“I’m a massive fan of this brilliant artist and after getting to know her I can confirm: she is THE ONE to watch,” the pop star said about Ice Spice in a tweet Wednesday. “Sweetest person ever thank u sm,” Ice Spice replied in a quote tweet.

The collaboration comes amid swirling rumors that Swift and Healy, the lead singer of the 1975, are courting. Some followers are skeptical of her determination to work with Ice Spice after Healy confronted backlash for agreeing with racist feedback made about Ice Spice in a February podcast.

Here’s the Taylor Swift-Ice Spice-Matty Healy drama, defined:

What did Matty Healy say about Ice Spice?

While a visitor on “The Adam Friedland Show” in February, Healy laughed as the 2 podcast hosts, Friedland and Nick Mullen, made enjoyable of Ice Spice utilizing derogatory phrases about her physique and ethnicity, calling her an “Inuit Spice Girl,” and “chubby Chinese lady,” whereas utilizing contrived Chinese and Hawaiian accents to imitate her.

In the episode, which was deleted from Spotify and Apple Music, Ice Spice was talked about by Healy, who said he tried to message on Instagram. When Healy was requested by the hosts, who’re recognized for his or her racially insensitive jokes, if she sounds the best way they mimicked her, he informed them, “Yeah, that’s what Ice Spice is like” after which referred to as her “dumb.” Later within the episode, Healy requested the hosts to do mock-Japanese folks working in focus camps and did a Japanese accent himself.

Healy later apologized after dealing with backlash in April whereas performing a live performance in Auckland, New Zealand. He informed the viewers: “I just feel a bit bad, and I’m kind of a bit sorry if I’ve offended you,” he said. “Ice Spice, I’m sorry. It’s not because I’m annoyed that me joking got misconstrued. It’s because I don’t want Ice Spice to think I’m a d—. I love you, Ice Spice. I’m so sorry.”

Before the now-deleted podcast, Ice Spice, who’s Dominican and Nigerian, had expressed her love for Healy’s band the 1975 in a January video for Elle.

Representatives for Healy and Ice Spice didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, and Swift’s group declined to touch upon the report.

Why are folks upset with Taylor Swift?

The singer, who’s at present touring the nation on her Eras tour, has been buddies with Ice Spice. In March, Swift wrapped the “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” rapper in a hug onstage on the iHeartRadio Music Awards.

Swift has not commented on the controversial statements made by Healy, who she’s additionally been noticed hanging out with in latest weeks.

Some pop music followers have accused her of staying quiet on essential social and political points, akin to LGBTQ rights, and publicly taking a stance solely when it’s handy for her.

Swift didn’t publicly touch upon politics till 2018, when she named two Democratic candidates on Instagram she can be supporting in that 12 months’s midterm election. When Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) ran for the Senate, Swift condemned her stance in opposition to LGBTQ rights and voting report in opposition to the Violence Against Women Act, which addresses home violence and stalking.

“I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent,” she wrote on Instagram in 2018.

The music video for her 2019 hit track “You Need to Calm Down,” which was made in help of the LGBTQ group, was met with backlash, as some followers said it featured stereotypical depictions of homosexual folks whereas she financially benefited throughout Pride Month. (At the time, she did additionally make a “very generous” donation to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the advocacy group said.)

Some Swifties have come to her help through the years, arguing that she’s a musician not an activist, and isn’t liable for making an announcement about each human rights concern — or each problematic assertion her buddies or companions say.

Healy is the lead singer of the 1975, a British different band recognized for songs akin to “Chocolate,” “Somebody Else” and “The Sound.” The group was named band of the last decade by British information outlet NME in 2020, has received 4 Brit Awards and was nominated for a Grammy for “Give Yourself a Try.”

Healy’s habits has raised eyebrows before. Fans have expressed discomfort together with his follow of kissing followers onstage, even when it’s consensual. He was accused of utilizing the Black Lives Matter motion to advertise the band’s track “Love It if We Made It” in a deleted tweet, in response to Variety. While performing the track final January, he was accused of being antisemitic after he appeared to do a Nazi salute whereas singing the lyric, “Thank you, Kanye, very cool.” (Kanye West, also referred to as Ye, has come underneath hearth for his personal antisemitism.)

And Healy informed the Fader in 2018 that “misogyny doesn’t happen in rock and roll anymore,” though he later tweeted out an apology. “I was simplifying a complex issue without the right amount of education on the subject,” he said.

Ice Spice, whose actual identify is Isis Gaston, is a rapper from the Bronx who has exploded in recognition within the final 12 months. She’s recognized for TikTok-famous songs akin to “Munch (Feelin’ U),” and the pink-centric “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2.,” which she labored on with PinkPantheress.

Known for her Annie-esque pink hair, Ice Spice’s songs have usually been used because the backdrop to fashionable TikTok dances. She began rapping whereas a school pupil at State University of New York at Purchase.

Is Taylor Swift really courting Matty Healy?

Swift and Healy haven’t publicly confirmed or denied courting rumors. But many Swifties are satisfied they’re romantically linked.

In addition to Swift and Healy musically collaborating — acting at one another’s concert events and making unreleased “Midnights” songs — the pair have been seen holding fingers this month, and followers have speculated that they mouthed the same words — “This is about you. You know who you are. I love you” — throughout their concert events one night time aside.