CELEBRITY
Taylor Swift‘s new song “imgonnagetyouback” from The Tortured Poets Department is drawing comparisons to Olivia Rodrigo‘s “Get Him Back!” — and many fans are comparing it to their previous conflict with “Cruel Summer” and “Deja Vu.”
Swift’s new song, which appears on the second half of her surprise double album The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, features a play on words with the term “get you back.” Will she get back together with her man or will she get revenge?
On the chorus Swift, 34, sings: “Whether I’m gonna be your wife or / Gonna smash up your bike, I haven’t decided yet / But I’m gonna get you back / Whether I’m gonna curse you out or / Take you back to my house, I haven’t decidеd yet / But I’m gonna get you back.” It immediately sparked comparisons to Rodrigo’s song, “Get Him Back!” in which the 21-year-old uses similar wordplay.
The single, which she debuted in September 2023, features Rodrigo singing in the chorus, “I wanna get him back / I wanna make him really jealous, wanna make him feel bad / Oh, I wanna get him back / ‘Cause then again, I really miss him, and it makes me real sad / Oh, I want sweet revenge.”
Fans on social media quickly pointed out the similarities. “Taylor having ‘imgonnagethimback” and Olivia having ‘get him back’ are like two different age perspectives on the same dilemma … and that’s beautiful,” one X user wrote while another quipped, “imgonnagetyouback by taylor swift and get him back! by olivia rodrigo are the same song just in different fonts.” Some music lovers have pointed out that Rodrigo and Swift aren’t the first to use the wordplay. Fiona Apple‘s 2005 song “Get Him Back” plays with the same double-meaning.
Others, however, couldn’t help recalling the drama of Rodrigo being forced to share royalties with Swift. “Wait so Taylor made Olivia Rodrigo give her song writing credit on Deja Vu because it kinda sounded like Cruel Summer. Is Olivia gonna get a credit because imgonnagetyouback has the same conceit as Get Him Back?” one commenter asked.
A second added, “i love taylor but she stole the entire premise of get him back so i believe olivia should be the one getting writing credits now.” Rodrigo grew up as a self-proclaimed “diehard” fan of Swift, and the “Fortnight” singer showed her support by sending Rodrigo a handwritten note with personalized gifts to celebrate the success of “Driver’s License” in early 2021. Rodrigo continually gushed over Swift while promoting her music, but their friendship may have hit a sour note when “Deja Vu” was released as Rodrigo’s second single in April 2021.
Swift — along with cowriters Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent — were retroactively credited on the track due to the similarities to Swift’s “Cruel Summer.” Billboard reported that Rodrigo had given up “millions” in royalties on the song. She and Swift haven’t publicly interacted since, and she claimed she didn’t deal much with the legal issue. “It’s not something that I was super involved in,” she told Rolling Stone in September 2023. “It was more team-on-team. So, I wouldn’t be the best person to ask.”
She admitted that she “was a little caught off guard” by the sudden additions to her songwriting credits, including Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Josh Farro getting retroactive credit on “Good 4 U” after comparisons to “Misery Business.” Rodrigo added, “At the time it was very confusing, and I was green and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.”
However, she maintained that there is no feud with Swift. “I don’t have beef with anyone,” she said. “I’m very chill. I keep to myself. I have my four friends and my mom, and that’s really the only people I talk to, ever. There’s nothing to say.”