Why Charli XCX’s ‘Max’s Kansas City’ Shirt Is Drawing Attention Amid Taylor Swift Feud Rumors

THE RUNDOWN

• Charli XCX wore a Max’s Kansas City top on Saturday Night Live, drawing attention amid rumors that she and Taylor Swift are feuding.
• Max’s Kansas City is not a reference to the Kansas City Chiefs, the team for which Swift’s fiancé Travis Kelce plays, but to a legendary New York City nightclub.
• Swift released “Actually Romantic” earlier this month, a diss track fans believe is directed at Charli.

Charli XCX made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live this weekend, and her shirt drew some attention amid her rumored feud with Taylor Swift. Charli appeared during Role Model’s performance of “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out.” She was wearing the Max’s Kansas City T-shirt that Role Model wore for his SNL promo shoot.

Role Model posted an Instagram Story pointing that out:

Max’s Kansas City is not a veiled reference to the Kansas City Chiefs, the NFL team for which Swift’s fiancé, Travis Kelce, plays. It is actually the name of a famous 1960s New York City nightclub that has since closed; Role Model even tagged its Instagram in his post.

Still, evoking Kansas City during a SNL appearance just a week after Swift released her alleged Charli diss song, “Actually Romantic,” did not go unnoticed by fans.

Charli hasn’t directly commented on the song, though she did post an Instagram Story of herself in the studio, hinting that some kind of musical response could be coming.

Swift and Charli have over a decade of history. The Life of a Showgirl star brought Charli out as a guest on her 1989 World Tour in 2015. Three years later, Charli opened for Swift during her Reputation Stadium Tour.

Taylor Swift and Charli XCX performing during the 1989 World Tour in 2015.

Charli XCX, Camila Cabello, and Taylor Swift performing onstage during the Reputation Stadium Tour.

The Brat singer made headlines for how she reflected on that experience during a 2019 Pitchfork interview. “I’m really grateful that [Taylor] asked me on that tour,” Charli said. “But as an artist, it kind of felt like I was getting up onstage and waving to 5-year-olds.” She also admitted that she no longer wanted to be an opener at that point in her career: “I’ve done so much of it, and it really cemented my status as this underdog character, which I like now. But I need to just own my own fucking shit finally.”

As her comments went viral, Charli dispelled feud rumors on X, saying her words were taken out of context. She meant “absolutely no shade” toward Swift, she began. “As I say in the article and have said many times before, I am extremely grateful to Taylor for inviting me to open for her. She’s one of the biggest artists of my generation, and the Reputation Tour was one of the biggest tours in history."

Fast-forward to 2024, and Charli released Brat and her song “Sympathy is a knife,” where she detailed her insecurity around a woman dating someone connected to her now-husband George Daniel’s band, The 1975. Swift briefly dated its lead singer, Matty Healy, in the summer of 2023. Weeks after their split, Swift met her now-fiancé, Kelce, who is based in Kansas City, Missouri.

In the lyrics, Charli sings: “I don’t wanna share the space / I don’t wanna force a smile / This one girl taps my insecurities / Don’t know if it’s real or if I’m spiraling” and “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show / Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick.”

Charli tried to brush off Swift rumors again when asked about the song in her August 2024 New York Magazine cover story. “People are going to think what they want to think,” she said. “That song is about me and my feelings and my anxiety and the way my brain creates narratives and stories in my head when I feel insecure and how I don’t want to be in those situations physically when I feel self-doubt.”

Swift, meanwhile, praised Charli in the same profile. “I’ve been blown away by Charli’s melodic sensibilities since I first heard ‘Stay Away’ in 2011,” she began. “Her writing is surreal and inventive, always.”

She added that the Brat singer “just takes a song to places you wouldn’t expect it to go, and she’s been doing it consistently for over a decade. I love to see hard work like that pay off.”

Earlier this month, Swift released “Actually Romantic,” which many fans interpreted as a response to “Sympathy is a knife.”

She begins the song by addressing someone rooting for her breakup: “I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave / High-fived my ex and then said you’re glad he ghosted me / Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face.”

Swift fueled more speculation that Charli inspired the track by posing with an apple in its visualizer art, a possible Easter egg for Charli’s Brat hit “Apple.”

Neither artist has directly addressed the feud rumors. Swift discussed the meaning of “Actually Romantic” in her Official Release Party of a Showgirl film, saying the song is “sort of a love letter to someone who hates you.”

She quipped that she’s flattered by the attention: “I don’t hate you. And I don’t think about this. But like, thank you for all the effort, honestly, that is wow. That is very, very sweet of you to think about me this much even if it’s negative. In my industry, attention is affection when you’re getting a whole lot of it so…”