Taylor Swift Shuts Down Charli XCX Feud Rumors in Rare Interview: ‘Her Writing Is Surreal’

Taylor Swift shut down rumors of a feud with fellow singer Charli XCX by praising her talent in a new interview.

"I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities since I first heard 'Stay Away' in 2011. Her writing is surreal and inventive, always," Taylor, 34, said in a Vulture profile about Charli, 32, published on Monday, August 26.

The "Fortnight" singer gushed, "She just takes a song to places you wouldn’t expect it to go, and she’s been doing it consistently for over a decade. I love to see hard work like that pay off."

The "Von Dutch" singer and Taylor's lives became intertwined over the past year as their fandoms helped fuel speculation of a feud.

Charli is engaged to The 1975 drummer George Daniel . Her friend, Gabbriette Bechtel , revealed her engagement to the band's frontman Matty Healy at a June 11 listening party for Charli's new album Brat in Brooklyn, New York, which the newly betrothed couple attended.

Gabbriette, 27, shared a photo of her black diamond engagement ring in an Instagram Story, writing over it, “MARRYING THE 1975 IS VERY BRAT.” She also went on to appear in Charli's music video for "360," the second single off Brat.

Taylor famously dated Matty , 35, for two months starting in 2023, after her split from boyfriend of six years Joe Alwyn . The pair had been friends and collaborators for years before trying to take thing to the next level. After their split, Matty began dating Gabbriette three months later. He was first spotted making out with the model in September 2023 in New York City.

There are several songs on Taylor's latest album, The Tortured Poets Department , that Swifties believe are about her failed romance with Matty .

Charli's fans thought she might have dissed Taylor on the song "Sympathy Is a Knife" off Brat . It included the lyrics, "Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show," and, "'Cause I couldn't even be her if I tried / I'm opposite, I'm on the other side."

The Cambridge, England, native shot down speculation the song was about Taylor in her Vulture profile. "People are gonna think what they want to think," Charli explained. "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."

Taylor has shown support for Charli in the past, as she was the "August" singer's opening act on her 2018 Reputation stadium tour.

However, the "Speed Drive" singer later described the experience to Pitchfork in August 2019 as “getting up onstage and waving to 5-year-olds." After the interview was published, Charli shared a note on social media saying she was "extremely grateful to Taylor" for inviting her to open on tour, and that there was "absolutely no shade and only love here."

Charli said her answers were boiled down to a "weird" sentence and explained she had been playing to primarily audiences of 18-year-olds and over. She added, that "all ages shows were new to me and made me approach my performances with a whole new energy."

In June, tensions between Charli’s and Taylor’s fandoms rose when the 14-time Grammy winner released a U.K. exclusive digital version of The Tortured Poets Department around the same time Charli dropped her Brat album. Taylor’s album then took the No. 1 spot on the U.K. albums chart for the sixth week in a row, and Charli’s fans accused her of stealing the win.

After Charli was made aware of a video showing an audience in Portugal chanting, “Taylor is dead,” at one of her shows, she wrote over a screenshot, “Can the people who do this please stop. Online or at my shows. It is the opposite of what I want, and it disturbs me that anyone would think there is room for this in this community. I will not tolerate it.”