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The singer's new album, &34;The Life of a Showgirl,&34; features her most pointed — and darkly funny — clapback yet. Why fans think Taylor Swift's 'Actually Rom

The singer's new album, "The Life of a Showgirl," features her most pointed — and darkly funny — clapback yet.

Why fans think Taylor Swift's 'Actually Romantic' shades Charli XCX

The singer's new album, "The Life of a Showgirl," features her most pointed — and darkly funny — clapback yet.

By Lauren Huff

Lauren Huff

Lauren Huff is an award-winning journalist and staff writer at ** with over 12 years of experience covering all facets of the entertainment industry.

EW's editorial guidelines

October 3, 2025 12:01 a.m. ET

Taylor Swift in 2023; Charli XCX in 2025. Credit:

John Shearer/Getty; Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

Look what you made her do.

Taylor Swift has never been one to shy away from a little shade (see: "thanK you aIMee," "Bad Blood," "Look What You Made Me Do"), and her new album, *The Life of a Showgirl,* features her most pointed — and darkly funny — diss yet.

While Swift famously never confirms whom her songs are about, all roads in "Actually Romantic" seem to lead to none other than Charli XCX, who opened for Swift during her *Reputation* Stadium Tour in 2018.

First, a little history lesson on these two. In 2019, Charli drew the ire of some Swifties when she said her time on the tour "kind of felt like I was getting up on stage and waving to 5-year-olds." She later clarified this remark in a lengthy statement on social media.

In something of an awkward connection, Charli is now married to George Daniel, the drummer for the 1975; the two got engaged in November 2023. As Swifties know all too well, the frontman of the 1975 is Swift's ex Matty Healy, whom the *Tortured Poets Department* singer dated in the spring of 2023. Charli has talked publicly about being close to Healy and his now-fiancée, the model and musician Gabbriette Bechtel.

In June 2024, Charli released her sixth studio album, *Brat*, and fans immediately started speculating that she wrote its track "Sympathy Is a Knife" about Swift and her relationship with Healy, as it included lyrics like "I don't wanna share this space / I don't wanna force a smile / This one girl taps my insecurities / Don't know if it's real or if I'm spiraling," and "Don't wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend's show / Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick."

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While Swift fans latched on to that last lyric in particular, Charli said in a TikTok before the album's release that it did not feature any diss tracks. She also later addressed the rumors in an interview with *New York* magazine.

"People are gonna think what they want to think," she said. "That song is about me and my feelings and my anxiety and the way my brain creates narratives and stories in my head when I feel insecure and how I don't want to be in those situations physically when I feel self-doubt." In that same interview, Swift praised Charli's songwriting as "surreal and inventive, always."

In the magazine's spread were images of Charli's fake bloody severed hand wearing a friendship bracelet, which some fans saw as shade given that the accessory was essentially synonymous with Swift's Eras Tour. However, the photographer later explained the vision behind it, saying, "She's sort of trapped by fame and all the tabloid photographers are chasing her. An animal trapped in the woods would bite off its own limb — she bites off her hand."

So, at least publicly, the two singers have downplayed any notions of a rift. But with "Actually Romantic," it sounds like Swift could be putting in her two cents.

Taylor Swift and Charli XCX perform during The '1989' World Tour.

George Pimentel/LP5/Getty

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First, some fans have pointed out that the title of the track could be a nod to Charli's song "Everything's Romantic."

Then there's the lyrics. "I heard you call me 'Boring Barbie' when the coke's got you brave / High-fived my ex and then you said you're glad he ghosted me," Swift sings at the top of the song. Charli has dropped several references to cocaine in her songs — for example, on her *Brat* song "365," the British artist sings, "Should we do a little key? Should we have a little line?"

The rest of Swift's "Actually Romantic" lyric could certainly reference Healy. After all, on her last record,* The Tortured Poets Department*, which fans hypothesized was partly about the 1975 frontman, she sings about an ex who ghosted her.

But the very next line seems like an even more direct reference to "Sympathy Is a Knife": "Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face." Then, in the second verse, Swift sings, "How many times has your boyfriend said, 'Why are we always talking about her?'" Charli's track mentions how she talks to "George," presumably her now-husband, but then-boyfriend, about her insecurities about another singer — the "one girl" who "taps my insecurities" — but he tells her that she's "just paranoid."

'The Life of a Showgirl' by Taylor Swift.

Mert Alas & Marcus Piggot

Unlike many of her previous "diss" tracks (for lack of a better word), "Actually Romantic," despite its spiky references, is actually incredibly funny. It gives *Mean Girls* "why are you so obsessed with me" vibes — which is ironic, given that the album came out on Oct. 3., Mean Girls Day. Swift also claims that she's not that miffed by any of her subject's perceived slights.

"Some people might be offended / But it's actually sweet / All the time you've spent on me," she sings in the chorus, which concludes with the heavily sardonic declaration, "I really got to hand it you / No man has ever loved me like you do."

Swift even takes it one step further, hilariously suggesting that she kind of loves the attention (Mama Swift, close your eyes for this one): "You think I'm tacky, baby / Stop talking dirty to me! / It sounded nasty, but it feels like you're flirting with me / I mind my own business / God's my witness that I don't provoke it / It's kind of making me wet." Welcome back, *Reputation*-era Taylor!

So is "Actually Romantic" about Charli XCX or not? Don't expect an answer from Swift. In her track-by-track breakdown for* Showgirl* for Amazon Music, she was her usual equivocal self, speaking in generalities and saying the track was simply "a song about realizing that someone else has kind of had a one-sided, adversarial relationship with you that you didn't know about. And all of a sudden they start doing too much and they start letting you know that, actually, you've been living in their head rent-free and you had no idea."

"It's presenting itself as them sort of resenting you or having a problem with you," she added, "but you take that and just accept it as love, and you accept it as attention and affection, and how flattering that somebody has made you such a big part of their reality when you didn't even think about this."

Swift then echoed sentiments she expresses in the song, saying, "It's actually pretty romantic if you really think about it."

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