Fans are convinced there’s some hidden drama between Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo, and we’ve dished out five moments that appear to support the music ‘beef’ between the stars.
The music star has been vocal about how there’s no feud between her and Taylor Swift. However, history has a tendency of drudging up the past when we don’t want to, and that’s what’s happening now. There has been a handful of occasions over the past few years that have highlighted awkward ‘drama’ between Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo that are too good to ignore.
Olivia Rodrigo has always been a huge Taylor Swift fan
If we quickly revert back to the pandemic – a time we all want to forget – we can see how much Taylor Swift meant to Olivia Rodrigo before she stormed into the music industry to the level where she is now.
The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star covered ‘Cruel Summer’ and posted it on Twitter in April 2020, which Swift reposted and wrote she “loved” it.
She told The Travis Mills Show the celebrity was her “biggest idol and biggest songwriting inspiration”, and Tay-Tay was listening. When Olivia released her debut single, (January 2021) Driver’s License, it went straight to number two on the charts, behind the singer, who said she was “really proud” of Olivia.
The second day after it released, Olivia Rodrigo’s track overtook Taylor Swift’s, and she still didn’t have a bad word to say about it, instead the 34-year-old celebrated it.
Two months later, the star – now dating Travis Kelce – sent Olivia a handwritten letter and a resent. She gifted the singer a ring similar to when she wrote Red and wanted her to have one like it.
Then Olivia told CapitalFM she was “really lucky to have her as a mentor”, and then explained how she inspired her debut album, Sour.
Song credits…
However, when Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album released in May 2021, it was Taylor Swift’s songwriting credit that caught fans’ attention.
Swift and her producer Jack Antonoff had been given a writing credit on her track 1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back a day before release.
Olivia explained she interpolated New Year’s Day from Reputation, and wrote a separate verse and chorus over the top. Interpolating a track means you re-record another element, chords etc, and reuse it. It’s not the same as sampling, where people will take a snippet or segment of the original song and put it in their own.
Then another writing credit was handed out for the album after it released, a non-collaborative credit, meaning she didn’t sing or collaborate on the song.
It’s not clear if Swift or her team asked for it after it came out, with Olivia Rodrigo’s song, Deja Vu, at the center of the Taylor Swift credit drama.
Cruel Summer’s bridge has similarities to the bridge of Deja Vu, with the ‘yelling’ in the tracks.
And Olivia admitted she was inspired by it too: “I love the yell-y vocal in it, the harmonized yells she does. I feel like they’re super electric and moving, so I wanted to do something like that.”
…And more song credits
It didn’t stop there, as Rodrigo gave more credits for Good 4 U, but this time was to Hayley Williams and ex-guitarist Josh Farro from Paramore. This was due to similarities between Misery Business and Olivia’s track.
A source told Variety the credit was giving before the song was released, and was a case of interpolation again.
Considering Taylor Swift has two credits with Olivia Rodrigo’s songs, and Paramore has another, sources estimate the celebrity could have lost millions of royalties because of it.
She said she wouldn’t make a young artist do the same if she was in the other boat.
Her producer, Daniel Nigro, appeared to highlight how others act when one of Olivia’s songs gains traction. He said: “It seems like people get funny about things when songs become really popular.”
Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Vampire drama
When Olivia released Vampire from her album Guts, in June 2023, fans were quick to draw comparisons and are convinced it’s about Tay Tay.
Some listeners initially thought it was about her ex-boyfriend, others wanted to link it to the Grammy-award winning star instead.
Lyrics that were put under the microscope included: “Hate to give the satisfaction, asking how you’re doing now, How’s the castle built off people you pretend to care about?”
As well as: “But you made me look so naïve, the way you sold me for parts as you sunk your teeth into me, oh bloodsucker, famefucker, bleedin’ me dry, like a goddamn vampire.”
Then, when Swift announced Sabrina Carpenter would be her support act for her Latin American concerts during the Eras Tour, fans did a double take.
Olivia’s fans believe Sabrina is the woman Deja Vu and Driver’s License reference – as she dated the singer’s ex-boyfriend Joshua Basset after they broke up.
Sabrina, who is dating Barry Keoghan now, has also released tracks fans think is about the messy situation, where she sings she’s a ‘homewrecker’ and receives ‘death threats’.
While you think nothing else could happen, it does. Swift tours in the US with Paramore.
But Olivia Rodrigo failed to confirm to The Guardian if Vampire was really about the Taylor Swift drama.
“I never want to say who any of my songs are about. I’ve never done that before in my career and probably won’t,” she said. “I think it’s better to not pigeonhole a song to being about this one thing.”
Olivia denies beef – but doesn’t see Eras Tour
It doesn’t help Olivia told the New York Times she hasn’t rushed to see the Eras Tour considering she’s a hardcore Swiftie.
Because she told CapitalFM she was excited for Fearless (Taylor’s Version) to come out in March 2021 before all this started.
“I literally am going to have a listening party with all my friends,” the singer said.
In September, she came out to say there was no feud between them.
“I don’t have beef with anyone,” she said.
“I’m very chill. I keep to myself. I have my four friends and my mom, and that’s really the only people I talk to, ever. There’s nothing to say.”
But it does seem perhaps giving away song credits is sticking with her though.
She added about the situation: “I was a little caught off guard.
“At the time it was very confusing, and I was green and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Is that the phrase?
“It’s not something that I was super involved in. It was more team-on-team. So, I wouldn’t be the best person to ask.”
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