Share and Follow
The reported feud between Katy Perry and Taylor Swift lasted years, but mostly seemed to center on Katy’s wrongdoings rather than Taylor’s. While the origins of the feud are somewhat murky, it’s rumored that Taylor (without naming names) dissed her fellow songstress by suggesting that the unnamed “she” tried to hire a bunch of people out from under Swift during a tour.
But while many quotes from Katy hinted that the two were on bad terms, there was far less commentary coming out of Taylor’s camp. Looking back, it seemed like Katy worked hard to reignite the feud or keep it going, long after Taylor had moved on.
Though Taylor has a habit of writing about her exes, enemies, critics, lovers, and everyone in between, she never seemed to directly call Katy Perry out for their purported issues.
Katy, however, seemed to enjoy stirring the pot. Fans thought Katy was throwing shade at Taylor when an American Idol contestant named the latter as their favorite singer.
But it didn’t end there; when rumors of a collab between Taylor and Katy began to make the rounds, Perry shut that down with another jab about “rumors.”
Taylor, on the other hand, did apparently two things during the feud: spoke about someone in the industry trying to steal performers out from under her (again, she didn’t name Perry) and released “Bad Blood.”
Taylor Swift, Admittedly, Doesn’t Get Along With Everyone
Taylor has had to defend herself against plenty of critics over the years, but she also doesn’t get along with just anyone. She’s said to have had beef with Justin Bieber, Diplo, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, and more.
When “Bad Blood” came out, there was tons of speculation about who Taylor penned the song about, but in classic Taylor style, she didn’t reveal who it was. In fact, she’s been quoted as saying the person that fans thought the song was about was the wrong person, pointed out Capital FM.
Taylor reportedly said of the song, “I never said anything that would point a finger in the specific direction of one specific person, and I can sleep at night knowing that.”
She even said that at the time, she was on good terms with an ex-boyfriend so she didn’t want him “to think [she was] firing shots at him.” Thus, Swift noted, “I knew the song would be assigned to a person and the easiest mark was someone who I didn’t want to be labeled with this song, it was not a song about heartbreak it was about the loss of friendship.”
Read Related Also: North Carolina boy, 14, died from cardiac arrest after being bucked off a bull and stepped on
People have, still, long assumed that the song was about Katy, which Taylor seems to be saying is not the case.
But when Katy began dragging Taylor in the media, no one was necessarily surprised. What was surprising is how far Katy seemed to take the feud, even without Taylor specifically naming her.
Katy Was Accused Of “Reigniting” The Feud
The original feud started sometime around 2017, Taylor didn’t say much about Katy, except for releasing “Bad Blood,” which was widely rumored to be about Perry.
Taylor kept quiet, however, and never mentioned Katy by name in their “feud.” Over time, however, Perry continued to bring up the issue and name-drop Taylor, something many people criticized.
Junkee commented, in a long expose on Katy’s many perceived missteps in music, that Perry was “desperately trying to reignite their old feud” leading up to the release of her album Witness.
There was the 2018 Carpool Karaoke episode where Katy said she loved Taylor and “want[ed] the best for her.” After that, Swift made no comment, but released “her entire discography on Spotify the day Witness was released.”
Katy (or her PR team) might have thought that bringing Taylor up again would create some press, whether negative or positive. But it seems that if Taylor did intend to show up her frenemy, she was successful; Junkee noted that Witness didn’t come near the performance of Taylor’s timely releases.
As for Katy’s part, her career seemed to suffer somewhat during the feud as well as after, for dissing Taylor but also for other behavior that fans didn’t love.
Are Katy Perry And Taylor Swift On Good Terms Today?
A few years ago, it seemed that Katy’s career was trending downward, and some blamed that ages-old feud with Taylor Swift. Going up against one of the planet’s most beloved cross-genre superstars probably isn’t a good idea, but Katy might have learned that the hard way.
Eventually, though, it seems that the two stars mended fences.
They appeared in Taylor’s “You Need to Calm Down” video, then Taylor sent Katy’s baby Daisy a hand-embroidered blanket. At that point, in 2020, it seemed like everything was finally cool between the stars, though it seems clear, in retrospect, who really “won” the feud.
