Taylor Swift may finally be addressing her rumored fallout with Olivia Rodrigo. On her new album The Life of a Showgirl, one song in particular, “Father Figure,” has fans buzzing over whether it’s a pointed message to her former protégé.
The track interpolates George Michael’s 1987 hit of the same name, but Swift gives it a sharp, sinister twist. Instead of a romantic dynamic, Swift steps into the role of a powerful industry mentor, likening herself to a mafia boss who takes a young artist under her wing. “You remind me of a younger me / I saw potential,” she sings, establishing a bond built on loyalty — and power.
Like Michael’s original, which featured lines about being a “preacher” and “teacher,” Swift’s version borrows the melody and some structure, earning Michael a songwriting credit alongside Swift, Max Martin and Shellback. But this time, the “love” between the mentor and protégé is “pure profit,” with Swift dropping mafia-coded threats like, “You’ll be sleeping with the fishes.”
Throughout the song, Swift layers in Easter eggs. One lyric, “They don’t make loyalty like they used to,” mirrors a phrase fans recently decoded on Apple Music tied to her Reputation era. There are also nods to her own history of industry battles — Swift famously re-recorded her albums after losing her masters to Scooter Braun, eventually buying them back in May. The George Michael interpolation may also be a wink to his own legal fight with Sony in the ’90s, when he claimed the company treated him like “a piece of software.”
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Fans immediately connected “Father Figure” to Swift’s real-life history with Rodrigo. The pair were close in early 2021, with Rodrigo often referring to Swift as her idol. But later that year, Rodrigo retroactively gave Swift and Jack Antonoff songwriting credits — and hundreds of thousands in royalties — for two interpolations on her debut album Sour. After that, their friendship seemingly fizzled, and the two have not interacted publicly since.
Many believe Rodrigo’s 2023 track “the grudge” offered her perspective, with the lyric, “You built me up to watch me fall / You have everything and you still want more.” Now, Swift’s “Father Figure” seems to return the serve. She ends the track with a chilling finale: “You made a deal with this devil, turns out my d*ck’s bigger / You want a fight, you’ve found it / I’ve got the place surrounded / You’ll be sleeping with the fishes before you know you’re drowning.”
