Taylor Swift quashes Olivia Rodrigo feud speculation at VMAs

Taylor Swift appeared to shut down speculation that she and Olivia Rodrigo were feuding at Tuesday’s 2023 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs).

Rumours of a dispute between the singers first emerged in 2021 after Rodrigo gave Swift and her long-time collaborator Jack Antonoff retroactive co-writing credits and 50 percent of the royalties for her track Déjà vu after it interpolated Swift’s Cruel Summer.

The 20-year-old also gave the pair retroactive writing credits for 1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back as the tune interpolated Swift’s New Year’s Day.

Two years later, the songwriter crediting issues led some to speculate that Rodrigo’s lead single Vampire off her album Guts was about Swift after it emerged that the 33-year-old enlisted Sabrina Carpenter to open her Eras tour.

Carpenter, 24, is long believed to be the “blonde” mentioned on Rodrigo’s debut hit, Drivers License.

However, Swift seemingly quashed any rumours of bad blood between the pair when she was seen cheering and applauding for Rodrigo as her performance was announced at the VMAs.

While the singer didn’t directly comment on the feud, fans of the critically acclaimed artists took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to insist the footage showed there was “no beef” between them.

One fan penned: “The non-existent beef has been squashed” while another wrote: “You can tell there’s no beef. Stop it guys!”

“Finally, everyone shut up now,” a third stated alongside the video of Swift supporting the young Grammy winner.

Swift’s gesture comes after Rodrigo addressed ongoing speculation that they had been feuding in a new interview with Rolling Stone.

The former Disney star said: “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.”

Previously, Rodrigo told the Guardian that she was “surprised” to learn of a fan theory that suggested her track Vampire was about Swift.

She began: “How do I answer this? I mean, 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.

“I think it’s better to not pigeonhole a song to being about this one thing.”

She then added of Swift specifically, “I was very surprised when people thought that.”

With regards to song writing and plagiarism claims, the Good 4 U hitmaker said that it was “disappointing to see people take things out of context and discredit any young woman’s work”.