“The Life of A Showgirl” by Taylor Swift was released on October 3rd and, according to NBC, has since broken the record for single-day streaming on Spotify and dozens of other never-seen-before records. It has been danced to, sung with, and memorized by millions of people all over the globe in the short span of a month. With catchy beats, witty lyrics, and memorable choruses, the album has quickly jumped up the charts and into Swifties’ hearts.
Swift’s 12th Studio Album has 12 tracks, with a length of 41 minutes, becoming the shortest album she’s ever released. Although, with CD, Vinyl, and even Cassette variants, Swift has put out 32 different versions including extra tracks, voice memos and acoustic versions of the songs, all with original names like, “Baby that’s show business”, or, “The Crowd is your King.”
Swift pulled out the ace in her card deck by announcing the album on her fiancé’s podcast, New Heights. Although she’s varied album announcements before, from award shows to surprise overnight drops, nobody saw it coming. With a briefcase, she unveiled the mint and orange standard cover, of her laying in water surrounded by shattered glass. She later revealed she wanted to show what her life was like offstage, because that’s what the album was about. The image was meant to show what she did every night – lying in a bathtub, recovering.
“The Life of A Showgirl”, according to Swift, was written while on her European Leg of The Eras Tour, her global, 2-year-long tour of all her albums. Yet, the album is meant to show the balance between her life and being in the spotlight. According to Taylor, “This album isn’t really about what happened to me onstage. It’s about what I was going through offstage.” From falling in love, performing almost every night, and still surviving in the eye of the public and paparazzi, this album came to life. Every song ties back to Swift’s life, while being glamorous and relatable.
Another way Taylor Swift proved she truly is a mastermind is through her strategic box office appearance. Although the AMC listening party was only showing for one single weekend, she sold over 34 million dollars in ticket sales alone. It was a genius move, to make a film people could listen to for the first time together. It included the first screening of the official music video of “The Fate of Ophelia”, lyric videos, and behind-the-scenes material from the making of the music video. For each song, Swift spends a few minutes explaining the backstory or her thoughts, which adds to the listening experience. People were able to bond seeing the well-awaited album for the first time, and created memories while breaking records.
The tracks vary from slower, heart-wrenching tracks, like “Eldest Daughter”, to quick, colorful love in “Opalite”. Each of these songs stuck out for not just their melodies, but for references and hidden meanings listeners may not have caught.
“The Fate of Ophelia”
This song surrounds Swift as she dedicates herself to her love, following the theme that somebody very special saved her from a lover’s death. In the chorus, Swift sings, “You dug me out of my grave and saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia”, following the idea that she would’ve gone mad, just like the Shakespearean character. In the play Hamlet, Ophelia takes on a role of a daughter and in the center of multiple loves. She is known for her innocence and indecisiveness, which eventually lead to her death. Throughout the song and music video we see many easter egg references to Ophelia’s death, drowning. Swift uses lines like, “And if you’d never come for me, I might’ve drowned in melancholy”, and gives backstory of Ophelia’s life, “love was a cold bed full of scorpions, the venom stole her sanity.” Swift also uses a mix of newer lingo like “vibes” while still connecting to her deep roots of poetry, which she reportedly did on purpose. Overall, the song is a perfect single to open up Swift’s personal love story and how being in the public can be maddening.
“Elizabeth Taylor”
“Elizabeth Taylor”, the song, is about the long-lived popularity and love of the 1950’s Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor. It’s a mix of Swift’s personal love life and wondering about the future of her relationship with Travis Kelce, while pulling back to tell backstory on the actress. With lines like, “That view of Portofino was on my mind when you called me at the Plaza Athénée”, describes an idolized scene when a lover leaves her in Italy. She was similar to Swift, often being in the public and glamorized. “She usually played a woman of common sense and uncommon passion,” TIME’s former film critic Richard Corliss wrote. Her eyes were often described as a violet color (Times) that Swift references in the line, “If your letters ever said ’“Goodbye’, I’d cry my eyes violet.” This ties back to Swift wondering if her love can last forever, similar to Elizabeth Taylor. Both women experienced scrutiny while being popular, which ties back to the theme of the album.
“Ruin The Friendship”
“Ruin The Friendship” is debatably the saddest song on the album, even through its pop sound and descriptions of love. Many listeners were unaware of this, and simply caught off guard and confused by the sad ending of the story. Swift uses powerful imagery to bring us back to her in high school, hanging out and slowly falling for a boy. Repeatedly, Swift says, “It was not an invitation, should’ve kissed you anyway”, which only makes sense until the twist in the song. “When I left school I lost track of you, Abigail called me with the bad news, Goodbye.” Swift sadly slows down the song to let the audience know that the boy she fell in love with in high school passed away. It is suspected to be about the same person as the song “Forever Winter”, which describes an old friend dying of suicide. The song flows through regret and repeats “should’ve kissed you anyway”. At the end, Swift sums up all her regret through one line, “My advice is always ruin the friendship, better that then regret it, for all time.”
“Actually Romantic”
This song is about the attention towards Swift, but how not all of it negatively affected her. Instead she remarks and can laugh about “all the effort you’ve put in,” and how it’s “actually romantic.” She uses lines like “It sounded nasty, but it feels like you’re flirting with me,” and “It’s actually sweet, all the time you’ve spent on me,” all to say that the hate does not hurt her. It’s a fun, catchy song, targeted at the public and her haters, who’ve spent so much effort on her, but she couldn’t care less. “Actually Romantic” has a perfect overall sound and develops how Swift perseveres through the paparazzi lens.
“CANCELLED!”
“CANCELLED!” is like the younger sister song to “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things”, from the Reputation album. It gives example after example of actions celebrities can do to become cancelled, hounded, and negative in the public eye. Some of these include, “Did you girl-boss too close to the sun?”, referring to the Greek myth of Icarus, and “Did you make a joke only a man could?”, making a sharp jab at many past cancelable offences. The biggest takeaway from this song is how Swift promises to stick and protect her cancelled friends. “It’s a good thing I like my friends cancelled,” and “Now you know exactly who your friends are, we’re the ones with matching scars.” She emphasizes how she herself can relate and how often little things make you “over.” In a nutshell, the song helps listeners see into the lives of artists and celebrities they might’ve otherwise had a blind eye to.
“The Life of a Showgirl (feat. Sabrina Carpenter)”
Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter start the title track of the album by describing another showgirl, pop sensation, always in the limelight. Swift explains, “I waited by the stage door”, then talked to Kitty, the showgirl. “I said, “You’re living my dream””, and Kitty replied, “But you don’t know the life of a showgirl, babe, and you’re never ever gonna.” This illustrates young artists’ naivety to the industry, all while being dissuaded from following their dream by somebody who truly struggled in being a pop girl. Carpenter continues the story as they transition the focus of the song from Kitty, versions of themselves. Here, they give backstories like, “Her mother took pills and played tennis,” then how she grew to become a showgirl. Lines like “I took her pearls of wisdom…I paid my dues with every bruise,” show how deep creating a dream went. Finally, at the end of the song when a new fan similar to themselves comes to ask for advice to become an artist, just like Swift did at the beginning of the song, the now showgirl explains, “I’m married to the hustle, and now I know the life of a showgirl babe, and I’ll never know another.”
Overall, the songs each have a specific topic that ties back to the large theme of Swift’s life offstage in “The Life of a Showgirl”. The listener gets a view into what Swift was dealing with behind the curtain, while recovering and working tirelessly at The Eras Tour. Continuing themes of love and loss, the album encases life as a beautiful thing showing growth, becoming more confident, aging and embracing the present. Through the high notes and snare drums, the listener becomes enthralled with Swift’s life as a showgirl.
