Who is Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood song about? Evidence points to Katy Perry

Taylor Swift Bad Blood

Taylor Swift’s built a large part of her career on songs about exes. But, it turns out that guys who’ve jilted her aren’t the only ones who should be concerned when turning on the radio: In Bad Blood from her upcoming album, Taylor sings about one of her female “straight-up enemies.”

“For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not,” she told the new edition of Rolling Stone of the subject, whom she declined to name. “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?'”

Taylor said she realized it was definitely the latter option last year.

“She did something so horrible,” Taylor said. “I was like, ‘Oh, we’re just straight-up enemies.’ And it wasn’t even about a guy! It had to do with business. She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me. And I’m surprisingly non-confrontational – you would not believe how much I hate conflict. So now I have to avoid her. It’s awkward, and I don’t like it.”

As uncomfortable as the situation sounds to be, it apparently does make good song material: The track hasn’t been released yet, but the Rolling Stone author said “Bad Blood” is the angriest on Taylor’s 1989 album… And, although we don’t even know the lyrics, Taylor said it’s basically a collection of insults.

Taylor Swift Rolling Stone - Theo Wenner

“I would just be constantly writing all these zingers – like, ‘Burn. That would really get her,'” she said.

So, will we be able to tell who Bad Blood is about when the song is released? Taylor hopes not.

“I know people are going to obsess over who it’s about, because they think they have all my relationships mapped out. But there’s a reason there are not any overt call-outs in that song,” she explained. “I wanted people to apply it to a situation where they felt betrayed in their own lives… I just want people to know it’s not about a guy.”

One female singer the song likely isn’t about is Miley Cyrus, who reportedly dated Theo Wenner, the photographer who did Taylor’s Rolling Stone shoot… It seems to me that kind of connection would just be too weird. There were also rumors about a feud between Jennifer Lopez and Taylor after they performed together last year, but Taylor’s people dismissed those reports.

UPDATE To follow up on a commenter’s note, it definitely sounds like Taylor’s Bad Blood song is about Katy Perry.

Taylor Swift - Katy Perry

Not only did the two women date John Mayer at different times, but three backup dancers (Scott Myrick, Lockhart Brownlie and Leah Adler) left Taylor’s Red Tour midway through to join Katy’s tour.

“I was with Taylor for the first six months,” Lockhart Brownlie told Australia’s The Examiner in 2013. “It was a great experience and she’s a great person to work with, but then Katy contacted us… The experiences were completely different. Taylor is very untouchable.”

Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood — along with the rest of her 1989 album — is scheduled for release on Oct. 27.


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