Charli XCX Denies Referencing Taylor Swift in ‘Sympathy Is a Knife’

Some Charli XCX fans are convinced that the Brat track “Sympathy Is a Knife” is about Taylor Swift, but Charli says that’s not exactly the case.

“People are gonna think what they want to think,” Charli, 32, told New York magazine in a cover story interview published Monday, August 25. “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.”

Fans seized on the song as a possible Swift diss track because of the lyrics, “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show / Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick.” In another verse, Charli sings, “’Cause I couldn’t even be her if I tried / I’m opposite, I’m on the other side.”

Charli is engaged to The 1975 drummer George Daniel, while Swift, 34, formerly dated frontman Matty Healy. (Healy, 35, is now engaged to Gabbriette Bechtel, a friend of Charli’s who is referenced on her song “360.” Swift has been dating NFL superstar Travis Kelce since last year.)

In her New York interview, Charli hinted that the line was more about being intimidated by the size of venues that The 1975 plays. “Sometimes I’d look onstage and be like, ‘Oh, my God … I’m never going to play these rooms, ever,’” she recalled. “That made me feel jealous. I told Matty that. And George. They were both like, ‘Shut up. What are you talking about?’”

When asked whether she ever considered removing the “backstage” line because of the possible reference to Swift, Charli, who opened for Swift on the 2018 Reputation Stadium Tour, replied, “No. … You do the silence game. But I know that well — where you go silent and want me to talk more. But I don’t care about it being awkward. We’ll sit in silence.”

Ahead of Brat’s June 7 release, Charli issued a “PSA” via TikTok where she warned fans that there were no “diss tracks” on the album. “It’s so complicated … [being] a female artist, where you are pitted against your peers but also expected to be best friends with every single person constantly,” she said in the May clip. “If you’re not, you’re deemed a bad feminist.”

Fans later surmised that the Brat song “Girl, So Confusing” was about Lorde, but the duo famously worked it out on the remix. Now, Charli says it’s all “good vibes” between her and Lorde, 27, telling New York, “Honestly this whole thing has brought us closer. I know that’s so f–king cheesy. But it has.”

Charli has repeatedly asked listeners to stop pitting her against other female pop stars. When Brat missed out on the No. 1 spot in the U.K. to Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, some Brazilian fans began chanting, “Taylor is dead,” during a Charli DJ set in São Paulo. Charli slammed the incident in a message shared via Instagram Story, writing, “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.”

Swift, meanwhile, had nothing but praise for Charli in the New York magazine profile, telling the outlet, “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.”