Taylor Swift And Katy Perry's Feud Timeline, Explained

Once upon a time, there was mad love between Katy Perry and Taylor Swift. In 2009, the "Shake It Off" hitmaker took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to gush about how much she loved Perry's "Waking Up In Vegas" music video, with Swift even expressing how she wanted to seal her admiration by hanging her poster in her bedroom. In response, the "California Gurls" songstress wrote, "You're as sweet as pie! Let's write a song together about the subject we know best... for my new record. It'll be brilliant." 

A few months later, Perry watched Kanye West infamously interrupt Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards and shared an X post in defense of her friend, raging, "F*** U KANYE. IT'S LIKE U STEPPED ON A KITTEN." The two pop stars evidently remained close, as Swift took to X in October of that year to wish her pal a happy birthday and enthuse about her amazing party. Although Perry never got to live out her dream of working on a track with the Grammy winner, we were blessed with the next best thing when the duo performed "Hot N Cold" at one of Swift's Fearless Tour stops in April 2010. 

After that sweet surprise, the two singers appeared a bit distant since they stopped posting about each other on X or making any public appearances together. Still, the duo shared a hug at the 2011 American Music Awards and a casual handshake at the 2013 Grammys. Unfortunately, their apparently close friendship disintegrated shortly thereafter.

Taylor Swift and Katy Perry's feud was revealed under unusual circumstances. During a 2015 chat with The Examiner, a dancer named Lockhart Brownlie shared that he and two other dancers walked away from Swift's Red Tour to become a part of Perry's Prismatic Tour the year prior. Brownlie explained that he chose the "Teenage Dream" songstress over Swift because he had a stronger bond with her after working on Perry's California Dreams Tour back in 2011. Additionally, Brownlie felt that the "Blank Space" hitmaker's tour didn't feature nearly enough dancing for his liking. 

Swift stoked the fires during a chat with Rolling Stone in 2014, by elaborating on the real meaning behind her hit song "Bad Blood." The Grammy winner stated that it was about an anonymous female singer, and detailed their complicated relationship, by recalling, "She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I would think, 'Are we friends, or did she just give me the harshest insult of my life?'" Swift then seemingly alluded to Brownlie by asserting, "She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me." 

Shortly afterward, Perry took to X to clap back at Swift, by writing, "Watch out for the Regina George in sheep's clothing." Then, in May 2015, the singer-songwriter released the iconic music video for "Bad Blood," where she faced off against her IRL BFF Selena Gomez, whose villainous character notably featured Perry's brunette bob haircut.

After the 2015 Video Music Award nominations went live, Nicki Minaj took to X to criticize MTV for failing to nominate "Anaconda" for Video of the Year despite its considerable cultural impact. She also accused the awards body of racism as she referred to how videos like Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" had received a nod for similar accomplishments. In another tweet, the "Super Bass" hitmaker shaded the channel (and possibly even Swift herself) by arguing that only videos that "celebrated women with skinny bodies" were deemed worthy of a nom in the category. 

As Vice reported at the time, the "I Knew You Were Trouble" hitmaker vigorously defended herself against the supposedly shady tweets by writing, "I've done nothing but love & support you. It's unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot." Soon after, Katy Perry inserted herself into their brewing feud with a shady tweet of her own that borrowed words from Swift's defense: "Finding it ironic to parade the pit women against other women argument about as one unmeasurably capitalizes on the take down of a woman." 

Although Minaj insisted that her own tweets weren't directed at Swift, she still replied to Perry with a kissing emoji. The "Bad Blood" drama didn't end there either, as the "Firework" hitmaker released her perfume Mad Love in 2016. It didn't take long for people to realize that the name could be a direct reference to the chorus of Swift's smash hit song, which features the lyric: "'Cause baby now we got bad blood, you know it used to be mad love."

After Taylor Swift's rep confirmed to People that she had penned "This Is What You Came For," her ex Calvin Harris' mega-hit duet with Rihanna, he snapped at her on X, calling out the world-conquering pop star for trying to publicly rip into people like him and Katy Perry purely for her own gain. The "Dark Horse" singer then shaded the Grammy winner by sharing a gif of Hillary Clinton giving a smug shrug. She also retweeted an old post of hers that read, "Time, the ultimate truth teller." Perry also subtly shaded Swift after her feud with Kanye West began by attending his concert and sharing a short video of herself vibing to "Famous," the controversial song where he essentially took credit for Swift's success. 

When Entertainment Weekly asked Perry if her 2017 album "Witness" would feature a response to "Bad Blood," she quipped about her kindness being taken for granted before answering, "Everything has a reaction or a consequence so don't forget about that, okay, honey." A few days later, the pop star released "Swish Swish," featuring Nicki Minaj, and it certainly seemed to be a diss track aimed at the "Fortnight" songstress. 

During an appearance on James Corden's "Carpool Karaoke," Perry disclosed that her supposed frenemy had turned down a request to iron out their differences privately, adding, "I do the right thing any time it feels like a fumble. [I got] a full shutdown, and then she writes a song about me [...] That's how you want to deal with it? Karma," (via YouTube).

Katy Perry continued to stoke the fires of her feud with Taylor Swift during a 2017 interview with the NME, reasoning, "I wish that I could turn the other cheek every single time, but I'm also not a pushover, you know? Especially when someone tries to assassinate my character with little girls [her fans]. That's so messed up!" Later in the day, which also happened to be the night before Perry's album "Witness" was released, Swift announced that her entire catalog would return to Spotify at midnight — over six months after its initial removal from the streaming platform. 

Naturally, it didn't take social media commentators long to assume that she was trying to overshadow the "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)" songstress' release. Despite all the shade being thrown from both sides, Perry subsequently told "Thrive" podcast host Arianna Huffington that she was ready to put their beef behind them. However, Perry then proceeded to collaborate with Swift's ex, Calvin Harris, on "Feels" before dropping the scheduled music video for "Swish Swish" shortly after Perry's former friend shared the cover art and the release date for her sixth album, "Reputation."

Meanwhile, Swift dropped her comeback track, "Look What You Made Me Do," in October. Commentators on X pointed out that the song featured an eerily similar beat to a scene from "Mean Girls" where the main character, Regina George, dresses up for Halloween. So, there's a chance that Swift chose it to call back to the time Perry decried her as a "Regina George in sheep's clothing."

In May 2018, Taylor Swift took to her Instagram Stories to share that Katy Perry had written her a sweet note and sent a literal olive branch to finally put an end to their feud. Then, in May of the following year, Swift added Perry's "Never Really Over" to her promotional playlist for her song "ME!" In June, the "Roar" songstress shared an Instagram photo of a plate of cookies with "Peace at last" frosted on the edges and tagged Swift. Later in the month, the two singers made it abundantly clear that they were on good terms again by dressing up as a burger and fries for Swift's "You Need To Calm Down" music video. 

During Perry's 2019 appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," she clarified that their feud was simply a "misunderstanding" that worsened significantly over time because their friends got involved and started fighting among themselves as well. She went on to gush about her old/new friend: "It's like, we have so much in common — there's probably only 10 people in the world that have the same things in common — I was like, 'We should really be friends over that and share our strengths and our weaknesses and our challenges. We can help each other get through a lot.'" 

In a full-circle moment, Perry then attended Swift's Eras Tour in February 2024 and even posted a video of herself singing along to "Bad Blood." Suffice it to say, no bad blood will tear these two apart ever again.