Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift’s Alleged Feud Timeline

In an interview with Nylon, the rising starlet gushed over Taylor, sharing a memory of when she was 4 years old and belted out her song “Picture to Burn.” Olivia also dubbed herself “the world’s biggest Swiftie.”

On May 11, 2021, Olivia and Taylor finally met in person at the BRIT Awards and took this photo together backstage. Per CNN, Olivia passed Taylor a sweet handwritten note that night, too. The ladies still seemed to be smitten with one another.

Later that month, Olivia’s debut album “Sour” was released on May 21.

And fans learned that Taylor and her longtime writing partner Jack Antonoff had actually gotten a writing credit on one of Olivia’s tracks.

Olivia discussed why they received credits on the song “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back” while on The Zach Sang Show on May 30, 2021.

“We interpolated ‘New Year’s Day,’ which is Taylor’s song from ‘Reputation.’ I came up with the ‘1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back”‘ concept and I sort of wrote a verse and a chorus,” she said.

This basically meant that Olivia inserted chords from “New Year’s Day” into “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back.” This is different from sampling as Olivia re-recorded the chords in a toned-down manner so they would sound similar to Taylor’s, but weren’t identical.

In the weeks following Olivia’s release of “Sour,” fans started pointing out that there were similarities between Olivia’s song “Deja Vu” and Taylor’s song “Cruel Summer.”

While Taylor and Jack already received credit on “Sour” for “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back,” it appeared that they also believed they deserved credit on “Deja Vu” and accused Olivia of copyright infringement. Rumors circulated that Taylor actually sued Olivia over this, but that has never been confirmed.

In July 2021, Olivia quietly gave Taylor and Jack writing credits for “Deja Vu.”

The following month, Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams, who is friends with Taylor, and her bandmate Josh Farro received credit on Olivia’s song “Good 4 U.” This came after months of people comparing Olivia’s song “Good 4 U” to Paramore’s “Misery Business.”

Ultimately, Olivia lost millions of dollars paying out royalties to Taylor and Paramore — which likely felt like a major blow after working so hard to put out her first album. It was unclear why Taylor was so adamant about getting credit.

In December 2021, Olivia was named “Entertainer of the Year” by Time. In her interview with the publication, she spoke about the plagiarism accusations that surrounded her first album, claiming, “It was really frustrating to see people discredit and deny my creativity.”

Record producer and songwriter Dan Nigro, who has been working with Olivia since the get-go, also shared his thoughts. “It seems like people get funny about things when songs become really popular,” he said.

On June 30, 2023, Olivia released her new single “Vampire” and fans began speculating about who she wrote it about. Many pegged it as a breakup song and initially believed it was about her ex-boyfriend Adam Faze. However, sources confirmed to People that it was about someone else, which quickly made some turn their attention to Taylor.

That same month, Taylor added singer Sabrina Carpenter to her Eras tour lineup for Europe as a special guest. This raised brows as Sabrina is believed to be the woman that Olivia’s ex Joshua Basset left her for, as detailed in “Driver’s License.” As one could imagine, you usually aren’t chummy with the person that your ex dated after you.

Furthermore, in July 2023, Taylor added Paramore to the Eras tour lineup — which fans thought was further salt in the wound as the two artists who had taken Olivia down were now teaming up again.

The following month, the New York Times asked Olivia if she had been one of the numerous celebrities who attended Taylor’s Eras tour and she answered “I haven’t yet.” She then added: “I’m going to Europe next week.”

Fans felt that Olivia’s lack of attendance could have been intentional.