Article by: Ans Stork

On October 3, 2025, Taylor Swift released her twelfth studio album The Life of a Showgirl. This album was produced by Max Martin and Shellback, who have been on previous albums such as, Reputation (2017), 1989 (2014), and Red (2012).

Swift announced this album on her fiancé, Travis Kelce’s podcast New Heights along with Jason Kelce, his brother. She revealed the cover, tracklist, and theme of the album. The theme revolves around the behind the scenes of the Eras Tour, and what was going on in her life during that time. The cover art is mint with orange glitter lettering, with Swift laying in a bathtub in a stage costume. 

Swift started the album with “The Fate of Ophelia”, which references the Shakespearian tragedy Hamlet. In the play, Ophelia is the “eldest daughter of a nobleman,” who falls in love with Hamlet; he then betrays her by killing her father. When she learns of this, she goes mad with grief. Queen Gertrude, the queen of Denmark and Hamlet’s mother, reports her death, saying she fell into a brook while hanging garlands from a willow tree, and her clothes pulled her under. Even though the queen presented her death as an accident, the play allows some vagueness, leaving many readers to interpret it as suicide. 

In Swift’s song, she contrasts the character’s fate with her own. The lyrics, “and if you’d never come for me/I might’ve drowned in the melancholy” relate Swift’s mental state during the time of the album The Tortured Poets Department, and how she was saved from her fate by her fiancé. She goes on to sing, “You dug me out of my grave and/Saved my heart from the fate of/Ophelia.” She puts herself in the world of doomed heroines, but instead of drowning, she flips one of Shakespeare’s archetypes, turning it into a story of survival. 

Moving into track two, “Elizabeth Taylor”, another comparison of Swift’s life to pop culture. The song compares Swift’s life to Elizabeth Taylor’s, who is an “old Hollywood” actress, famously known for her extensive love life, similar to Swift, who says so in the lyrics, “All my white diamonds and lovers are forever/In the papers, on the screen, and in their minds.” This song alludes to a theme prevalent in Swift’s past songs: everlasting love. 

The song is a question for Kelce, asking if he is going to stick around, or is the spotlight on Swift going to be too much for him. After “All the right guys promised they’d stay” and “Under bright lights they withered away,” she’s afraid of this love ending like her past relationships will. 

Additionally, this isn’t the first time this couple has been mentioned in one of her songs. In “…Ready For It?” from Reputation, she sings, “And he can be my jailer/Burton to this Taylor.” In this song, Swift mentions the Plaza Athénée, the hotel where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, her husband, spent six months living. 

Track three is titled “Opalite”, a man made crystal, similar to opal, which is October’s stone. This is a reference to Travis, as he was born in October. This song is about how Travis and Taylor made both their lives happier by being supportive of each other after going through dark times. 

The drama surrounding this song comes from the lyric, “Sleepless in the onyx night/Now the sky is opalite.” As far as the media knows, Kelce’s exes have all been Black women, as well as one rumor that during the 2023 CMT Awards, Kelce asked the rapper Megan Thee Stallion on a date, and she turned him down. Critics saw this lyric as racist, as onyx is a dark crystal and opalite is a light, iridescent crystal. They accused Swift of having a “white savior complex”, telling Travis that she is better for him because she is white. But some people do not see it that way. Others online say that this is another reference to her past. That the “onyx night” is her spiral into melancholy, and with Travis in her life now, she’s happier. 

The only lyric that can be seen as referencing one of Kelce’s exes directly is, “You couldn’t understand it/Why you felt alone/You were in it for real/She was in her phone/And you were just a pose.” Fans of both Swift and Kelce connected these lyrics to his last girlfriend, Kayla Nicole, as she frequently filmed the two of them and shared the videos online. 

The fourth track is titled “Father Figure.” When the tracklist was revealed, fans noticed that the song shared a title with George Michael’s 1987 song. Indeed, she was inspired by Michael’s song, and contacted his estate to ask for permission to include him in the songwriting credits. This is important because both artists did not own their music for a majority of their career. In 1992, Michael sued his label, Sony, to gain control over his masters. In 2019, Scott Borchetta, the founder of Big Machine Records, sold Swift’s masters when he sold his company to Scooter Braun, founder of Ithaca Holdings. 

In 2020, Swift began to rerecord her first six albums, as they were under that company. She began with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version), and while on The Eras Tour, rerecorded and released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version). After that, in May of 2025, Swift announced that she bought her recordings from the investment firm Shamrock Capital, for an estimated $360 million.

This song is about her mentor, and how he manipulated her into a deal she wasn’t aware of. As the song goes on, she takes back her power, and her masters. Inspired by Michael’s “Father Figure”, she incorporated elements of the composition and melody into a new work. This is called interpolating, which requires legal action, which is why Michael has a writing credit. 

Swift’s track fives are known to be her most personal songs and Eldest Daughter is no exception. In this song, she delves into her insecurities that the press has brought to the spotlight, such as her relationships and her age. This track is another letter to Travis, telling him that she may not be the most confident person, but she will always uplift him and stand by his side. 

The sixth track is called “Ruin the Friendship.” This brings us back to her high school days in West Reading, Pennsylvania. The track starts out light-hearted and whimsical, daydreaming about a friend she wished she would have expressed romantic feelings to. But by the end of the song, things take a sad turn. 

“When I left school, I lost track of you/Abigail called me with the bad news/Goodbye, and we’ll never know why/It was not an invitation/But I flew home anyway/With so much left to say/It was not convenient, no/But I whispered at the grave/“Should’ve kissed you anyway.’”

The lyrics above are about the death of Jeff Lang, Swift’s high school friend and crush. She performed at his funeral in 2010, and later dedicated her “Songwriter of the Year” award to him that same week. “He was 21… and I used to play all my songs for him first.” Lang’s mother recently spoke out about the song, saying she was touched that Swift is keeping her son’s memory alive through her music. 

Track seven, titled “Actually Romantic”, is rumored to be about British singer-songwriter, Charli XCX. The drama surrounding the famous singers started in 2017, after being a supportive act during the reputation Stadium Tour (May-October 2018). XCX was interviewed by Pitchfork in 2019, where she described opening for Swift felt like, “…waving to five year olds.” She later clarified her comment, saying the energy was a striking difference from her 18+ shows. 

The feud sparked again when The Life of a Showgirl was released. Fans noticed a few lyrics that connected to XCX. “I heard you call me ‘boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave/High five my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me.” XCX is married to George Daniel’s, drummer for the band The 1975, and it’s very close with frontman Matty Healy. Swift dated Healy briefly in 2023. When XCX’s album, Brat, was released in June 2024, a song titled “Sympathy is a knife” caught the attention of fans of both XCX and Swift, as well as the press. One lyric could be a reference to Swift when she surprised The 1975 fans in January of 2023. The lyrics go, “”Don’t want to see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show/Fingers crossed behind my back, I hope they break up quick.”

“Wi$h Li$t” is another love song about Travis Kelce. She writes about those who only want the glamour and expenses that come with being famous, but that she only wants her lover. The flashy lyrics turn romantic, such as “They want that yacht life under chopper blades/they want those bright lights and Balenci shades… And they should have what they want/they deserve what they want/hope they get what they want/I just want you, huh/have a couple kids got the whole block looking like you.” 

The last lyric spun some controversy, with some critics discussing how the last line seems like she wants to live in an all-white neighborhood. However, it may also mean that she wants to have so many kids with Kelce that they take up space in the whole neighborhood. 

This next track is called “Wood.” The chorus features the lyric, “Seems to be that you and me we make our own luck/A bad sign is all good/I ain’t gotta knock on wood.” This song uses superstitions as a plot device for a love story, but it soon takes a quick turn to a raunchy and explicit track. It begins with lyrics about good luck charms and themes of bad luck, then pivots to innuendos. Swift had innocent intentions for this track, but the lyrics took a raunchy turn during production. 

This next track reminded fans of her sixth album, Reputation. Track 10 is titled “CANCELLED!!.” It explores the concept of fierce loyalty to your friends, who have been “cancelled.” Swift even recollects her own experience being cancelled by the media with lyrics such as, “They stood by me/Before my exoneration/They believed I was innocent/So I’m not here for judgement” She explains that she is often heavily criticized in the media. 

Fans speculated that the song could be about multiple people. Blake Lively and Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, came to the minds of fans and critics alike. Since September 2023, when Swift was seen with Mahomes before a Kansas City game, critics claimed that Swift, along with Mahomes, is a Donald Trump supporter, despite Swift voting democrat since 2008. Lively also became a controversial friend of Swift’s once the It Ends With Us star was sued for alleged defamation and extortion by Justin Baldoni, her co-star. 

The eleventh track is called “Honey.” Perhaps the most romantic song beside “Eldest Daughter,” this song explores the difference a word can sound when used in a passive-aggressive way versus when used by a lover. A lyric that shows this is, “And when anyone called me “Lovely”/They were finding ways not to praise me/But you say it like you’re in awe of me.” Swift gives different examples of people using the words honey, sweetheart, and lovely. It’s a very sweet song, with Swift telling her lover, “You can call me honey if you want because I’m the one you want.” But some fans were quick to criticize her, claiming that the song was lyrically not her best, and saying it’s unoriginal and simplistic. 

The final song on the album is the title track, “The Life of a Showgirl.” This is also the only feature on the album, Sabrina Carpenter. The song explores the harsh reality of show business, highlighting the music industry with story telling. The song follows the relationship of Kitty, a singer, and an unknown narrator, who is a fan that is inspired by her and wants to go into show business.

The only issue critics took away from the song is how similar it sounds to the Jonas Brothers song “Cool.” I did a deep dive into both songs, and found the chord progression from both songs are different. In “Cool,” the chorus goes: G, F, C, and G again. In Swift’s song, the chorus goes: G, F, G, Am, F, and C. 

Despite its criticisms, track one has stayed at number one for eight consecutive weeks, showing that Swift is still as popular as ever. The album has billions of streams on Spotify, and reached five million presaves before the album was released.