Following the release of her new album GUTS, Olivia Rodrigo is making the bed and putting away the rumors of an apparent feud with Taylor Swift.
Rodrigo has cited Swift as an inspiration as a singer and songwriter early on in her career, even prior to the release of her debut album, Sour. In 2020, after Swift shared Rodrigo’s cover of “Cruel Summer”, Rodrigo cited Swift as the reason she writes music in a now-deleted Instagram post archived by Glamour.
After Rodrigo’s smash-hit debut single “Drivers’ License”, the then 18-year-old revealed that Swift even sent her the ring she wore while writing the album Red, and the two regularly interacted on social media. Seems pretty jovial on all counts so far.
How did the beef between Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift begin?
Speculation of a rift between the two songwriters began circulating on social media after Sour was released in May 2021. Swift and producer Jack Antonoff were given songwriting credits on the song “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back”, due to the interpolation of Swift’s song “New Year’s Day”. Later, Rodrigo cited Swift’s song “Cruel Summer” as an inspiration for the bridge of “Deja Vu”. In July of that same year, Swift and Antonoff were granted songwriting credits for this song.
After that, things seemed to be a lot quieter between the two. When Sour was nominated for multiple Grammy awards in November 2021, Swift and Antonoff were initially credited as nominees for their contributions, then were subsequently removed by the Recording Academy, cited as a “submission error”.
It is very possible that Rodrigo stopped talking about Swift publicly to prevent any further plagiarism accusations, but the silence didn’t stop fans from theorizing about a feud between the pair. Swift referred to Rodrigo and her close friend and fellow musician Conan Gray as “my two kids” in April 2021 after she sent the pair an advanced version of “You Belong With Me (Taylor’s Version)”. In early 2023, Gray stated that he hadn’t listened to Swift’s October 2022 album Midnights yet, leading fans to think he was no longer a Swiftie.
After the release of “Vampire”, the first single from Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore album, many fans theorized that the lyrics refer to her alleged feud with Swift.
Although the song seems to refer to a male antagonist, as noted by the lyrics “look at you, cool guy”, later lyrics seemed to possibly allude to the songwriting credits debacle in the eyes of some Swifties. “The way you sold me for parts/As you sunk your teeth into me, oh/Bloodsucker, famef***er/Bleedin’ me dry, like a goddamn vampire,” in particular were cited as the strongest case for the Swift theory.
Has Olivia Rodrigo responded to the feud allegations?
“I was very surprised when people thought that,” Rodrigo told The Guardian in early September when asked about the theory. “I never want to say who any of my songs are about. I’ve never done that before in my career and probably won’t. I think it’s better to not pigeonhole a song to being about this one thing.”
Rodrigo’s surprise seems like a pretty firm “no”, but the singer-songwriter’s principles over revealing the inspiration behind her music came across as a refusal to confirm or deny such rumors, only adding fuel to the fire for the believers in the feud.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone released Sept. 12, Rodrigo cleared the air once and for all. “I don’t have beef with anyone. I’m very chill. I keep to myself,” the 20-year-old stated. “There’s so many Twitter conspiracy theories. I only look at alien-conspiracy theories.”
It is clear from Rodrigo’s comments that she feels no feud with anyone, whether it be Swift or Jack Antonoff, or anyone else that fans and reporters have connected her to. Her comment about “Twitter conspiracy theories” could be a subtle way of denying that any dots connected by Swifties caused an upset between the two musicians, and rather than being deliberately silent, she’s just chilling out and minding her own business.
In typical X (formally known as Twitter) fashion, many theorists still aren’t convinced. For example, user @EkitiBabyGov responded that “it’s difficult for fans of both artists to ignore the obvious shift in their faves’ relationship following the rampant success of Rodrigo’s debut album, Sour,”
Perhaps the Swifties will remain unsatisfied until their idol, who also shies away from confirming fan interpretations of her music, comes out and makes a similar statement denying the feud.
