, party girl lifestyle of 'Brat Summer' and was met with mixed reactions from fans - while many loved the idea, others suggested she was 'glamorising drug use'.
But, while fans are convinced that Taylor and Charli are the subject of each other's tracks, both artists have actually defended one another since Brat was released last year.
Last year, at a gig in Brazil, a fan shouted 'Taylor Swift is dead,' and Charli was not happy about it.
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"Can the people who do this please stop. Online or at my shows," she said. "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."
Meanwhile, Taylor praised Charli, saying she has been 'blown away' by her talents ever since she released 'Stay Away' in 2011.
"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," Taylor said. "I love to see hard work like that pay off."
LADbible has contacted Taylor Swift's reps for comment.