Who Is Taylor Swift’s “Actually Romantic” About?

Taylor Swift wants all the smoke. Get in. Let’s talk about it. All right, so you’re listening to The Life of a Showgirl, the new Taylor Swift album, and I know that there’s basically only one question that you have. And no, it’s not about Travis Kelce’s private parts — Who is “Actually Romantic” about? People seem to think it’s about Charli XCX. I have a theory that’s maybe iteratively one step beyond that. When you listen to the lyrics of “Actually Romantic” what you’re hearing is Taylor singing about someone who candidly seems to be sounding a lot like Charli. On “Sympathy Is a Knife,” Charli appeared to be shading Taylor. Taylor, as you know, was formerly linked to Matty Healy from The 1975. Charli was recently married to George from The 1975. I’m open to this read, but I’m listening to the music and I’m hearing a Pixies song, a Nirvana song. Yes, an Olivia Rodrigo song. As many people Taylor has been in sort of a Cold War with Olivia Rodrigo on and off since Olivia’s first album. There was the sense that Olivia, who was clearly an inheritor of Taylor, wasn’t demonstrating sufficient fealty. So when I hear the crunchy guitars on this song, when I hear the kind of whining vocals I hear Olivia Rodrigo’s voice. In the past, Taylor has used the tools of her enemies against them in music. She did it on “Dear John” with John Mayer. She’s done it with Matty Healy from The 1975. She might be using Olivia Rodrigo’s music tools against her. So that’s the gossip, right? But as music, does it work? To me, this is one of the strongest songs on The Life of a Showgirl. And it’s interesting that in an album that’s advertised as Taylor’s love album, as her arrival into future marital and potentially sexual bliss, it’s striking that some of the best songwriting on this album comes not about that, but rather when she’s dispatching with her outs.