Charli XCX told fans that she wasn’t happy with angry chants directed at Taylor Swift both on social media and at her shows on Sunday, June 23. The “sympathy is a knife” popstar, 31, took to her Instagram Story to tell her fans not to direct their ire at any fellow singers as she posted a screenshot of a video of her fans chanting “Taylor is dead.”
Charli, whose real name is Charlotte Emma Aitchison, was responding to a post on X (formerly Twitter), where someone pointed out that Brazilian fans were chanting “Taylor is Dead” in Portuguese at her concerts and events surrounding her. Charli had a short message telling fans not to do that. “Can the people who do this please stop. online or at my shows,” she wrote. “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.”
The drama surrounding Charli and Taylor, 34, began shortly after Charli released her excellent new album brat earlier in June. Around brat’s release date, Taylor dropped a new edition of her latest album The Tortured Poets Department in the U.K., leading to many fans making a dash to buy the record. Some fans criticized the “All Too Well” singer, believing that she intentionally dropped the new edition to block Charli from getting the number one spot on the charts, according to Newsweek.
Taylor and Charli have worked together before. The “Anthems” singer was one of the openers for Taylor’s Reputation tour in 2018, and she even joined her on stage to perform the hit song “Shake It Off” throughout the run.
Despite at one point collaborating, some fans have speculated that Charli shaded Taylor on her brat song “sympathy is a knife.” In the song, Charli sings, “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show/Fingers crossed behind my back/I hope they break up quick.” Fans have theorized that this is a reference to Taylor’s brief romance with The 1975’s Matty Healy, as Charli is engaged to the band’s drummer George Daniel.