Even though Charli xcx announced that brat summer was over, the singer is stirring the pot once again and this time it’s got everyone wondering if a collaboration with Taylor Swift could actually be happening.
With Charli’s recent teaser for an updated version of “Sympathy is a Knife” and Taylor’s glowing praise in a New York Times piece, the internet is buzzing. But is this just wishful thinking or something more?
What’s the history between the two singers?
Charli and Taylor’s relationship has been a rollercoaster ride. They first crossed paths back in 2015 when Taylor invited Charli on stage during her 1989 World Tour. Fast forward to 2018, and Charli was opening for Taylor on her Reputation Stadium Tour, where they often performed together.
However, things got a bit rocky when Charli spoke about her experience on the Reputation tour saying, “As an artist, it kind of felt like I was getting up onstage and waving to 5-year-olds.”
Charli apologised, but Swifties do not forgive or forget easily.
Why are Charli xcx and Taylor Swift being linked together?
To explain where the collab speculation started we have to bring it back to why the two stars have been linked together so much recently. Things kicked into high gear when Charli dropped her track “Sympathy is a Knife” in her chart-topping album brat.
Many fans theorised the song was about her complicated relationship with Taylor. The lyrics hint at insecurities and rivalries in the music industry, leading to rampant rumours that Charli was throwing shade at Taylor.
Lines like “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show” had fans convinced the song was a personal jab, especially given Taylor’s previous connection to Matty Healy, via Charli’s fiancé’ George Daniel, Healy’s bandmate from The 1975.
Why do fans think Charli xcx and Taylor Swift are going to drop a collab?
Taylor recently praised Charli in a New York Magazine interview, “I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities since I first heard ‘Stay Away’ in 2011,” she said.
She 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.”
Okay so basically she’s obsessed with Charli like the rest of us.
This kind of endorsement from Swift has fans dreaming of a potential collaboration, especially since Charli hinted at a remix of “Sympathy is a Knife” in her own New York Magazine interview.
Charli played the interviewer an unfinished remix of the song saying, “I wrote this three or four weeks ago, about this idea of, like, you have to fall – if you’re deemed to be even in the slightest way on top, you have to fall. I’m not a fucking idiot. I know how shit works.”
When asked who she wrote the song about, Charli did her best to avoid a definitive answer. “People are gonna think what they want to think. 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.
Although she probably said this to quiet down the rumours, fans took this as a sign to fall deeper into the conspiracies.
Fans pointed to Charli’s photoshoot for the New York Magazine article as a hint of a collab. The shoot featured a severed bloody hand wearing friendship bracelets (AKA the unofficial uniform of Swifties).
Charli could be featured on Reputation (Taylor’s Version)
Fans were hopeful for a collab announcement when Charli posted a mysterious pic on her Instagram today with two people in shirts that said “About Fucking Time”. But Taylor x Charli theories were quickly debunked when Aussie icon Troye Sivan, posted the same pic on his Instagram, hinting at a remix between the two of them instead. Just in time for his local tour might I add!
TikToker Sam Murphy pointed out that a collab would fit in with Taylor’s timeline with her upcoming releases. “Because Charli supported her on the Reputation tour, the next re release is rumoured to be Reputation (Taylor’s Version). It could line up perfectly that either Taylor is featured on “Sympathy Is A Knife” a la what Lorde did on the “Girl, So Confusing” remix or Charli is featured on one of the vault tracks of Reputation,” he said.
So while a collab seems very possible, we can’t say for sure yet. Fans will just have to keep an eye out for any more Easter eggs from the two pop stars.
In the meantime I’ll be streaming brat and Midnights on repeat!
Lead image: Getty Images/ @brickert0n via X
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