During the initial, American leg of the Eras Tour, Taylor Swift’s career-spanning spectacle already drew the attendance of nearly every famous person in Hollywood. But it wasn’t until the show went international that Katy Perry, one of the pop star’s former nemeses, popped up to pay her respects. Perry posted video of herself jamming to “Bad Blood,” Swift’s diss track about their now-squashed beef, from Swift’s Friday night concert in Sydney, Australia, as well as a selfie with Swift that comes with years of backstory.
Beginning in 2009, Swift and Perry were known to congenially and consistently pose for pictures together at awards shows and praise each other on social media, but with 2014’s 1989, Swift included a song, “Bad Blood,” which she explained to Rolling Stone was a diss tracked aimed at a female pop colleague who’d scorned her.
“She did something so horrible,” Swift said at the time. “I was like, ‘Oh, we’re just straight-up enemies.’ And it wasn’t even about a guy! It had to do with business. She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me. And I’m surprisingly non-confrontational–you would not believe how much I hate conflict. So now I have to avoid her. It’s awkward, and I don’t like it.”
Perry, rankled, tweeted the following.
Then came the “Bad Blood” music video, which cast Swift and a coterie of famous friends as action movie avenging angels, united against their shadowy, not-so-secret adversary.
In a 2017 interview, Perry tried to diffuse the drama, explaining to James Corden, “OK, so there was like three backing dancers that went on tour with her tour, right? And they asked me before they went on tour if they could go, and I was like, ‘Yeah, of course. I’m not on a record cycle and get the work, and she’s great and all that. But I will be on a record cycle probably in about a year. So, be sure to put a 30-day contingency in your contract, so you can get out if you want to join me when I say I’m going back on.’”
“So that year came up, right? And I texted all of them because I’m very close with them and I said, ‘Look, just FYI, I’m about to start. I want to put the word out there,’” Perry continued. “They said, ‘OK, well we’re gonna go and talk to management about it.’ And they did, and they got fired.”
Things didn’t simmer down completely until Perry appeared smiling alongside Swift in the latter’s “You Need To Calm Down” music video, which was seen universally as a peace offering.
In 2024, it seems that Perry is thoroughly in on the joke, as evidenced by her jubilant reaction to hearing “Bad Blood” live.
However, because stans will be (toxic) stans, a new joke is rippling around the internet at both Perry and Rita Ora’s expense (both stars went to Sydney Eras).
“Ask me why so many fade,” scores of people are tweeting, referencing Swift’s song “Karma,” suggesting that Perry and Ora would be shaken by the line—the implication being that they, unlike Swift, have faded.
