Taylor Swift's 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, is officially here, and with it comes the fan theories, easter egg chatter, and, of course, speculation. One song that is garnering a lot of attention is “Actually Romantic," a track that many, including The Guardian and the Los Angeles Times, believe is a response to a specific track from Charli XCX's brat album.
In a track-by-track breakdown published by Amazon Music, Swift says “Actually Romantic” is “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, and it’s presenting itself as them sort of resenting you or having a problem with you, but taking that and you just accepting it as love, and you accepting it as attention and affection, and how flattering that somebody has made such a big part of their reality when you didn’t even think about this.”
So, is “Actually Romantic” a “diss track” like many claim, or is it just Swift's take on tongue-in-cheek? Below, we break down all the lyrics, references, reactions, and past interactions to help you answer that with the whole picture.
What are the lyrics for Taylor Swift's “Actually Romantic”?
“Actually Romantic,” which you can listen to above, is the seventh track on Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl. The song, penned and produced by Swift herself in tandem with Max Martin and Shellback, features lyrics about a nameless person who has criticized Swift and yet “can't stop thinking” about her.
Per Genius, the full lyrics for “Actually Romantic" are as follows:
Why do people think “Actually Romantic” is about Charli XCX?
There are multiple things people are pointing out to speculate that Taylor Swift's “Actually Romantic” is about Charli XCX. First and foremost, the song's title seems to be a spoof of Charli's viral song “Everything is romantic.” However, despite the semi-direct title parallel, people believe “Actually Romantic” is a response to “Sympathy is a knife," which is highly rumored to have been inspired by Swift.
In “Sympathy is a knife,” the third track of Charli XCX's critically acclaimed album brat, the British star sings:
Seeing as Swift mentions the subject of “Actually Romantic” is someone who “wrote me a song sayin' it makes you sick to see my face,” many have interpreted that this could be referring to Charli XCX and “Sympathy is a knife.”
Another line people are interpreting as a reference to “Sympathy is a knife” is Swift's “How many times has your boyfriend said / 'Why are we always talkin' ‘bout her?’”, seeing as Charli shares how she's discussed her insecurities with now-husband George Daniel in the brat track.
In the opening line of “Actually Romantic,” Swift claims the person she sings about called her a "Boring Barbie" after consuming cocaine, which people are also interpreting as a reference to Charli, seeing as she played with party-drug culture for brat, both in lyrics and aesthetic, even releasing a “coke” filled special vinyl.
Another thing some fans are pointing out that could imply “Actually Romantic” is about Charli XCX is the fact that Swift is holding an apple in the visualizer for the song, which some are interpreting as a reference to Charli XCX's viral track “Apple.”
What is Charli XCX's relationship with Taylor Swift like?
Charli XCX and Taylor Swift's relationship actually goes back an entire decade. On October 3, 2015, exactly ten years before the release of “Actually Romantic,” Charli XCX appeared as a guest during Taylor Swift's 1989 world tour in Toronto, Canada. Charli then went on to be one of Swift's openers during her 2018 Reputation stadium tour.
In 2019, Charli was interviewed by Pitchfork and opened up about her experience opening for Swift. She was quoted as saying she felt like she “was getting up onstage and waving to 5-year-olds” during her experience, and later apologized for the quote on her social media.
“As I say in the article and have said many times before, I am extremely grateful to Taylor for inviting me to open for her. She’s one of the biggest artists of my generation, and the Reputation tour was one of the biggest tours in history,” Charli wrote on then-still Twitter. “I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I was given and how much fun it was to perform to a new audience!”
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As Teen Vogue previously reported, the Taylor Swift and Charli XCX feud rumors resurfaced in 2024 after the release of “Sympathy is a knife,” in which Charli compares herself to a bigger artist, which many believe to be Swift.
In the song, Charli sings: “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show / Fingers crossed behind my back / I hope they break up quick.”
Many speculated the lyrics were about Swift’s short-lived fling with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy, which many fans believed served as inspiration for numerous lyrics on Swift's 2024 album The Tortured Poets Department. At the time the song came out, Charli was engaged to the band's drummer, George Daniel, and the two have since tied the knot.
In the past, Charli took to TikTok to say there were “no diss tracks” on brat. In an interview with Vulture, she added that while “people are gonna think what they want to think,” she intended the song to be more of an inward reflection rather than an attack on the other person.
“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," she explained.
On TikTok, she elaborated: “[The songs] are really just about how it’s so complicated being an artist, especially a female artist, where you are pitted against your peers but also expected to be best friends with every single person constantly. And if you are not, you are deemed a bad feminist.”
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Around the release of brat, Charli also slammed online posts trying to pit her against Swift. “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,” she wrote on her social media, resharing a video of fans at a Charli-inspired DJ set in Brazil who were chanting, “Taylor is dead!”
“We’ve got past the point of the media always pitting women against one another,” Charli told The Guardian around the same time in relation to "Girl, so sonfusing,” an openly feud-inspired track from brat track that famously featured Lorde on its remix. “Relationships between women are super-complex and multi-layered,” she continued. "You can like someone and dislike them at the same time; you can feel jealous of somebody, but they can still be your friend."
In the same Vulture interview where Charli opened up about the inspiration behind “Sympathy is a knife,” Taylor Swift spoke about Charli XCX, saying: “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. 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.”
People believed that the feud was squashed, especially after seeing Swift dancing to Charli's performance of “Guess” at the 2025 Grammys. But the feud seems to be open again, at least for fans, with the arrival of “Actually Romantic.”
How are people reacting to “Actually Romantic”?
“Actually Romantic” is sparking mixed reactions from both Taylor Swift and Charli XCX fans. While some are praising the song for its sonic sensibilities and giving Swift props for her “sass,” saying she's leaning into “tayhumor” and “clapping back” at her “haters,” others claimed that if the song is indeed in response to “Sympathy is a knife," then Swift "missed the point" and leaned into a “misinterpretation," with Guardian deputy music editor Laura Snapes going as far as saying the song “underscores [Swift's] tedious obsession with conflict.”
You can see more of the mixed reactions below:
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