Who Is The Taylor Swift Lyric ‘High-Fived My Ex And Then You Said You’re Glad He Ghosted Me’ About?
Taylor Swift may not be known for diss tracks, but she isn’t new to side-eying other celebrities in her songs (Kim Kardashian, anyone?). She’s not afraid to call people out when she thinks she’s been wronged—and her song “Actually Romantic” on The Life Of A Showgirl is the perfect example.
The song, in which Taylor croons that another girl’s seemingly obsessive dislike of her seems actually pretty romantic, is pretty obviously aimed at Charli XCX. How do I know? Well, there are plenty of clues, including the title, which seems to echo Charli’s Brat-era song “Everything Is Romantic.” But Taylor’s song is actually a direct response to another song on Brat: “Sympathy Is A Knife.”
In the song, Charli talks about her insecurities about a specific female popstar, and it’s clear she’s referencing Swift, especially with these lyrics:
“Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show / Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick”
Charli recently married her partner George Daniel, who happens to be the drummer of The 1975. And who else is in The 1975? Matty Healy of The Tortured Poets Department fame. Taylor had a publicly volatile and short-lived love affair with Healy in 2023.
Taylor makes it clear that she knows that Charli was referencing her in the song when she sings in “Actually Romantic”:
“I heard you call me “Boring Barbie” when the coke’s got you brave / High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me / Wrote me a song sayin’ it makes you sick to see my face”
While the coke reference is enough to make it clear the song is about Charli (who is well-known for her drug use), mentioning the ex is specifically a callback to “Sympathy Is A Knife” and Charli’s own mention of her connection to The 1975. Taylor makes it more obvious when she references the “boyfriend” again:
“How many times has your boyfriend said / ‘Why are we always talkin’ ’bout her?'”
Was the diss track well-deserved? Who’s to say. All I know is that this is a clear conversation between the two songstresses that we’re seeing in real-time.
