Olivia Rodrigo is putting the rumors to rest that one of her biggest hit songs is about Taylor Swift. Well, sort of.
Ahead of the release of her sophomore album, Guts, the Grammy-winning singer spoke with The Guardian about fans’ speculation that her song “Vampire” is a dig at her pal Taylor.
In the tune, Olivia sings about an unnamed “bloodsucker, fame-fucker,” prompting people to theorise that the lyrics are about her fellow crooner. The speculation has been fuelled by fans’ presumptions that the pair are no longer friends after rumours began circulating about a purported feud between them.
Olivia goes on to sing that the nameless foe is “bleeding me dry like a goddamn vampire.”
“How do I answer this?” she told The Guardian when asked about the rumours in a story that was published over the weekend. The outlet noted that she began whispering.
“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 continued. “I was very surprised when people thought that.”
Gossip about the pair’s frayed friendship ignited even further after Olivia told The New York Times in July that she had not attended any of Swift’s Eras Tour shows.
Back in June, the Good 4 U singer opened up about how the song Vampire came about in an interview with Rolling Stone.
“I just sat down at the piano one day and played these chords that felt kind of gothic to me,” she told the outlet of the buzzed-about single.
“I think there’s a lot of vampire lore to be played with like ‘You only come out at night’ and stuff like that. There’s a lot of fun songwriting fodder in there.”
Guts is set to be released on 8 September.