Taylor Swift explains Actually Romantic lyrics
Taylor Swift has dropped further hints her new song Actually Romantic is about fellow pop star Charli XCX - describing the song as "a love letter to someone who hates you".
Taylor Swift has dropped further hints her new song Actually Romantic is about fellow pop star Charli XCX.
The 35-year-old pop superstar released her new album The Life of a Showgirl on Friday (03.10.25) and it features the new track which fans have been speculating is about Charli - who is married to Taylor's ex Matty Healy's The 1975 bandmate George Daniel.
Taylor opened up about the song's lyrics in the album's film The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, saying: '[It's] a love letter to someone who hates you ...
"There can be this moment where it's unveiled to you, through things that they do that are very overt. And, as I've gotten older, I've just started to be like, 'Oh my God, you did so much with this. It's flattering.
"That is, wow, that is very, very sweet of you to think about me this much, even if it's negative. In my industry, attention is affection, and you've given me a whole lot of it."
Actually Romantic features the lyrics: "I heard you call me Boring Barbie when the coke’s got you brave / High-fived my ex and then said you’re glad he ghosted me /
"Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face/ Some people might be offended/ But it’s actually sweet."
It comes after Charli was rumoured to have written a song about Taylor called Sympathy Is A Knife which featured on her hit album Brat.
In the song, Charli said: "Don’t know if I’m spiralling/ One voice tells me that they laugh/ George says I’m just paranoid/
"Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show/ Fingers crossed behind my back/ I hope they break up real quick."
Taylor gave further clues about Actually Romantic's subject in an audio track-by-track breakdown of the new album for Amazon Music, in which she said: "[It's] a song about realising 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."
