Taylor Swift has issued a gushing endorsement of Charli XCX amid fan speculation there is a bitter feud between the pair.
The singers are pop contemporaries and both unleashed albums this year – with Taylor releasing The Tortured Poets Department in April and Charli releasing Brat in June.
In her album track Sympathy Is a Knife, Charli sings about being intimidated by a woman who she doesn’t want to see backstage at her boyfriend’s show.
Fans were quick to deduce the song was about Taylor – as she previously dated 1975 frontman Matty Healy, while Charli is engaged to the band’s drummer, George Daniel.
Fans also questioned if Taylor blocked Charli’s album from reaching number 1 in the UK by suddenly unleashing special edition versions of The Tortured Poets Department to keep her own album on top of the charts after sales reports suggested Charli was on track to topple her.
In an interview with New York Magazine, Taylor appeared to attempt to dispel rumours of a rift by lavishing her chart rival with praise, gushing, “I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities since I first heard Stay Away in 2011.”
She added, “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.”
Charli, meanwhile, has insisted her own music is nothing but introspective, saying, “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.”
Brat peaked at number 2 in the UK and reached number 3 in the USA.
