Pop Star Feuds: An Inside Look At What Happened

As long as there have been celebrities, there have been feuds between them. Dating back to the days of old Hollywood and running through the TikTok trends of today, celebrity fights are often backhanded and backstabbing — and easy fodder for fans to follow.

As history tells us, many of the most legendary famous feuds have followed the brightest stars time and time again. This pattern is not new — the likes of Bette Davis, Jayne Mansfield, and Frank Sinatra faced a number of Hollywood foes that kept their names in the spotlight and the tabloids. The trend continued throughout the 20th century, ranging from stars of stage and screen to singers, songwriters, athletes, and everything in between.

Now, within the 21st century, celebrity feuds have become a viable form of fame for many. From pop princess royalty to music icons in their own right, an infinite number of fans have been privy to the innermost inklings of unrest between some of the world's most famous faces.

Kanye "Ye" West isn't the only "K" that Taylor Swift has had beef with. Her feud with fellow pop star Katy Perry started off nicely with some sweet tweets between the two and even a duet on the former's "Fearless" tour. But the duo entered frenemy territory in 2014 when Swift revealed that the pair's party-happy friendship was not all as it seemed. "For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not," she told Rolling Stone. "She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I would think, 'Are we friends, or did she just give me the harshest insult of my life?'"

That's not all — Swift claimed that Perry practically ruined one of her tours. "She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me," she told the magazine. This caused Perry to share a now-infamous tweet, stating, "Watch out for the Regina George in sheep's clothing," likening Swift to the vengeful antagonist from "Mean Girls." Perry further refuted the claims on James Corden's "Carpool Karaoke." The "Teenage Dream" singer explained that Swift ghosted her and then wrote a song shading her. "And I'm like 'Okay, cool, cool. That's how you wanna do it? Karma,'" Perry said.

In classic pop girl style, the two released a pair of songs aimed at each other. Swift's "Bad Blood" set the internet agog in 2015, while Perry's "Swish Swish" made waves in 2017. The duo eventually made up in 2019 when Perry appeared in Swift's "You Need To Calm Down" video.

Madonna is arguably known as much for her famous feuds as she is for her trailblazing discography. One of her most publicized feuds was with fellow music icon Elton John. Things took off in 2002 when John criticized Madonna's Bond theme "Die Another Day," the first of many disparaging public statements the Rocket Man would make about the Material Girl.

In 2004, John mocked Madonna's nomination for best live act at the now-defunct Q Awards, rhetorically asking "Since when has lip-syncing been live?" In 2005, John called Madge a "miserable cow" when she reportedly refused to sing at his civil union with partner David Furnish. Things came to a head at the 2011 Golden Globes, where both John and Madonna were nominated for best original song. While John and Furnish shared some "fighting words" about their fellow nominee on the red carpet, it was Madonna who took home the award. John's husband reacted with scathing comments on social media, while John shared his true feelings about the pop diva with the media once again.

Alas, the feud seemingly ended in 2012 — all in front of a French restaurant. "She came in, and I sent over a note," John told Extra. "She was very gracious. I apologized profusely because what I said should never have appeared in public. She accepted our apology, and then we bought her dinner. That's over and done with." Madonna later dedicated a song to John at a concert in France, telling the audience, "I forgive him."

Despite both having long-tenured careers in showbiz, these one-named divas never seemed to get along. As a result, Cher and Madonna had a public falling out for multiple decades. One of the first public barbs traded was by Cher in a 1991 interview with Steve Kmetko: "There's something about her that I don't like. She's mean. I don't like that." In another interview with Terry Wogan, the notoriously blunt Cher didn't mince words: "She's unbelievably creative because she's not unbelievably talented, she's not beautiful, but she's kind of, she's rude." Ouch!

Despite the harsh words, Cher has also wrapped her insults in a bit of playful shade — with a dash of genuine compliments thrown in for good measure. "I never hated her, I just thought she was a b***h," she shared in a Reddit AMA in 2013. "Actually I quite respect her. Actually I think Madge might be one of the most amazing artists I've known."

While Madonna hasn't commented publicly on the feud, the two did pose together for some photos at the 2017 Women's March in Washington, D.C. Looks like not all of the blood between the two is bad!

It was the "I don't know her" heard around the world. Megastars Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez have had a storied feud between them ever since Carey uttered those four shady words in an early 2000s interview on the German show "Taff." The origins of the Carey-Lopez feud trace back to J-Lo supposedly ripping off one of Carey's tunes from her "Glitter" soundtrack for what would eventually become "I'm Real." This obviously didn't sit well with Carey, as "I'm Real" went on to be a success compared to the box office bomb that was "Glitter."

There may have been other forces at play behind the scenes, but in front of the camera, the feud fought on. Mimi threw shade on multiple talk shows, including a now infamous interview with "Larry King Live" in 2002 where Carey made a blunt comparison between her own artistry and Lopez's. "There are rivalries, but I don't think she has anything to do with me. I mean, my whole thing is singing, writing songs."

J-Lo herself commented on "What What Happens Live" in 2014. "I don't have a feud against her at all. I know from back in the day, I've read things that she's said about me that were not the greatest, but we have never met," she said. The media back-and-forth continued for several years until Carey addressed the "I don't know her" moment in a 2018 interview with Pitchfork. "I really was trying to say something nice or say nothing at all," she said. "I really was."

One of Christina Aguilera's first celebrity feuds was with Eminem, and the battle raged long and lasciviously for a few years. In 1999, the then fresh-faced newcomer Aguilera spilled the beans on MTV News that Eminem had married his longtime on-and-off again flame, while simultaneously drawing light to the violent lyrics he wrote about her. She shared, "I heard he's married now ... the girl that he talks about killing on his record, actually."

Em fought back in his mega hit "The Real Slim Shady" and took things to a new level, accusing Aguilera of giving him a venereal disease (VD) and making sexist comments about her rumored relationships with Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst and "TRL" host Carson Daly. Aguilera released her own diss track, 2002's "Can't Hold Us Down." While not as obvious as Em's track, she did croon, "Call me a b***h cause I speak what's on my mind / Guess it's easier for you to swallow if I sat and smiled."

Fans thought the beef was done in 2003 when Aguilera handed Eminem a Video Music Award, prompting him to thank her. But in 2018, Em picked up the boxing gloves once more and mentioned Aguilera in his song "Kick Off." Aguilera commented on the song on a 2019 episode of "Watch What Happens Live," saying, "It was thirsty then, it's thirsty now. Have something else to talk about."

From the moment she mocked her on her family's reality show, Kelly Osbourne put up a pretty big fight against Christina Aguilera. On a 2002 episode of "The Osbournes," the titular rock-and-roll family, particularly daughter Kelly, harshly derided Aguilera's Christmas album. Afterward, Osbourne continued to berate Aguilera in the press, once claiming (via the Daily Mail), "She is one of the most disgusting human beings in the entire world ... I've seen drag queens who look better." 

Aguilera bit back at the 2003 American Music Awards, prompting an all-out media war between the two. According to MTV News, the two were catty all throughout the 2003 MTV Europe Music Awards — refusing to walk the red carpet at the same time, throwing darts at a picture of the other in a pre-taped skit, you name it.

From there, the beef simmered for a bit until 2011, when Aguilera bought the Osbourne family home and re-sold it two years later. The real estate deal clearly didn't sit well with Osbourne, who commented on an episode of E!'s "Fashion Police" (via Us Weekly). "Maybe she is just becoming the fat b***h she was born to be," she said. "I don't know. She was a c**t to me. And she bought my house!" Osbourne stood by her body-shaming of Aguilera in 2012, claiming the "Come On Over" diva started it first. But since then, the feud has seemingly died down to but a faint flicker of what once was.