3 Times Artists Ended a Public Feud on a Song

Artists feud sometimes. As much as many want the music industry to appear like a collaborative space where everyone can have their own niche, it can be cutthroat. Fans can pit musicians against each other. As can other outside forces. And sometimes, egos clash, and a beef is sparked with no outside help at all. But where there is a feud, there is also potential for a headline-inducing makeup. The three artist pairs below all made up in the best way possible: on a song. Whether it’s a hatchet-burying remix or a duet so good tensions are put to bed, these three songs moved mountains.

Videos by American Songwriter

“Girl, so confusing featuring lorde” (Charli xcx and Lorde)

One note of Charli xcx‘s iconic Brat album was a song about unresolved tensions with another artist: “Girl, so confusing.” The original version of the song was splashy enough, with fans quickly working out who the pop artist was referencing. Charli xcx bumped up the buzz with a remix of the song for a redux version of the record, featuring the subject of the song: Lorde herself.

Well, honestly, I was speechless / When I woke up to your voice note / You told me how you’d been feeling / Let’s work it out on the remix, Lorde’s verse reads. Charli’s original verse spoke about her insecurities while being compared to her fellow English pop act. Lorde echoed that sentiment in the remix, enticingly leveling the playing field. Forgot that inside the icon / There’s still a young girl from Essex, she sings.

“When You Believe” (Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey)

While Charli xcx and Lorde’s beef was self-perpetuated, the rumored feud between Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey was more of a fan and media-driven rumor. Many people couldn’t imagine a world in which two impossibly iconic vocalists could co-exist. They proved them wrong when they decided to collaborate on “When You Believe.”

The pop-centric end-credit song for The Prince of Egypt, this track was wildly popular upon release. Part of that success was the song itself, but a major contributing factor was that Houston and Carey were singing together amid their proposed beef. This song remains a classic in both their catalogs and a testament to the idea that artists building each other up is often more appealing to audiences than tearing eachother down.

“You Need to Calm Down” (Taylor Swift and Katy Perry)

Though Katy Perry didn’t sing on Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down,” they did use the rollout of this song to squash their beef publicly. Most fans agree that Swift’s “Bad Blood” was written about her fellow pop star, which fueled animosity between them and their fanbases. However, a couple of years later, Swift and Perry made it known they had reconciled by appearing together in the music video for “You Need to Calm Down.”

It’s a small olive branch to be sure, but it speaks volumes. If there was any doubt that Swift and Perry had made up, their ability to work together toward a common goal (standing up against LGBTQ+ hate) put it to rest.

(TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)