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Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, has upset some fans who have labeled her a ‘mean girl’ due to lyrics seemingly criticizing other celebrities, like Charli XCX.
The singer, 35, released her latest body of music on Friday, and in the process revealed she has entered her unfiltered era.
While it’s common for Taylor to draw inspiration from her personal experiences, especially her love life, for this album, she has chosen a more pointed style.
Fans are disappointed, suspecting that her songs take jabs at several notable figures, including Charli XCX, the Kardashians, and Scooter Braun.
In the song Actually Romantic, Taylor seemingly makes a brutal dig at Charli XCX.
The track shares a strikingly similar title to Charli’s 2018 track Everything is Romantic, and there’s one particularly scathing line that seemed to allude to her former tour mate.
‘I heard you call me “Boring Barbie” when the coke’s got you brave,’ she sings in a lyric that many listeners interpreted as a pointed jab at the British pop star, who has openly referenced drug use in her own music.
On her Brat single, 365, Charli sings: ‘Should we do a little key? Should we have a little line?’
Taylor Swift fans are grappling with her ‘mean girl’ nature after the release of her new album, The Life of A Showgirl
The singer’s fans have been left appalled after spotting what they believe is a brutal dig at Charli XCX in one of the new songs
During Taylor’s 2018 Reputation stadium tour, Charli opened for the 14-time Grammy Award winner on over 50 nights.
But in the years since, their friendship has cooled and Charli has grown closer to The 1975 frontman Matty Healy, who briefly dated Taylor in 2023, after she married his bandmate George Daniel.
The fourth song on the album, Father Figure, has also got fans talking as it appears to be told from the perspective of one of Taylor’s former mentors.
There has been speculation she is singing about Scott Borchetta, the CEO of her former record label Big Machine Label Group, and how he sold her masters to Scooter Braun.
Father Figure is a reinterpretation of George Michael’s song of the same name, and he also receives a writing credit on the track.
The eighth song on the album, Wi$h Li$t, has got fans talking about possible references to the Kardashian family.
The feud between Taylor and former power couple Kim and Kanye West traces back to the 2016 release of Kanye’s The Life of Pablo.
In The Life of Pablo, Kim’s ex-husband raps: ‘I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b**** famous.’
The eighth song on the album, Wi$h Li$t, has got fans talking about possible references to the Kardashian family (pictured with Kim Kardashian in 2015)
Fans pointed out that Taylor released her unfiltered album on Mean Girls Day (October 3)
The line, which alludes to when the rapper interrupted Taylor’s win at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, was supposedly passed on to the songstress for approval, but she denies ever giving it the OK.
Taking to social media, many expressed their shock at Taylor’s bold takedowns of others. Some also pointed out that she released the album on Mean Girls Day.
Mean Girls Day is an unofficial fan celebration that takes place on October 3. The date is a reference to a quote in the movie, when lead star Lindsay Lohan’s Cady asks Aaron Samuels what day it is.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, one observed: ‘Well ok… Taylor Swift morphing into a mean girl wasn’t on my bingo card.’
‘Taylor Swift is actually a mean girl,’ wrote another. ‘I’ve always felt this way.’
A third posted: ‘Taylor Swift releasing her album on Mean Girls Day is next level shade.’
‘Taylor Swift is the ultimate Mean Girl releasing her new album full of petty high school whiny diary prose on “Mean Girls Day” as the supreme plastic she is!’ a fourth continued. ‘She is a 35-year-old woman… rolls eyes…’
Others shared similar sentiments on Reddit too, with one even going as far as saying they are ‘done defending her.’
‘Yep, I’m done defending her,’ they wrote. ‘Maybe it’s time to stop painting her as “Little Miss Nice Girl” when clearly, she’s not. She loves playing the victim way too much.’
Another agreed and added: ‘Me too and I’ve been on the fence for some time. These lyrics are utterly disappointing. We are expanding our social capital to tear down smaller female artists at this particular moment? It’s so out of touch and off putting.’
A third weighed in: ‘Actually Romantic is so nasty and vindictive… I already knew of Taylor being a “mean girl” but this is so blatant.’
