It forms a lyric to one of her best known songs, but Taylor Swift still managed to divide a largely partisan crowd while issuing the rallying-cry to a sold-out Wembley Stadium on Sunday evening.
The pop superstar was performing the last of three consecutive shows in London before her mammoth Eras tour moves on to the Republic of Ireland and a string of concerts at Dublin’s Aviva Arena.
But Swift, whose estimated worth exceeds £1billion, left a faction of her unwaveringly loyal fanbase unimpressed while singing the chorus to anthemic 2012 track All Too Well.
The song, which features on her fourth studio album, Red, contains the lyric: ‘You taught me ’bout your past, thinkin’ your future was me/And you were tossing me the car keys, “f**k the patriarchy” keychain on the ground.’
While the track is a popular fixture in her live sets, Swift, 34, drew a mixed response after encouraging 88,000 predominantly female fans at Wembley to scream its final line in an apparent act of rebellion.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, one unimpressed onlooker wrote: ‘taylor swift got her audience of 88k fans to scream “F*** THE PATRIARCHY” at her concert yesterday … lady, you are a billionaire. get your head checked.’
A second added: ‘i’ve seen plenty of cute videos of dads who bring their daughters to taylor swift concerts – they’re bonding, i get that. but after seeing this idk man.’ [sic]
‘I love when pampered and privileged billionaires try to pretend they’re one of us and not part of the establishment. It’s so cute,’ quipped a third.
While a fourth joked: ‘Very few people have benefited from the nonexistent patriarchy quite as much as Taylor Swift.’
Elsewhere a fifth commented: ‘What percentage of the people that set up that stage do you think were men?’
‘The irony is so thick, it’s like trying to swim through a vat of molasses with a blindfold on,’ wrote a sixth.
During the show Swift hit back at Dave Grohl after the Foo Fighters singer suggested that she didn’t play live.
The ‘queen of pop’ made a point of introducing her band that were playing ‘live’ for the full three and a half hour setlist.
Swift told her audience: ‘What you just did is an unforgettable moment in not just my life, but every very single one of our crew. The band that’s going to be playing live for you for three and a half hours tonight.
‘They deserve this so much and so does every one of my fellow performers, and you just gave that to us so generously. We’ll never forget it.’
On Saturday night, Grohl blasted Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, suggesting Swift doesn’t sing live, while on stage in London last night.
He took a swipe at Swift, dubbing her sell out tour the ‘errors’ tour while quipping that his band ‘actually play live’.
While performing at the London Stadium, he referred to Swift as she was playing the same night on the other side of the capital in Wembley – to boos from some fans.
He addressed the crowd: ‘We were joking about the Taylor Swift tour earlier. I know that she’s on her ‘errors’ tour.
‘I tell you man, you don’t want to suffer the wrath of Taylor Swift. So we like to call our tour the Errors Tour.
‘We’ve had more than a few eras, and more than a few f***ing errors as well. Just a couple.’
The band leader clarified: ‘That’s because we actually play live. What?’
To great cheers, he continued: ‘Just saying. You guys like raw live rock ‘n’ roll music right?
‘You came to the right f***ing place!’
