Taylor Swift Takes a Jab at Kim Kardashian at the London Leg of Her Eras Concert
Taylor Swift resurrected her years-long feud with Kim Kardashian on her Eras Tour.
The “I Knew You Were Trouble” singer played the alleged diss track “thanK you aIMee” from her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, for the first time at the Wembley Stadium on Saturday. Yes, it spells the TV royal’s name in capital letters.
“We get to play Wembley Stadium eight times this summer,” she shared with the crowd. “When I’m thinking about that, you think about just being grateful and being thankful. On the other hand, it really makes me think about how every time somebody talks s—t, it just makes me work even harder,” the 35-year-old prefaced.
In the song, which tells the tale of a school bully named Aimee, she can be seen taking a jab at Kim and thanking her for helping her build “a legacy which you can’t undo”.
“I don’t think you’ve changed much / And so I changed your name and any real defining clues / And one day, your kid comes home singin’ / A song that only us two is gonna know is about you,” she said, referencing the 55-second clip that saw Kim K and her daughter North West lip syncing and dancing to Swifts “Shake It Off” from 1989.
The bad blood between the two goes back to Kanye West’s 2009 VMA’s “I’mma let you finish” moment. Kim’s husband at the time interrupted Swift, grabbing the mic from her hand while she received the “Best Video by a Female Artist” award.
The scandal made her a pop culture victim, but Kardashian had other ideas.
The SKIMS founder joined the battle when Kanye released a song called “Famous” with the controversial lines “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous (Goddamn) / I made that bitch famous.” It received mixed reactions, but West clapped back saying he’d asked Swift for her blessing.
Swift denied it at the time. “Kanye did not call for approval but asked Taylor to release his single ‘Famous’ on her Twitter account. She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, ‘I made that bitch famous,” her publicist Paine said in a statement to USA Today.
In July of the same year, the Keeping Up with the Kardashians star defended the actions of her then-husband by leaking a recorded phone call.
In it, the American singer-songwriter can be heard saying “If people ask me about it, look, I think it would be great for me to be like, ‘He called me and told me before it came out … Joke’s on you, guys. We’re fine.” The clip went viral, opening Swift up to “snake” references and all the downsides that came with #KimExposedTaylorParty.
Swift maintained her innocence and stayed out of the limelight.
She came back winning with “Look What You Made Me Do” from her sixth album, Reputation. An anonymous release of the unedited phone call cleared her of any misconduct, and she explained her stance in her 2023 Time Person of the Year profile.
“That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls,” she explained. “I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard,” she added.
She went on to record “thanK you aIMee” and “Cassandra,” both reportedly about Kim Kardashian, claiming that the journey healed her.
