Katy Perry attended Taylor Swift’s Feb. 23 Eras Tour performance in Sydney, Australia, delicately signaling to the world that any “Bad Blood” between the two pop artists has long been resolved.
Attending the concert with fellow artist Rita Ora, Perry posted on Instagram after the event, sharing a heartwarming photo between the two, along with glimpses into her concert experience, including a reaction and sing-along to Swift’s own 2014 hit “Bad Blood” off of her album 1989– an emotional track about betrayal and losing a friend that is rumored by fans to be about Perry and their feud.
Tracing back more than a decade, Swift and Perry’s feud began when Perry hired several of Swift’s established backup dancers for her own Prismatic World Tour, a move that was seen as talent poaching towards the artist. In late 2014, Swift, while albeit not mentioning Perry by name, did confirm in an interview that “Bad Blood”’s subject was another female artist who had ‘sabotaged’ her tour.
“She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me,” Swift said. “And I’m surprisingly non-confrontational — you would not believe how much I hate conflict. So now I have to avoid her.”
In years following, passive-aggressive Twitter (X) interactions and confessionals during interviews fueled the public conflict, emphasized by Perry’s own musical release of “Swish Swish” featuring Nicki Minaj in 2017.
However, the light at the end of the tunnel surfaced in 2019 when Perry posted a white flag on Instagram consisting of a plate of cookies engraved with a frosting message declaring “peace at last”, with the caption “feels good <3 @taylorswift”. In a more public and collaborative move, the artists appeared in Swift’s 2019 music video for her single “You Need To Calm Down” from her album Lover, comically embracing in food-based costumes that fit the quirky, camp theme of the video.
Clearly, the two have made their amends and plan to “swish” into this year supporting each other’s careers more than ever, displaying an important message of solidarity among female pop artists from an increasingly drama-oriented audience. For those that are still convinced that there’s ill will between these two, they’re sure to say one thing on the matter: you need to calm down.
