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Listeners are convinced ‘thanK you aIMee’ references the reality star
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Kim Kardashian has lost 100,000 Instagram followers since the release of Taylor Swift’s song “thanK you aIMee”, which fans suspect alludes to the pair’s years-long feud.
The 34-year-old pop star released her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, at midnight on Friday (19 April). Hours later, she dropped a surprise “2am version” that extended the record with 15 more songs.
Kardashian’s follower count quickly began dropping after the album’s release, with fans spotting multiple “clues” the “thanK you aIMee” track is about the 43-year-old reality star.
The main indication the album’s 24th track might be referencing Kardashian is the capitalisation of the letters K, I and M to spell out her first name, amongst other hints.
Although neither Kardashian or Swift have addressed fan theories about “thanK you aIMee”, the reality star’s Instagram following dropped from 364.3 million followers to 363 million over the weekend following The Tortured Poets Department release.
The “thanK you aIMee” lyrics outline how Swift’s life was positively impacted by how “Aimee” treated her. She sings in the chorus: “All that time you were throwin’ punches, I was buildin’ somethin’ / And I can’t forgive the way you made me feel / Screamed, ‘Fuck you, Aimee’ to the night sky as the blood was gushin’ / But I can’t forget the way you made me heal.”
Swift fans have been bombarding Kardashian’s Instagram posts with references to the song, writing: “Thank you aimee!!!!” and “All the time u were throwing punches…” in her comment section.
Kardashian and Swift’s long-term feud began when the reality star’s then-boyfriend, rapper Kanye West, climbed on stage during Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video at the 2009 VMAs as he thought Beyoncé deserved the accolade for “Single Ladies”.
After the rapper and the reality star married in 2014, Kardashian was at West’s side when Swift presented him with the Vanguard Award at the VMAs. Although it appeared any hostility had been resolved, Swift later claimed in an interview she and West hadn’t spoken backstage.
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She told Rolling Stone: “I’m standing in the audience with my arm around his wife, and this chill ran through my body. I realised he is so two-faced. That he wants to be nice to me behind the scenes, but then he wants to look cool, get up in front of everyone and talk s***. And I was so upset. He wanted me to come talk to him after the event in his dressing room. I wouldn’t go.”
In 2016, West released his song “Famous”, which included the lyrics: “I feel like me and Taylor Swift might still have sex/ Why? I made that b**** famous.”
He and Kardashian then leaked a phone call appearing to show Swift approving to have her name in the song, something the “Shake It Off” singer denied. A monumental backlash ensued.
“My career was taken away from me,” Swift told Time in an interview for her Person of the Year 2023 award.
“You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar. That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before.
“I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone any more. I went down really, really hard.”
The Independent has contacted representatives for Swift and Kardashian for comment.
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Taylor Swift references London pub The Black Dog on her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (Doug Peters/PA)
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