Taylor Swift praised Charli XCX in a new interview. Here’s everything you need to know about their rumored feud.

Charli XCX and Taylor Swift backstage at iHeartRadio’s 2014 Jingle Ball.

Kevin Mazur/WireImage

• Taylor Swift recently praised Charli XCX in a new interview with New York Magazine.
• Rumors of a rift between the women were sparked this summer by Charli’s song ‘Sympathy is a Knife’.
• Swift and Charli have a decade-long history as friends, tour mates and pop star rivals.

Taylor Swift reignited the stan-war discourse this week by contributing to a New York Magazine cover story about Charli XCX, her former tourmate and current pop-charts contender.

“I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibility since I first heard ‘Stay Away’ in 2011,” Swift told the magazine. “Her writing is surreal and inventive, always. She takes a song to places you wouldn’t expect it to go, and has been doing so consistently for over a decade. I love seeing hard work like this pay off.”

Swift’s praise surprised some of Charli’s fans, who have been rumored to be feuding between the two musicians since the early summer release of “Brat,” Charli’s sixth studio album.

The album’s third track, “Sympathy is a Knife,” explores a complicated relationship with a woman in the music industry that triggers Charli’s fears of inadequacy. On “Girl, So Confusing” — another fan favorite from “Brat,” whose confirmed muse is Lorde — Charli admits that this competitive relationship is largely one-sided, perhaps even imaginary.

“This girl touches my insecurities / I don’t know if she’s real or if I’m leaning,” Charli sings on “Sympathy,” adding that her fiancé, 1975 drummer George Daniel, chalks it up to paranoia.

Many fans theorized that “Sympathy” was written about Swift, most likely during her short-lived relationship with Daniel’s bandmate Matty Healy.

“I don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show / Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up soon,” sings Charli.

She’s also close friends with Healy’s current fiancee Gabbriette Bechtel, and gives her a shout-out on the album’s opening track “360,” essentially eliminating Bechtel as a “Sympathy” suspect.

Despite the speculation, Charli clarified that neither “Girl, So Confused” nor “Sympathy is a Knife” are diss tracks.

“I really know how complicated it is to be an artist, especially a female artist, where you’re pitted against your peers, but you’re also expected to be best friends with every single person constantly,” she said. in a since-deleted TikTok.

Charli reiterated that stance during her interview with New York Magazine, refusing to answer direct questions about Swift.

“People will think what they want to believe,” she told the reporter. “That song is about me and my feelings and my anxiety and how my brain creates narratives and stories in my head when I’m feeling insecure and how I don’t want to be in those situations physically when I’m doubting myself.”

However, after the release of “Brat,” Charli’s fans were still determined to defend her honor against perceived threats.

Taylor Nation, the social media arm of Swift’s PR team, appeared to fuel feud rumors by announcing six deluxe editions of her latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” the same week that “Brat” was released. These variants were UK exclusives, only available for purchase in Charli’s home country.

The new surge in digital downloads pushed “The Tortured Poets Department” back to No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart for a sixth week, while “Brat” debuted at No. 2. As a result, Charli’s fans accused Swift of that he blocked “Brat”. ” from the first position intentionally.

Meanwhile, in the US, “Brat” debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, lagging well behind Swift’s streaming numbers. By comparison, “Department of Tortured Poets” logged 15 weeks at No. 1 in the US and counting.

But despite Charli’s lower performance, “Brat” dominated pop culture this summer with rave reviews, star-studded remixes (including “Girl, so confusing” featuring Lorde herself) and a co-sign from his presidential campaign Kamala Harris.

Charli indicated that “Brat Summer” is far from over, even teasing an updated version of “Sympathy is a Knife” in her New York Magazine profile, which she said she wrote “with three or four weeks ago.”

Could Swift and Charli hit it off on the remix like Charli did with Lorde? Here’s everything you need to know about their history.

Swift brought Charli on stage in 2015 and recruited her as a tour opener in 2017

Taylor Swift and Charli XCX perform during the 1989 World Tour in Toronto.

George Pimentel/LP5/Getty Images for TAS

To Charli’s previous point, she’s been at odds with Swift since at least 2014, when both women released new albums: “Sucker” and “1989,” respectively.

In reviews and publicity for her major label debut, Charli was billed as “striking pop’s elite”, aiming to “join the ranks of Taylor Swift, Lorde and Iggy Azalea” who were in the upper echelon of gender (on time). Both her art and sales numbers have been compared to Swift’s, with NPR noting that “Sucker” faced a commercial disadvantage, coming in behind a “massive Taylor Swift album”. (Sound familiar?)

The following year, Charli performed a cover of Swift’s hit song “Shake It Off” for BBC Radio’s Live Lounge. Just a few months later, the two women removed any lingering tension when Charli made a surprise cameo during the 1989 world tour.

Even though Charli recently canceled her own tours, she joined Swift on stage in Toronto for a duet of “Boom Clap,” Charli’s biggest solo hit to date. Swift also shared a video of their performance on X (formerly Twitter), writing: “I LOVE YOU @charli_xcx !!!”

Taylor Swift hugs Camila Cabello and Charli XCX on stage during the Reputation Stadium Tour.

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TAS

In 2018, Swift upped the ante by recruiting Charli (and Camila Cabello) as openers for her Reputation Stadium tour.

“Can’t wait to see you, can’t wait to see them, really excited about the whole thing in general,” Swift told fans in a filmed announcement.

Throughout the global tour, Charli and Cabello often joined Swift on stage to perform “Shake It Off.”

During an appearance on Britain’s Sunday Brunch, Charli gushed about Swift as a kind person and an “incredible business woman.”

“It makes us feel, like, so welcome. It feels like a girl band on tour together. It’s really cool,” Charli said.

Charli angered Swifties by comparing ‘Reputation’ contestants to children

In 2019, a year after the Reputation Stadium tour ended, Charli reflected on the experience during an interview with Pitchfork.

“I’m so grateful that (Taylor) asked me on that tour,” Charli said on the site. “But as an artist, I felt like I was going up on stage and waving at 5-year-olds.”

The comment was widely interpreted as Charli throwing shade at Swift and her fans, prompting Charli to reiterate her gratitude in a statement shared on social media.

“In the print version of this much larger conversation, my answers about this tour were summed up in a kind of weird sentence,” Charli wrote. “Up until that tour, I had played over 18 club shows, so being on stage in front of all ages was new to me and made me approach my shows with a new kind of energy.”

Charli also said it was “awesome” and “fun” to perform for Swift’s audience, adding: “There’s absolutely no shade and just love here.”

Since the release of “Brat,” Charli has condemned fans who start anti-Swift chants at her concerts.

According to Billboard, “Brat” had the biggest debut week of Charli’s career, though some fans were still disappointed when it lost to “Poets” on the charts.

When Charli hit the road for a string of “Brat” concerts and DJ sets, she was met with a flurry of anti-Swift energy, including chants of “Taylor is dead” from the crowd at Club Zig in Sao Paolo, Brazil .

After videos of the song circulated on social media, Charli told her fans to stop immediately.

“Can those who do this please stop. online or at my shows,” she shared on her Instagram story on June 23, according to Billboard. “It’s the opposite of what I want and it bothers me that anyone would think there’s a place for that in this community. I’m not going to tolerate it.”