Olivia Rodrigo is clearing up some perceived bad blood between herself and Taylor Swift — but only kinda putting out a fire here … not nearly as much as one would hope.
The young singer did a wide-ranging interview with The Guardian — where she addressed a lot of stuff, but perhaps most importantly … the would-be beef some have speculated exists with TS. In a somewhat wishy-washy answer — she appears to say, that’s not the case.
When asked if her single, “vampire,” was aimed at Taylor, she says … “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.”
Olivia adds, “I was very surprised when people thought that.” So … sorta a denial?
The reason some jumped to that conclusion is ’cause the track’s lyrics go after somebody Olivia labels as a “blood sucker” — but in which way, exactly, was up for interpretation.
The chorus goes … “‘Cause I’ve made some real big mistakes / But you make the worst one look fine / I should’ve known it was strange / You only come out at night / I used to think I was smart / But you made me look so naive / The way you sold me for parts / As you sunk your teeth into me, oh / Bloodsucker, famef***er/ Bleedin’ me dry, like a goddamn vampire.”
Many took these lines to be referencing the plagiarism scandal Olivia found herself in after her first album, ‘Sour,’ got released. As you know, she ended up having to pay both Taylor and Paramore royalties after they flagged similarities in a couple of her songs to her team.
As it turns out … the amount she had to shell out for those two songs amounted to 50%, according to The Guardian. Many felt Olivia was done dirty in that whole saga, and those same people believed she was expressing her frustration to TayTay in that new single.
Like we said, it certainly seems like Olivia is distancing herself from that characterization — but the fact she doesn’t firmly stamp it out in clear terms is … interesting, to say the least.
Olivia reflected on that chapter, saying … “I was so green as to how the music industry worked, the litigious side … I feel like now I know so much more about the industry and I just feel … better equipped in that regard. It wasn’t something I thought about too much.”
Even here, there’s a tone of resentment over the fact she was gouged by well-established artists, way bigger than her at the time. If she is mad at them, she’s masking it well.