Well, the time has arrived—Taylor Swift has officially dropped her 12th studio album, The Life Of A Showgirl. The pop heavy drop is expected to shatter listening records, and deliver Swifties the singer/songwriter’s long-anticipated return to pop.
From the first track, it’s clear The Life Of A Showgirl is an album about Taylor’s relationship with her now-fiance Travis Kelce. With lyrics like, “Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes / Don’t care where the hell you been, ’cause now you’re mine” — Swift is absolutely offering us insight into the relationship that “saved” her.
With a new set of references to unpack—and 12 tracks to riff on—here are the best lyrics and references in Taylor Swift’s The Life Of A Showgirl.
The Life Of A Showgirl Track List
Jump to a track for its meaning and references:
- The Fate of Ophelia
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Opalite
- Father Figure
- Eldest Daughter
- Ruin The Friendship
- Actually Romantic
- Wi$h Li$t
- Wood
- Cancelled!
- Honey
- The Life of a Showgirl (featuring Sabrina Carpenter)
Every The Life Of A Showgirl Song, Explained
Swift’s albums tend to follow a theme when it comes to track list order. For example, the famous Track 5 is always a tragic ballad (Dear John, All Too Well, My Tears Ricochet). However, Taylor loves to throw a curve ball, so let’s evaluate track-by-track, shall we?
1. The Fate Of Ophelia
The first track on Taylor’s album sets the tone for a fun and sexy album—and there’s no denying this one is about Travis. Why, you ask?
Well, the first line of the track is: “I heard you calling on the megaphone / You wanna see me all alone“. This appears to be a direct reference to how Taylor and Travis met: when Travis appeared on his metaphoric “megaphone” (aka, his podcast) to say he wanted to meet Taylor Swift.
The chorus of the album goes:
All that time, I sat alone in my tower
You were just honing your powers
Now I can see it all (See it all)
Late one night, you dug me out of my grave and
Saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia
For those wondering ‘The Fate Of Ophelia’ actually means, it’s a reference to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The character of Ophelia is a tragic figure who who eventually loses her mind and drowns amid grief and a broken heart. Ophelia’s fate is often interpreted as being controlled by the men in Hamlet, which is what ultimately leads to her tragic end.
In this track, Swift appears to suggest Kelce healed her broken heart.
Still in doubt it’s about Kelce? She sings about “your hands, your team, your vibes“—a clear reference to Kelce’s football career, and his now-famous Golden Retriever personality.
Fun Fact: The album’s cover art also references this theme. Featuring Swift symbolically “drowning” in a bathtub, it references the 19th century John Everett Millais painting of Ophelia, floating down a river, partially submerged.
2. Elizabeth Taylor
Another Kelce ode, Taylor uses this track to celebrate Travis for being able to keep up with her fame. “All the right guys promised they’d stay
Under bright lights, they withered away, but you bloom,” she sings.
In verse two, Swift sings: “Hey, what could you possibly get for the girl who has everything and nothing all at once? / Babe, I would trade the Cartier for someone to trust“. This would be a reference to Kelce’s extravagant gifts he’s supposedly given his honey, including two Cartier watches and a Cartier pendant.
The reference to jewellery ties in with the track’s title, Elizabeth Taylor, as the actress continues to make headlines for her phenomenal collection of engagement rings.
This isn’t the first time Taylor has mentioned Elizabeth Taylor in her music. (Remember, “He can be my jailer/Burton to his Taylor” from ‘Ready For It’?)
As we know, Elizabeth Taylor was a very real woman, her masterful work as an actress was often overshadowed by her personal life. (Sound familiar?) Elizabeth Taylor famously had seven husbands, and was married eight times (twice to Richard Burton). Her relationships and the legend of her celebrity usurped the substantial contribution of her work, which is probably how Taylor feels as an artist whose personal life is often in the spotlight.
Oh, and if, like me, you’re wondering where Musso and Franks is, it’s a restaurant in Hollywood that opened in 1919 and has long served exclusive celebrity clientele from the “best booths”.
3. Opalite
The ‘Opalite’ track is about Swift’s previous relationships—her heartbreak, her bad choices—only to see the light and find love in someone new. Per the chorus:
It’s alright
You were dancing through the lightning strikes
Oh, so sleepless in the onyx night
But now the sky is opalite
In case you were wondering, Opalite is the man-made version of the precious stone. Having said all that, Opalite also has a very distinct, luminous cloudy blue hue. Is it possible Opalite could be an additional reference Kelce’s eye colour?
In her New Heights podcast episode with Travis, Taylor also referenced that Opal is the birth stone of Libras. And you know who’s a Libra? Travis Kelce…
4. Father Figure
One of the edgier tracks on the album, ‘Father Figure’ is an unapologetic feminist anthem that could very well be a dig at some of Taylor’s male nemeses.
Famously, Taylor has been in a public war with the men who sold and bought her masters. When they were initially sold to music executive Scooter Braun, Taylor embarked on her famous quest to re-record all her albums, and eventually bought them back this past year.
The overarching narrative of ‘Father Figure’ tells the story of men who have purported to guide or help Taylor in her career, only for her to surprass them as the more powerful player. Overall, it’s a track about her own power. Far from gloating about her position, this is akin to Cher’s famous quote: “I am a rich man”.
The chorus?
“I’ll be your father figure
I drink that brown liquor
I can make deals with the devil because my dick’s bigger
This love is pure profit
Just step into my office
I dry your tears with my sleeve”
5. Eldest Daughter
While Track 5 has historically focused on Taylor’s relationships, and The Life Of A Showgirl appears to follow suit. The album’s first real slow jam appears to be a pledge to her soon-to-be husband. Confessing to once being caught up in the pursuit of cool, it seems Swift is ready to be happy—whatever that looks like in the public eye.
But I’m not a bad bitch, and this isn’t savage
But I’m never gonna let you down
I’m never gonna leave you out
So many traitors, smooth operators
But I’m never gonna break that vow
I’m nеver gonna leave you now.
Lest we forget that when Travis and Taylor met, the latter was fresh off a relationship with one of indie music’s most notorious ‘bad boys’, Matty Healy. Their dalliance was allegedly referenced in The Tortured Poet’s Department track ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’, where she wrote “You said normal girls were boring / But you were gone by the morning“.
Swift has previously sung about trying to keep up with her too-cool beaus, including in ‘All Too Well’, which is rumoured to be about Jake Gyllenhaal. Here, it seems Taylor has found delight in not pursuing being ‘cool’, singing, “I’ve been afflicted by a terminal uniqueness / I’ve been dying just from trying to seem cool.“
If you’re wondering why the ‘Eldest daughter’ reference, Swift writes: Every eldest daughter / Was the first lamb to the slaughter / So we all dressed up as wolves and we looked fire. In traditional birth order psychology, eldest daughters are often the first to forge new paths in their family, and may become “sacrificial lambs” for new values or ways of living. This suggests Swift has just been trying to find her path—and perhaps she’s finally found it.
6. Ruin The Friendship
This sweet sounding track disguises a sad significance for Swift. The track is about regretting not kissing a friend in high school, whom later passed away. The most heartbreaking lyrics?
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”
7.Actually Romantic
Um, is this a Charli XCX diss track? The Swifties are in a frenzy with suggestions this could be so. Let’s look at the first verse…
I heard you call me “Boring Barbie” when the coke’s got you brave
High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me
Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face
Some people might be offended
As discussed, Taylor previously dated 1975 frontman Matty Healy, whose bandmate is Charli XCX’s husband, George Daniel. But Taylor and Charli may have had beef. In Charli’s track ‘Sympathy is a knife’, XCX wrote, “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show“, which many concluded to be about Taylor given Charli also announced the song on the same day Taylor dropped TTPD.
Taylor also makes it clear she’s not singing about a man in this song…
But it’s actually sweet
All the time you’ve spent on me
It’s honestly wild
All the effort you’ve put in
It’s actually romantic
I really gotta hand it to you, ooh
No man has ever loved me like you do.
Yikes.
8. Wi$h Li$t
If there was ever a clue Taylor is ready to give up celebrity life, it’s ‘Wi$h Li$t’. With the verses comprised of a running list of things people want, Taylor ultimately concludes “I just want you.”
I just want you, huh
Have a couple kids, got the whole block looking like you
We tell the world to leave us thе fuck alone, and they do, wow
Got me drеaming about a driveway with a basketball hoop
Boss up, settle down, got a wish list
I just want you
9. Wood
The gist of ‘Wood’ is about Taylor knowing a relationship (presumably her’s with Travis Kelce) doesn’t rest on superstitions—like knocking on wood—but of genuine, stable love. That, and also, maybe it’s about Kelce’s, er, manhood.
However, there is this line that could suggest Wood is a double entendre…
Forgive me, it sounds cocky
He ah-matized me and opened my eyes
Redwood tree, it ain’t hard to see
His love was the key that opened my thighs
10. CANCELLED!
Could this be a reference to Blake Lively? Or one of Taylor’s handful of other ‘cancelled’ friends (like rumoured Trump supporter, Brittany Mahomes)? Both women in Taylor’s life have indeed been ‘cancelled’ at different stages and have been ‘cloaked in Gucci‘, per the lyrics. (Mahomes made headlines when she wore a $6,000 Gucci outfit to Wimbledon. Meanwhile, Lively was an actual Gucci girl.) Read the chorus lyrics below…
Good thing I like my friends cancelled
I like ’em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal
Like my whiskey sour
And poison thorny flowers
Welcome to my underworld
Where it gets quite dark
At least you know exactly who your friends are
They’re the ones with matching scars
11. Honey
The second last track on Taylor’s Life Of A Showgirl, is titled Honey, which is definitely a Travis Kelce reference. To start, Kelce just starred in Happy Gilmore 2, in which honey was a central part of his time on screen. After the film’s release, Swift also encouraged her fans to go watch it with a message featuring honey pot emojis.
Famously a term of endearment, there’s a chance ‘Honey’ is a pet name between Taylor and Travis. Either way, it’s certainly about her domestic romantic future:
Honey, I’m home, we could play house
We can bed down, pick me up
Who’s the baddest in the land? What’s the plan?
You could be my forever night stand
Honey
12. The Life Of A Showgirl (feat. Sabrina Carpenter)
For her first, and hopefully not last, duet of The Life Of A Showgirl era, Taylor chose her girlie Sabrina Carpenter. Carpenter was a natural fit for this album, not only because she and Taylor sang together multiple times on the Eras Tour, but because Sabrina is perhaps the most well-known celebrity currently championing a showgirl aesthetic.
As for the titular song’s references, both Swift and Carpenter appear to reference their own experiences as ‘showgirls’. Take Carpenter’s verse:
She was a menace
The baby of the family in Lenox
Her father whored around like all men did
Her mother took pills and played tennis
This could be a reference to herself, given Carpenter recently told Vogue about the effects of her father’s infidelity on her family life.
While we’ll have to wait for the album to drop to know for sure what the tracks are about, we’ll certainly be updating this list when we know more.
Are There Going To Be Bonus Tracks on Life Of A Showgirl?
During her New Heights podcast appearance and album reveal, Taylor Swift emphatically told fans there wouldn’t be any extra tracks.
“There’s no other songs coming,” She said. “There’s 12. There’s not a 13th. There’s not a 14th. There’s not other ones coming. This is the record I’ve been wanting to make for a very long time.”
While some fans may be disappointed, Swift promised—with emphatic Kelce confirmation—the album is a banger.
