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Fans are convinced that Taylor Swift’s “actual romantic” is a diss track about Charli XCX.swift. Swift added fuel to the rumors by shoving Charli XCX Easter eggs into her art singles. The two artists have a history of over 10 years.
Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl has many love songs about his fiance, Travis Kelce. The song looks like a reaction to Charli’s 2024 Brat Track.
“Really Romantic” is not Swift’s most subtle songwriting. The title itself seemed to be a play from Charli’s Brat Track, “Everything Is Romantic,” whose lyrics referenced the same subject, “Commitment is Knife.” (See the full breakdown here.)
But it quickly hides in Easter eggs pointing to Charli in the Visualizer video of the truck. The art used is a swift lounge while holding a red apple. Charli has a Brat truck, a virus called “Apple.”
The two artists have more than 10 years of history together. In 2015, Swift took Charli to stage to play “Boom Clap” together at a 1989 World Tour stop in Toronto.
Three years later, Charli specifically opened for the Swift On The Ratuption tour. In 2019, Charli made a headline when he spoke to Pitchfork about his experience. “I’m really grateful that (Taylor) asked me on that tour, but as an artist, I got on stage and felt like I was waving at the 5-year-old,” she added, “it’s no longer open to the artist.” “I’ve done a lot of it and it solidified my position as this underdog character I love now. But I have to ultimately own my own shit.”
As fans wondered if they were rebutting, Charli made it clear that her statements had been taken out of context. She quickly wrote to X, “Absolutely not in the shade.” “As I have said many times in the article, I am very grateful to Taylor for inviting me for her. She is one of the biggest artists of my generation and the reputation tour was one of the biggest tours in history.”
In 2023, both Swift and Charlie were romantically involved with the 1975 members. Charli was dating her now husband, George Daniel.
In Charli’s “Sympathy is a Knife,” she sings that she doesn’t want to be around someone connected to her partner’s band. Later on the track, she adds: “I don’t want to see my boyfriend’s show/finger behind the scenes of her behind my back, I hope they split up soon.”
Fans linked the track to Swift, but Charli dismissed the theory in an August 2024 New York magazine cover story.
“Really Romantic” begins with Swift calling out the subject of the song to support the breakup. “Cokes brave you / When he high fives he heard you call you ‘Boy Barbie’ and then he wrote a song about him ghostly / getting tired of seeing my face. ”
She wrote the summer track where Brat came out. At the same time, she also spoke to a New York magazine about the story of the charli, celebrating the music of the British star.
She said that Charli “takes songs where you don’t expect it to go, and she’s been doing it consistently for over a decade.
Read the complete lyric breakdown of “Really Romantic” here.
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