After Initially Thinking Dua Lipa Took a Veiled Shot At Taylor Swift, Saying "She Doesn't Write Songs To Put People On Blast,” A Very Well Laid Out Argument By Kelly Keegs Has Me Wanting To Retract My Statement

Shots fired? Shots fired I previously thought on Sunday evening. 

But now, after that tweet went lunar viral, I have changed my mind and wish to issue a retraction.

Here's what happened:

I saw them teasing our queen Dua Lipa all Sunday afternoon during football, set to appear that evening as a featured interview segment, and set a reminder on my phone. 

60 Minutes might not be what it was back in the Mike Wallace days, but nobody, does better interviews than them. Actually maybe Howard Stern does, but as far as television goes, nobody brings the heat when they sit down with interesting people more than them. 

So for somebody who's been in love with Dua Lipa since she hit the scene with "New Rules" way back in 2017- when I used to play it in the club and see more people pull out Shazam and have more people come up and ask me what song it was than anything in a very long time, I was hoping they would get her to talk about something more than just the top level stuff everybody already knows.

As the interview Sunday revealed, since she was a teenager, Dua has only wanted to create, sing, and dance to pop music. She gives zero fucks that critics might deride her for it, or call her a one trick pony. She has zero interest in the latest flavor of the week, crossing over into country, or experimenting with different sounds. She makes fun, positive, music intended to be danced to. And she's unapologetic about it. 

And I fucking love it. 

But that wasn't the thing she said that I think was a subtle dig at Taylor Swift. 

That was the part she said that I tweeted above. 

When asked why she doesn't sing about her innermost thoughts and desires, to quote her, she replied, "It's just something that I naturally hold back. Some people are just so ruthless with their own private life, that they decide to put it all out in a song because they know that it is going to attract people's attention. And me, it was always important for me to make music that people really loved. Not because I was putting somebody out on blast. Not because I'm doing it for the clickbait, at somebody else's expense."

At the time, I thought, "who else could she be talking about here?"

I considered one main fact, and jumped to an ill-advised conflusion- that it must be fucking hell being a female pop artist today and not be named Taylor Swift. 

I thought, could you imagine how hard it is being Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Olivia Rodrigo, Demi Lovato, etc.? Aside from Miley Cyrus, who has ungodly money, and has never given a fuck in her entire life about anybody else, these girls have an unwinnable battle. It must feel like what it was like being a pro golfer back when Tiger Woods was in his prime and unbeatable. It didn't matter how well you played, or even if you won a tournament. That was never the news. The news was "Tiger lost". Or didn't win. You could save a family of puppies from jumping out in front of train and you'd still be backpage news compared to what kind of cereal Tiger had for breakfast that morning. 

That's these girls today and whatever they put out for music. 

Taylor can put out something very solid, yet nowhere near close to her best work, like The Tortured Poets Department, and her cult of followers and the media will polish that like it was Mr. Miyagi's old Ford. 

Giphy Images.

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(Not me though. Because I keep it real and am a free thinker.)

But I didn't even think this is arguable. 

I thought it was a totally fair statement, and not shit-talking in the least. 

I didn't think that meant she had "beef" with Taylor, or was trying to stir shit up. 

I thought, Dua Lipa truly thinks that Taylor is in one lane, she is in another, she writes a certain kind of music, and Dua does a completely different, and that's totally fine. 

BUT THEN, as I put the finishing touches on my blog, Kelly Keegs must have saw my blog in the works because she sent me a text asking why I thought that was a shot at Taylor. 

And she laid out a very good argument that countered basically everything I previously thought. 

She was right. 

Sabrina Carpenter's award winning, chart smashing album Short n Sweet is pretty much entirely about her ex, Shawn Mendes. 

Arturo Holmes. Getty Images.

Then there's Olivia Rodrigo, and her debut album Sour from 2021. Another massive hit, largely due to its raw and honest exploration of heartbreak and teenage angst, also aimed at her rumored ex Joshua Bassett. Songs like "drivers license" and "good 4 u" became anthems for a generation dealing with breakups. She followed that up with another monster album, guts, and a platinum record "Vampire" which was a vicious takedown of her ex Zac Bia. 

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Then you've got Ariana Grande, and her second to last album thank u, next, which featured several songs about her past relationships, including the title track which name-drops several of her exes, and "ghostin" which is rumored to be about her late ex Mac Miller. 

Then there's Selena Gomez and her album Rare, which featured songs like "Lose You to Love Me" that were based on her toxic and tumultuous relationship with Justin Bieber.

Pretty much every song from all of Halsey's albums are about exes and breakups. Manic and If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power both touch on themes of love, loss, and the disasters of relationships. Namely, her most famous one with G Eazy.

And of course, pop's hottest rising superstar, Chappell Roan, also fits the bill. 

While she might not have a full album dedicated to the theme yet, several of her songs clearly touch on past relationships and the emotions surrounding them- 

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"My Kink is Karma": Is song is a chick anthem about watching an ex get what they deserve.

and of course the smash hit "Good Luck Babe," a song that is a more direct message to an ex, wishing them well but also letting them know she's better off without them.

So as much as you want to hate on Kelly Keegs and her undying allegiance to Taylor Swift, she wasn't wrong here. I was.

Of course, just my luck that probably the biggest tweet drawing the most engagement I ever fire off is one I was incorrect on and wish I never hit post on. But them's the breaks. 

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Dua Lipa writes songs in happy keys like C, D, and Bb major. Songs about girl power, and getting over an ex by dancing your ass off at the club. 

Taylor, and basically every other female pop star, dabble in the same, but have done pretty well for themselves singing about their personal lives and experiences. Pouring their hearts out onto records, showing raw emotion and vulnerability that fans obviously love, and greatly appreciate. 

And good for them. It's obviously a recipe for success that resonates with women of all ages, from all walks of life, all around the globe.