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Fans are always going to wonder about how Olivia Rodrigo really feels about Taylor Swift, but the Gen Z pop star has made her peace with that.
While appearing on the Thursday (May 28) episode of New York Times podcast Popcast, Rodrigo acknowledged the perpetual speculation about where she stands with Swift, the person whom she used to praise effusively as her childhood idol before retroactively giving the Eras Tour headliner songwriting credits on Sour single “Deja Vu” in 2021, after which people noticed Rodrigo stopped mentioning Swift altogether. Many have speculated that Swift’s camp may have strong-armed the former Disney Channel star into crediting her on the Billboard Hot 100 No. 3 hit, causing a rift between the two stars.
“I don’t really read too far into it,” Rodrigo said when discussing the fan theories surrounding the situation. “I think it comes with the territory, and it’s par for the course. If I dove into every internet detective sleuth that got things right or wrong about my life or any of my relationships, I think I’d just go crazy. There’s not enough time in the day.”
She also touched on the way her prior openness about being a grade-A Swiftie seemingly backfired on her when the songwriting credit business went down. After all, it was three months after Rodrigo raved about Swift’s “Cruel Summer” while breaking down how “Deja Vu” came together for a Rolling Stone video in April 2021 that the latter song’s credits underwent the change to add Swift, Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent. (About a month after that, the credits on Rodrigo’s Hot 100 No. 1 “Good 4 U” also updated to include Paramore for the song’s similarities to the punk-rock band’s “Misery Business.”)
“I try to not let it get to me or upset me,” she told Popcast of whether she feels more cautious of vocalizing her love for her inspirations now. “It was so long ago — there’s no use in harping on it. I just try to make songs that I love and try to be kind and good to other people, and supportive of other people.”
She added, “At the end of the day, I think that’s all you can do.”
The podcast comes about two months after public interest in Rodrigo’s relationship with Swift got renewed when the two singers were among the stars spotted in attendance at the same Paul McCartney concert in Los Angeles. Before that, in 2023, fans had wondered whether the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series alum had penned songs such as No. 1 smash “Vampire” or Guts deep cut “The Grudge” about any possible hurt feelings that still might lingering after their rumored conflict. But the following year, when Rodrigo was performing “Vampire” at the Grammys, Swift was in the audience singing along.
Rodrigo also conceded to Popcast that she was “a little caught off guard” by the “Deja Vu” credit change in a 2023 Rolling Stone cover story. “At the time, it was very confusing, and I was green and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,” she told the publication at the time. “I don’t think I would ever personally do that. But who’s to say where I’ll be in 20, 30 years. All that I can do is write my songs and focus on what I can control.”
These days, Rodrigo — who is gearing up to release her third studio album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, on June 12 — feels at ease with the nonstop speculation about her standings with other celebrities, telling Popcast that she learned how to deal with it through the trial-by-fire experience of her breakout hit “Drivers License” spawning endless theories about her supposed love triangle with Sabrina Carpenter and Joshua Bassett in 2021.
“I think it made me feel detached from it,” she said. “I had to detach from it in order to literally be OK. It was such a crazy experience for everyone involved.”
Watch Rodrigo’s full Popcast interview above.
