I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave.” As far as openers go, the first line of Taylor Swift’s “Actually Romantic”, already the most contentious track on her new album The Life of a Showgirl, is certainly punchy. If that wasn’t enough, Swift then goes on to rail against this unnamed rival, upbraiding them for having “high-fived my ex” and claiming to be “glad he ghosted me”, before referring to a certain song “saying it makes you sick to see my face”.
In case you’re not so hot on interpreting thinly veiled pop cultural references, it’s pretty likely that Swift is alluding to Charli xcx, her one-time Reputation tour support act. On Charli’s track “Sympathy is a Knife”, featured on her 2024 album brat, the musician sings about how “this one girl taps my insecurities”, and how she doesn’t “wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show”. It’s been widely assumed ever since that that “one girl” was in fact Taylor, who briefly dated The 1975 frontman Matty Healy; Charli, meanwhile, recently married the band’s drummer, George Daniel.
