Hell might officially be frozen over, because Taylor Swift and Katy Perry’s feud has officially been squashed. I really wasn’t sure this day would ever come, and the shock is still wearing off. These two have hated each other for years, but I guess all good drama comes to an end. It’s the end of a pop culture era, so let’s go over the new developments, and take a little walk down memory lane.
Katy announced the peace treaty on her Instagram on Tuesday night, with a photo of a plate of cookies with the words “peace at last” written in icing. The cookies look f*cking delicious, but I have a few questions about how this photo came about.
First of all, who supplied the cookies? Did Taylor Swift bring a plate of cookies to Katy Perry’s house? Did she have them delivered by someone else? Did they hang out and bake the cookies together? And I’m even more fascinated by the icing. Those letters were obviously not professionally piped on the platter (I hope), so who did it? Taylor? Or did Taylor send instructions and Katy piped the letters herself? Did one of their assistants do it? Will I get ANY work done today? Sadly, I have answers to exactly zero of these questions.
Taylor did quickly comment on Katy’s photo, so there’s no question that the peace offering was real.
That’s a lot of heart emojis, but it’s pretty on brand for Taylor Swift’s recent rebrand as a human rainbow. If anything, the timing of this makes perfect sense, because both Taylor and Katy are gearing up to release new albums. The feud made sense in the past, but both of them are going for more of a positive, happy vibe lately, so the ~bad blood~ doesn’t really fit with their images anymore. I’m sure there were other important developments in them not hating each other anymore (like maybe them both being in happy relationships and John Mayer being less in the public eye/dating pool), but the publicity can’t hurt for either of them.
Now that these two have publicly buried the hatchet (for now), let’s take a look back at the seven-year saga that is Taylor Swift and Katy Perry’s feud.
Going back to the early years of their careers, Katy and Taylor were friends. Things first took a sour turn in 2012, when Katy Perry started dating John Mayer, who Taylor had previously had a relationship with. I don’t know all the specifics of how this went down, but we all know it’s never a good idea to get involved with your friend’s ex. In the immortal words of Gretchen Weiners, that’s just like, the rules of feminism.
The John Mayer thing was an issue, but things really went south over drama surrounding backup dancers on their tour. First, Taylor Swift purportedly stole some of Katy Perry’s backup dancers for her tour, and then some dancers later jumped ship from Taylor back to Katy. The whole thing was a mess, and it was was pretty much what killed any friendship they had.
They each released a song that was obviously about the other—Taylor Swift had “Bad Blood,” and Katy Perry released a full-on diss track with “Swish Swish.” At the time she released “Bad Blood,” Taylor said it was about a “straight-up enemy” pop star who “basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour.” Yeah, subtle, no idea who she could be referring to.
Perhaps the height of pettiness in this feud came in 2017, when after years of criticizing Spotify for their practices of compensating artists, Taylor Swift suddenly had a change of heart. She released her entire music catalogue to Spotify on the exact same day that Katy’s new album Witness was released. Honestly, I’m not a fan of Taylor Swift, but this is so savage that I have to applaud.
Things in the feud started to thaw last year, when Katy Perry sent Taylor Swift a letter before her tour, along with a literal olive branch. Just famous people sh*t.
The letter and the olive branch were a nice gesture, but things took another step forward a couple weeks ago, when Taylor added Katy’s new song “Never Really Over” to her official Apple Music playlist. At that point, it was only a matter of time until Taylor Swift and Katy Perry’s feud officially ended, and so the plate of cookies didn’t come as a total surprise.
So, where do we go from here? Now that Katy and Taylor are on good terms, there’s big speculation that the two could have a collaboration on one of their upcoming albums. That would definitely be a big moment, and it’s probably the only thing that would get me to stop listening to “Old Town Road” on repeat.
Images: Shutterstock; katyperry (2), taylorswift / Instagram; Giphy
