Taylor Swift just dropped The Life Of A Showgirl, and the song “Actually Romantic” has some MAJOR shade. Swifties and pop nerds alike raced to Reddit and X to unpack what sounded like unmistakable references to Charli xcx.
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First, there’s the lyric that instantly had people searching for the receipts: “I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave”.
Charli has been open in her lyrics and interviews about her Y2K party-girl energy (she BE “bumpin that”).
The “Boring Barbie” tag fits right in with Charli’s habit of poking fun at the “mainstream” and anyone who plays it too safe — something critics occasionally toss at Taylor.
Fans also zeroed in on the following lyric: “I know you think it comes off vicious but it’s precious, adorable / Like a toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse”, linking it to Charli’s well-documented hyperpop era, small dogs in designer bags (Y2K’s unofficial mascot), along with the tongue-in-cheek vibes of Charli’s single “Everything is romantic”, which shares a suspiciously similar song title.
But Taylor doesn’t stop at the style shade. The lyric, “How many times has your boyfriend said, ‘Why are we always talking about her?’” seems like a not-so-subtle reference to Charli’s now-husband George Daniel, drummer for The 1975.
Speaking of, the lyrics, “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…” sparked debate about whether Taylor’s also dropping Matty Healy breadcrumbs.
Charli and Matty have a long collaborative history, and Charli’s latest work, especially “Sympathy is a Knife”, was widely interpreted as her own complicated take on the aftermath of the Swift-Healy social storm in 2024.
The lyrics in question?
“Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show. Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick ‘cos I couldn’t even be her if I tried. I’m opposite, I’m on the other side.”
For her part, Taylor did praise Charli when brat came out, telling New York Magazine that she’d “been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities since I first heard ‘Stay Away’ in 2011”.
This isn’t the first time pop stars have traded lyrical winks, but it’s notable for how specific Taylor gets, and how swiftly the internet picked up what she was putting down. Still, both artists are old hands at using music as both diary and armour, and neither has publicly commented on any feud — if it exists at all.
For now, “Actually Romantic” is just a very smart, very referential track — one that is keeping Twitter feeds and Swifties very busy.
Credit: Taylor Swift / Instagram / Getty.
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