Swifties are reliving Taylor Swift‘s 1989 era ahead of the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) this week. The album was originally released in 2014, and while a lot has changed in her life over the past nine years, fans can’t help but pick apart the lyrics line-by-line. While much of the album is about love and the dissolution of a romantic relationship, one particular song is about a friendship turned sour.
Who was Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” about?
Many fans believe “Bad Blood” is about fellow pop star Katy Perry — and the clues seem to line up. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Swift didn’t call Perry out by name, but she alluded to one of her peers in the industry,
“For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not,” Swift said. “She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I would think, ‘Are we friends, or did she just give me the harshest insult of my life?’”
Swift added that the person “basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour,” and fans noted that many of the dancers from Swift’s Red Tour went to perform with Perry on her Prism Tour.
In 2017, upon the release of her fourth album Witness, Perry spoke with James Corden during the Carpool Karaoke segment on The Late Late Show With James Corden about Swift. She shared her side of the story, about how she allegedly tried to sabotage Swift’s tour.
“Okay, so there was like three backing dancers that went on tour with her tour, right? And they asked me before they went on tour if they could go, and I was like, ‘Yeah, of course. I’m not on a record cycle and get the work, and she’s great and all that. But I will be on a record cycle probably in about a year. So, be sure to put a 30-day contingency in your contract, so you can get out if you want to join me when I say I’m going back on,’” Perry said. “So that year came up, right? And I texted all of them because I’m very close with them and I said, ‘Look, just FYI, I’m about to start. I want to put the word out there.’ They said, ‘Okay, well we’re gonna go and talk to management about it.’ And they did, and they got fired.”
Despite a highly-publicized feud, the two have since made up. Perry appeared in Swift’s video for “You Need To Calm Down” in 2019, in which, the two are seen embracing amid chaos.
It seems that Swift and Perry are at peace — and most importantly, so are the Swifties and the Katycats.
1989 (Taylor’s Version) is out 10/27 via Republic. Find more information here.