Olivia Rodrigo's 'The Grudge'_ Why Fans Think It's a Taylor Swift DISS Track
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00:00 "My undying love, now I hold it like a grudge.
00:03 Now I hear your voice every time that I think I'm not enough."
00:07 Olivia Rodrigo's newest track, "Sparking Feud Rumors,"
00:11 with fans convinced her song "The Grudge"
00:13 is about Taylor Swift.
00:15 "So you're not a grudge holder?"
00:17 [CLICKS TONGUE]
00:20 "It's case by case."
00:21 The "Vampire" singer dropped her highly anticipated sophomore
00:24 album, "Guts," on Friday.
00:26 "It takes strength to forgive, but I'm not quite sure I'm there yet."
00:33 And her lyrics already have people talking.
00:37 But first, let us get you up to speed.
00:40 Olivia has been a self-proclaimed Swifty for most of her life
00:44 and regularly gushed over the Grammy winner
00:46 at the start of her music career in 2021.
00:49 "I'm the biggest Swifty in the whole world.
00:52 I think she is the most genius songwriter.
00:54 I'm just obsessed with her."
00:56 Taylor publicly reciprocated the love at the time,
00:58 but things took a turn after the release of Olivia's debut album,
01:02 "Sour."
01:03 "Writing songs is just my favorite thing
01:05 in the whole world."
01:06 The singer was credited on Olivia's track, "One Step
01:09 Forward, Three Steps Back," because it
01:11 uses an interpolation of her 2017 song, "New Year's Day."
01:16 "I was lucky enough to get that approved,
01:18 and it's on the record now, so yeah."
01:20 The similarities between the two songs are pretty obvious.
01:24 "There's glitter on the floor after the party.
01:26 Girls carrying the shoes down in the lobby.
01:31 Called you on the phone today just to ask you how you were."
01:42 But fans were confused when they noticed
01:45 Taylor was retroactively credited on one of Olivia's biggest hits,
01:49 "Deja Vu," due to an apparent interpolation of Taylor's song,
01:53 "Cruel Summer."
01:54 "And your training jacket's like we used to do.
01:57 Everything is like we used to do.
02:00 I scream for whatever it's worth,
02:02 and I feel ain't that the worst thing you ever heard."
02:06 And it was later reported that Olivia gave up
02:09 50% of the royalties on the song as a result.
02:13 "That's kind of one of the major conflicts in the story."
02:15 Then, during a 2021 interview with Rolling Stone,
02:19 Olivia revealed that on the road to success,
02:22 she learned that people she once loved in the music industry
02:26 are actually mean girls.
02:28 Now, two years later, fans think Olivia is reflecting
02:32 on all that in her new song, "The Grudge."
02:35 "It's nightmares each week about that Friday in May.
02:38 One phone call from you and my entire world was changed."
02:43 That opening lyric references a Friday in May,
02:46 which is worth noting since "Sour" was released on May 21, 2021,
02:51 which was a Friday.
02:53 "I doubt you ever think about the damage that you did,
02:57 but I hold on to every detail like my life depends on it."
03:01 Olivia sings about trying to be tough, but wanting to scream,
03:05 which could be a reference to the way she stayed quiet
03:08 during the drama in spite of wanting to call the whole thing out.
03:12 "I can't even process it."
03:13 "I try to understand why you would do this all to me.
03:16 You must be insecure. You must be so unhappy."
03:21 Another telltale hint that the song is about Taylor,
03:24 she mentions being given flowers filled with vitriol,
03:27 which fans theorize is about Taylor appearing to support Olivia
03:31 before everything went down.
03:33 "You barely have to watch me fall.
03:37 You have everything and you still are not."
03:41 Fans previously speculated that Olivia's lead single, "Vampire,"
03:45 was about Taylor, too.
03:47 "Blood, sucker, fame, bleeding me dry like a vampire."
03:55 In a press release for the track, Olivia said she wrote it
03:59 because she was upset about a certain situation.
04:02 It's a song about feeling confused and hurt.
04:05 "I'm gonna keep writing about my life and writing from my heart."
04:08 The singer later wrote on Instagram that writing the song
04:12 helped her sort through feelings of regret, anger, and heartache,
04:15 adding, "I hope it helps you deal with any bloodsuckers in your life."
04:28 "I'm gonna keep writing about my life and writing from my heart."