Elvis Costello Throws Subtle Shade at Taylor Swift Amid Olivia Rodrigo Songwriting Credit Drama

Elvis Costello has shared his thoughts on the alleged songwriting credit drama between Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift.

Sitting down for a new interview that went live in Oct. 24, Costello shared his thoughts on the similarities between his song "Pump It Up" and Rodrigo's song "Brutal," saying that he would not demand a writing credit despite them sounding similar.

"Now, I did not find any reason to go after them legally for that, because I think it would be ludicrous. It's a shared language of music," he told Vanity Fair.

However, his next line appeared to throw some subtle shade at Swift.

"Other people clearly felt differently about other songs on that record," Costello added.

At the beginning of her career, Rodrigo and Swift appeared to be good friends and often supported each other. In April 2020, Rodrigo covers Swift's "Cruel Summer," which Swift then quickly praised.

Swift approved the sample of her song "New Year's Day" for Rodrigo's song "Step Forward, 3 Steps Back" in 2021 from her Sour album. In the same year, Rodrigo said to Rolling Stone that she was inspired by "Cruel Summer" to create her song "Deja Vu."

"We wanted to write a bridge. I wanted it to be really high-energy, 'cause the rest of the song is so serene and eerily calm. But I wanted the last bridge to go crazy and I love 'Cruel Summer'; it's one of my favorite songs ever. I love the yell-y vocals in it—like, the harmonized yells that she does. I feel like they're super electric and moving, and so I wanted to do something like that," she said.

In July, Swift and her "Cruel Summer" co-writers are given credit on "Deja Vu" and Billboard reports that Rodrigo had given up 50% of "Deja Vu" and "Good 4 U" royalties to Swift and Paramore respectively, resulting in the loss of millions.

In an interview with Teen Vogue, Rodrigo spoke about the experience.

"I just feel like sometimes there's so much noise and criticism and weird things going on in the world. I hope people know that, deep down, all that I do is write songs and talk about how I feel, and that's the most important thing to me. Everything else, I think, is not so important," she told them.

"A hard thing for me to grapple with when this whole thing started happening is just, anyone can say anything. You just can't control...that goes for anyone, like girls going to high school," Rodrigo adds.

The rumored feud died down for a bit until 2023 when fans suspected Rodrigo's song "The Grudge" from her Guts album to be about Swift, though Rodrigo has never confirmed this.

Tags

Elvis Costello, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo