Everything to Know About Taylor Swift and Charli Xcx’s History

Taylor Swift and Charli Xcx go way back.

Since being photographed together backstage at the 2014 Jingle Ball, the pop stars have worked together several times. In 2018, Charli opened for Swift’s Reputation Stadium Tour alongside Camila Cabello.

However, their professional relationship has fueled years of fan speculation. Neither has ever admitted to any tension — in fact, both have only spoken positively about each other in interviews — but supporters have theorized that the two have traded diss tracks.

For Charli, her 2024 track “Sympathy is a knife” appeared to address feelings of insecurity tied to the Grammy-winning songwriter. Swift’s 2025 release, “Actually Romantic,” seemed to suggest she interpreted Charli’s “attention” as ironic affection and behind-the-scenes drama.

Here’s everything to know about Taylor Swift and Charli Xcx’s history, from sharing the stage to trading alleged diss tracks.

Charli opened for Swift on her 2018 Reputation Tour

Charli XCX, Camila Cabello, and Taylor Swift onstage during the Taylor Swift reputation Stadium Tour on October 5, 2018 in Arlington, Texas.

Matt Winkelmeyer/TAS18/Getty

In March 2018, Swift shared in a video on X that Charli and Cabello would be the opening acts for her Reputation Stadium Tour. The following month, the “Boom, Clap” singer told PEOPLE that she hoped to collaborate with the two women.

“They’re both such great writers so I’d love to write with them while we’re out on the road,” Charli said, adding that Swift has “always been very kind” to her.

Prior to the Reputation Tour, Charli performed on stage with Swift during one of her 1989 concerts in Toronto.

Charli later said the crowd felt like “waving to 5-year-olds”

Charli XCX opens for Taylor Swift on November 9, 2018 in Auckland, New Zealand.

Don Arnold/TAS18/Getty

Swift and Charli’s working relationship first came under fire following comments the “Speed Drive” singer made about performing for an all-age audience.

“I’m really grateful that [Taylor] asked me on that tour,” Charli told Pitchfork in August 2019. “But as an artist, it kind of felt like I was getting up on stage and waving to 5-year-olds.”

After receiving some backlash for the remark, the singer shared a statement on X clarifying that she meant “no shade” to the superstar.

“In the printed version of this much wider conversation, my answers about this tour were boiled down into one kind of weird sentence,” she said. “Leading up to that tour I’d been playing a tonne [sic] of 18+ club shows and so to be on stage in front of all ages was new to me and made me approach my performances with a whole new kind of energy.”

She added, “More so I talked about how it was brilliant opening for Taylor, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I was given and how much fun it was to perform to a new audience!”

Charli got engaged to The 1975’s drummer while Swift was linked to lead singer Matty Healy

George Daniel and Charli XCX at The BRIT Awards 2025 on March 1, 2025 in London, England ; Matthew Healy attends the Royal Academy of Arts summer preview party on June 15, 2022 in London, England.

Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/Getty ; Karwai Tang/WireImage

About a year after Charli had confirmed her romance with The 1975’s drummer George Daniel, rumors began to swirl that Swift was dating the band’s frontman Matty Healy. However, their romance was short-lived and they broke up after just a few months.

Charli and Daniel tied the knot in a private ceremony in July 2025.

Fans speculated Charli’s 2024 track “Sympathy is a knife” was about Swift

Charli XCX at the 2024 Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 10, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California.

Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty

When Charli released her 2024 album Brat, some fans theorized that her song “Sympathy is a knife” was about Swift. Some of the lyrics seem to talk about the English pop star feeling insecure about another woman, particularly the lines, “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show / Fingers crossed behind my back / I hope they break up quick.”

Though fans speculated she was referencing Swift’s short-lived relationship with Healy, Charli told Vulture in August 2024 that the song was about the way her “brain creates narratives and stories” when she feels self-doubt.

However, she didn’t clarify whether or not the song was about Swift, instead saying, “People are gonna think what they want to think.”

Charli asked her fans to stop chanting “Taylor is dead” at shows

Charli XCX performs during Reading Festival on August 28, 2022 in Reading, England.

Joseph Okpako/WireImage

After Charli released the deluxe version of Brat, Swift also released new editions of The Tortured Poets Department in the United Kingdom the same week, landing her album the No. 1 spot on the U.K. charts. Fans soon accused Swift of blocking Charli’s album from claiming the position.

Following the chart-blocking rumors, one fan captured the audience chanting “Taylor is dead” during one of Charli’s concerts. The “360” singer addressed the behavior on her Instagram Stories in June 2024.

“Can the people who do this please stop,” she wrote over a screenshot of an X user’s video that alerted her to the chants. “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.”

Swift praised Charli’s musicality in a 2024 interview

Charli XCX, Taylor Swift, and Camila Cabello perform during the Taylor Swift reputation Stadium Tour on July 22, 2018 in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Kevin Mazur/TAS18/Getty

During the August 2024 interview with Vulture, Swift had nothing but good things to say about Charli.

“I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities since I first heard ‘Stay Away’ in 2011,” the pop star said. “Her writing is surreal and inventive, always. 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.”

Swift’s fans believe “Actually Romantic” from The Life of a Showgirl is about Charli

Taylor Swift attends the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards on September 11, 2024 in Elmont, New York ; Charli XCX attends the premiere of “Erupcja” on September 04, 2025 in Toronto, Ontario.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ; Robin Marchant/Getty

As with any album release, Swifties were quick to dissect her 2025 record The Life of a Showgirl — and many claimed that the track “Actually Romantic” was a diss at Charli.

The song opens with the pop star singing about a fellow songwriter who called her “boring Barbie.”

“I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave,” she sings. “High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me / Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face.”

In another lyric, she wonders, “How many times has your boyfriend said/ Why are we always talkin’ about her?”

Though the pop star hasn’t confirmed whether or not the song was about Charli, she did shed some light on her inspiration in a “Track by Track Version” of her album for Amazon Music, saying that the song is “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,” Swift explained. “It’s presenting itself as them sort of resenting or having a problem with you, but taking that and you just accepting that as love and you just accepting it as attention and affection.”

She added, “How flattering that someone has made you such a big part of their reality and you didn’t even think about this. It’s actually pretty romantic if you really, really think about it.”

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