Just in case there was any doubt whether Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" was about her relationship with Katy Perry, a dancer in a shark costume appeared onstage during the pop star's performance of the aforementioned track at her concert in Foxborough, MS over the weekend.
You can watch the fan-shot video clip at the bottom of the page and see the brief interaction. Swift is transitioning into her former Hot 100 no. 1 hit. A group of dancers lifts a stage prop featuring Swift, Frankenstein-style, and the star launches into the song. A few seconds later, she looks backward at the translucent backdrop and there's a dancer in a shark costume doing it's thing. The marine carnivore only appears briefly but Swift clearly acknowledges its presence and gives a chuckle.
If you aren't up-to-date on the history that led to the following situation, here's a rundown: Swift made it about as clear as possible that "Bad Blood" was about her relationship with Perry, claiming (without naming names) that "for years I was never sure if we were friends or not," and that the performer she was alluding to once tried to hire Swift's backup dancers for their own tour. All we know is that the performer in question is female and can host an arena tour.
Most trace these events back to 2013, when dancers Lockhart Brownlie, Scott Myrick and Leah Adler were asked by Perry to jump onboard for her "Prismatic" tour from Swift's tour at the time. That may have been rude, but ultimately the decision lay with the dancers, who had been with Perry before and apparently enjoyed her company more.
"Obviously we were with Katy for two and a half years, she's like family to us," Brownlie said. "So we were, like, 'Absolutely.' We weren't really dancing in Taylor's tour anyway, so I had got a little bored and I really wanted to do a promo tour."
That apparently led Swift, not known to exaggerate the wrongs done to her, to write "Bad Blood" about Perry. The shark stand-in references Perry's famous Left Shark, a dancing mascot at her Super Bowl performance that was noticeably out-of-sync with the choreography.
