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We Have The Receipts On Taylor Swift And Katy Perry's Alleged Feud

WE HAVE THE RECEIPTS.

So, it turns out Katy Perry isn’t responding to Taylor Swift’s β€œBad Blood” with a diss track titled β€œ1984.” The rumor started when a listing for β€œ1984” showed up in Katy Perry’s BMI profile and fans went haywire.

But why would people believe Katy was writing a diss track in the FIRST place? Oh, only because the two stars currently have one of the biggest beefs in all of pop history.

Lucky for you, we've got the receipts on their blockbuster feud.

Let's rewind things to the beginning. The year is 2008 β€” George W. Bush is still president, and the Kardashians have been reality stars for less than a year β€” and Tay and Katy are hanging out the VMAs.

Right off the bat, the two seemed friendly, though not automatic BFFs. They would pose together at award shows, like the 2009 Grammys...

...and tweet nice things about one another.

Watching the Waking up in Vegas video. I love Katy Perry. I think I'm going to hang her poster on my wall now.

I guess at this point Taylor hadn't learned that the @ feature is free.

The Teenage Dreamer wanted to join forces with the country star!

@taylorswift13 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~

Katy even made Taylor laugh!

@katyperry your last tweet made me burst out laughing. Oh my god that was classic.

I guess Katy has a great sense of humor?

@katyperry your last tweet was one of the funniest things i've ever read. "KITTY PURRY EW" hahahaha classic.

AND she knows how to throw a party, according to Taylor.

@Katyperry knows how to throw a birthday party! I would even go as far as to say it was party-licious. Best EVER. Happy bday, pretty girl!!

It's at this party that Taylor is photographed with a guy wearing a swastika on his shirt...WHOOPS.

OK, so I'm picking up some ~FrIeNdShIp ViBeZ~. (We're at the very end of 2009, FYI.)

@taylorswift13 HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAUTIFUL GIRL! You deserve it all!

It's also around this time that Taylor starts dating chronic Lothario John Mayer.

The 2010 Grammys: another award show, another opportunity to take a ~candid~ pic together.

Then in April 2010, TSwift brought Katy out to sing "Hot N Cold" at the L.A. stop of her Fearless tour.

View this video on YouTube

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You can tell by both their hairdos that 2010 was a simpler time.

The 2011 AMAs. Katy and Taylor embrace as Nicki Minaj looks on.

Cute.

Then in 2012, Katy begins her on-again, off-again relationship with John Mayer, TSwift's ex.

Fast-forward to 2013, and things get juicy, because all of a sudden...THERE IS TROUBLE IN PARADISE, and the "mad love" era of their friendship looks to be over.

The 2013 Grammys: Taylor and Katy shake hands, which seems...oddly formal, no?

Weeks later, Scott Myrick, a backup dancer who works with both artists (remember him he will be IMPORTANT) tweets a picture of a cake from Katy and what appears to be a cake for Taylor's tour. Katy replies cryptically.

Mothers always watching... RT @Scott_Myrick: Who wore the cake better? @TaylorSwift13 Barbie Or @Scott_Myrick Barbie!

WHAT DOES SHE MEAN?!

But Taylor is capable of firing shots of her own. Later in the spring, she tweets at Katy to "please never change"...without any context.

It could be a response to this tweet...or it could mean something else? DAMMIT, can these ladies just spell things out?!?

Then, more behind-the-scenes drama in the late summer, when three of Taylor's dancers on her Red tour jump ship to go work with Katy.

Shifting gears, remember all that controversy over how Katy played copycat with the first song from Prism, as her single "Roar" sounded an AWFUL lot like Sara Bareilles' "Brave"?

Well on August 19, 2013 β€” just over a week after "Roar" hit airwaves β€” Taylor brought Bareilles onstage to sing "Brave" with her at the Staples Center. Taylor throws some major shade during the performance.

View this video on YouTube

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Swift calls the song "so beautifully written" and "so original" before she brings out Bareilles. SHOTS. FIRED.

We'll get back to this in a little bit.

Let's jump forward about a year. It's September 2014, and Tay is gearing up for 1989's release. Everything is just rosy...and then her juicy cover story with Rolling Stone hits newsstands β€” as does shit to the proverbial fan.

The interview is ICONIC β€” do yourself a favor and read it here β€” but especially revealing is when Taylor discusses a track on 1989 titled "Bad Blood" and what β€” or who, to be exact β€” inspired the track.

Taylor tells Rolling Stone that the song was inspired by a fellow "female artist," but... she doesn't name her. What she does say, however, basically spills the metaphorical beans and thus, knowledge of this feud becomes public:

For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not. 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?'

Then, the fellow female star apparently took the feud to the next level:

She did something so horrible. 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.

Everyone was like, "Who the hell is Taylor talking about? Is it Miley? Is it Demi?" It didn't take too long to figure out, thanks to an interview from 2013 with one of Katy's backup dancers that resurfaces on the internet.

In an interview with The Examiner, dancer Locky Brownlie detailed how he jumped ship from Taylor's Red tour to rejoin forces with Katy.

And if there was even a shred of doubt as to the "Bad Blood" subject's identity, it was SHREDDED when Katy tweeted this sick burn the day after Taylor's Rolling Stone interview dropped.

Watch out for the Regina George in sheep's clothing...

Also, stellar Mean Girls reference, Katy.

But this is an all-out war, meaning there are battles on other fronts. In October, Taylor sits down with Jack Antonoff for an MTV interview, who co-wrote "Brave" with Bareilles.

View this video on YouTube

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Jack is also a frequent T. Swift collaborator ("Out of the Woods" and other work as far back as 2013).

In the sit-down session, Antonoff talk about 1989, and β€” GET READY FOR IT β€” how she avoided "brainless" and "evil pop" for her most recent record (WONDER WHO SHE COULD BE TALKING ABOUT). This wording is very, very important in relation to another interview Antonoff himself did with Time.

In the Time interview β€” which came out earlier in October β€” Antonoff (who also is dating Taylor bestie Lena Dunham) actually singles out Katy when he discusses music writing.

I like working with Taylor or Sara Bareilles or Tegan and Sara β€” where you're just in the room, talking about what stuff is going to feel like and sound like, and working from that perspective. It's not any of this bullshit of, 'Let's write a hit Katy Perry song.'

DAMN GURL. But β€” drumroll please β€” the Cold War of pop music was only beginning to heat up, as Katy was back in the spotlight as the headliner of the 2015 Super Bowl halftime show.

The California Gurl was naturally doing A LOT of press in the lead-up to her Super Bowl performance, and naturally, the whole Taylor thing was bound to come up with the media.

If somebody is trying to defame my character, you're going to hear about it.

This quote only fueled swirling rumors that she was going to take a swipe at Taylor during her set on the world's biggest stage.

But Katy's #iconic Super Bowl performance seemingly went off without a diss at T. Swift, and the rest is history, right? Well, not so fast...

I might be reading to much into this #HalftimeShowKatyPerry

During the beach-themed segment of Katy's performance where she sang "California Gurls," viewers were quick to point out her backup dancers wore "swimsuits" that looked eerily similar to a swimsuit Taylor wore while dating Connor Kennedy in 2012.

I'm not sure how exactly this is a diss... but with this pair's history, it has to mean something, right? RIGHT?!?

Then, more drama. Katy's cover story with Elle drops just a few days after the Super Bowl, and at first glance, she *seemed* to change her tune with regard to her rival.

Taylor's the sweetheart. Kanye's the villain. That's the narrative.

At first glance, it seems like our California Gurl might be extending an olive branch, right? I mean, she calls Taylor "sweetheart." Case closed: Perry is trying to patch things up, right?

The tiff goes quiet for a while, until the Billboard Music Awards in May when Taylor debuted her "Bad Blood" music video...

...and it was, as you know, a star-studded spectacle that basically looked like a mashup between Us Weekly and Sin City.

View this video on YouTube

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Lena, Cara, Ellie, Zendaya, even CINDY CRAWFORD showed up for the video. It was pretty frickin' epic.

Then of course there was Taylor's BFF Selena Gomez, who starred as Arsyn, the antagonist of the video. Her look seemed a little ~familiar~, for lack of a better term.

Notice any similarities? THOUGHT SO.

In the aftermath of the "Bad Blood" video release, rumors began recirculating of a response track from Katy β€” this time, apparently with the man who's dated both ladies, John Mayer.

But again, nothing concrete surfaced. Honestly, this feud really is "Hot N Cold," isn't it?

Two weeks after the "Bad Blood" music video premiered, pop star Ellie Goulding (who starred as Destructa X in the video) uploaded this photo to Instagram of herself partying with fellow T. Swift BFF/fairy goddess Lorde...AND KATY PERRY.

Katy Perry, Lorde, Ellie Goulding and more! πŸ’ƒπŸ»

DAMMIT, ELLIE. This is why we can't have nice things.

Goulding quickly took the photo down but, like, obviously people noticed it. When asked *WHY* exactly she deleted it, she had a very...coy response.

Ohhh, I deleted that because I looked bad in it. And I think I was a bit drunk. And I thought it wasn't a very good example of myself. That's so funny that um, that's even a thing. No, I delete things all the time! ... I'm great friends with Katy, I'm great friends with Taylor. That's very silly ... I zoomed in on my actual photo, and I was like, 'no.'

This comes across as a little suspicious, seeing as Goulding is GORGEOUS and I doubt she's ever uploaded a bad picture of herself.

And that brings us to the "1984" non-news event.

While we'd LOVE nothing more than for Katy and T. Swift to bury the hatchet (or mic?) and maybe even record a duet, it doesn't look like this battle is ending anytime soon.

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT, FOLKS: The complete "Bad Blood" feud of 2013–TBD.

BUT WAIT: THERE'S MORE!

On July 21, Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj got into a bit of a Twitter tiff over VMA nominations.

@NICKIMINAJ 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..

Nicki claimed her original argument about why she wasn't nominated was not in fact directed at Taylor...

Nothing I said had to do with Taylor. So what jabs? White media and their tactics. So sad. That's what they want. https://t.co/AfcwoyDvpg

...and T.Swift tried to smooth things over with the rapper.

@NICKIMINAJ If I win, please come up with me!! You're invited to any stage I'm ever on.

However, some were quick to point out that Taylor was nominated for Video of the Year for "Bad Blood" which is allegedly a takedown of Katy Perry.

Aren't you nominated for a video where you're pitting yourself against Katy Perry? https://t.co/5OpuTN9446

And a day later, just when you thought the dust settled, Katy herself weighed in.

Finding it ironic to parade the pit women against other women argument about as one unmeasurably capitalizes on the take down of a woman...

And then followed up with some Rihanna promo, for good measure.

The real travesty is where is the shine for #BBHMMVideo when VMA eligibility period was 7/7/14-7/1/15 & that gem dropped 7/1... @MTV

Looks like this feud is far from over!

This post has been updated to include Katy Perry's tweet.