Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift's Alleged Feud, Explained in Excruciating Detail

Then there are the lyrics “You built me up to watch me fall / You have everything and you still want more,” and, “I try to be tough, I try to be mean / But even after all this, you're still everything to me.”

It's also possible that Rodrigo included a reference to Swift's song “Mirrorball,” which includes the lyric “I've never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try.”

In “The Grudge,” Rodrigo sings, “And I say I don't care, I say that I'm fine / But you know I can't let it go, I've tried, I've tried, I've tried for so long / It takes strength to forgive, but I don't feel strong.”

The “try, try, try” motif also appears in the Guts track “Lacy,” which some fans also believe is about Swift.

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You can read the lyrics to “Lacy” here. The song ends with the outro “Lacy, oh, Lacy, it's like you're out to get me / You poison every little thing that I do / Lacy, oh, Lacy, I just loathe you lately / And I despise my jealous eyes and how hard they fell for you / Yeah, I despise my rotten mind and how much it worships you.”

September 12, 2023: Just hours ahead of the VMAs, Rolling Stone publishes a profile of Olivia in which she denies the beef…vaguely. About the “Vampire” speculation, Rodrigo says, “People are going to say what they want to say. I feel like the more you try to control it, the more miserable you are, and the bigger it gets. I just write songs; it’s not my job to interpret them for other people.”

She later name-checks Lorde and Dua Lipa in a very positive way, and when finally asked directly about Swift, responds, "I don’t have beef with anyone…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…There’s so many Twitter conspiracy theories. I only look at alien-conspiracy theories.”