Elvis Costello has shared his thoughts on the alleged relationship between Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift.
Sitting down for a new live interview on October 24, Costello shared his thoughts on the similarities between his song “Pump It Up” and Rodrigo’s song “Brutal,” saying that he would not claim songwriting credit even though they sounded similar.
“Now, I don’t see any reason to legally pursue them for that, because I think it’s ridiculous. It’s the universal language of music,” he said Vanity fair.
His next line, however, seemed to offer some subtle nuance to Swift.
“Other people obviously feel differently about other songs on that record,” Costello added.
At the beginning of their careers, Rodrigo and Swift appeared to be good friends and often supported each other. In April 2020, Rodrigo covered Swift’s “Cruel Summer”, which Swift then quickly praised.
TAYLOR SWIFT POSTED A VIDEO OF ME SINGING THE WONDERFUL SUMMER ON HER Instagram STORY. I WILL NEVER STOP SPEAKING UP.
– Olivia Rodrigo (@oliviarodrigo) April 23, 2020
Swift approved the “New Year’s Day” sample for Rodrigo’s song “Step Forward, 3 Steps Back” in 2021 from her Sour album. That same year, Rodrigo told Rolling Stone that she was inspired by “Cruel Summer” to compose the song “Deja Vu.”
“We wanted to write a bridge. I wanted it to be really energetic, because the rest of the song is so serene and strangely quiet. But I wanted the bridge at the end to be crazy and I love ‘Cruel Summer’; it’s one of my favorite songs ever. I love the screaming vocals on it—like the harmonic screams she does they are extremely electric and moving, so I wanted to do something similar to that,” she said. .
In July, Swift and her “Cruel Summer” co-writers were credited for “Deja Vu” and Billboard reports that Rodrigo ceded 50% of royalties on “Deja Vu” and “Good 4 U” to Swift and Paramore, resulting in millions of dollars in losses.
In an interview with Teen magazineRodrigo talks about the experience.
“I just feel like sometimes there’s so much noise and criticism and strange things going on in the world. I hope people know that, deep down, all I do is write songs and talk about how you feel, and that’s the most important thing.” For me, everything else, I think, is not so important,” she told them.
Rodrigo added: “The hard thing for me when this whole thing started happening was that anyone could say anything. You can’t control… it happens to anyone, like girls in high school.”
The rumored feud subsided a bit until 2023 when fans suspected Rodrigo’s song “The Grudge” was performed by her Intestine the album is about Swift, although Rodrigo has never confirmed this.
TagsElvis Costello,Taylor Swift,Olivia Rodrigo