To celebrate the release of The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift rolled out the red carpet for fans at movie theaters across the globe for even more glimpses at her musical process.
“[This album] was inspired by the most incredible time of my life that was so exciting because you made the Eras Tour what it was,” Swift, 35, said in a prerecorded message that accompanied the debut footage, addressing fans. “The way that tour felt, the way that it just lit up my whole life was such a through line of making this music. Thank you for being that unknowing inspiration behind the scenes. I was internalizing all of that love and putting that into that record, and now it’s out!”
She added, “I’m so happy that you wanted to celebrate that, and thank you for being so supportive and showing up as you have done for so many years. I could do absolutely none of this without you, and just wishing you all the best on your day.”
Swift wrote and recorded The Life of the Showgirl during the European leg of her Eras Tour in 2024, chronicling her experience off the stage.
The pop star’s 12th album dropped at precisely midnight on Friday, October 3, with the “Release Party of a Showgirl” screenings beginning several hours later at 3 p.m. ET featuring the music video premiere of “The Fate of Ophelia” and cut-by-cut explanations of each and every song on the record.
Keep reading for Us Weekly’s biggest takeaways from the big-screen event:
Lights, Camera, Action!
After an Eras Tour-style countdown that lasted 12 seconds, Swift greeted fans with a prerecorded introductory message about how the LP represented an “electrifying [and] exciting time” in her life. The clip led into the world premiere of the music video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” which will be uploaded to YouTube on Sunday, October 5, hours after the curtains close on the final cinematic screening.
The video, which costars all of Swift’s Eras backup dancers and touring musicians, features the Grammy winner in multiple different scenes. She effortlessly goes from Hamlet’s Ophelia to a Marilyn Monroe-esque showgirl to a 1960s-style girl group singer to a synchronized swimmer to a Joan of Arc-worthy warrior from shot to shot. Other scenes matched Swift’s Showgirl photoshoots, where she was dressed like a showgirl in a dressing room or lounging in a hotel bathtub or bed at the end of the night. Of course, the video was also peppered with subtle Easter eggs, but more on that later.
The footage ends with Swift in the bathtub wearing a bedazzled corset, a reference to a famous portrait of Ophelia itself.
“I kinda wanted to match the framing ideally to the album cover, and frame it exactly like that,” she said. “So, people are like, ‘Oh, so the cover is a reference to the Ophelia painting, and this ending is a reference to the cover.’ Art history!”
In the Director’s Chair
After the video concluded, Swift aired a series of BTS clips of her three-week rehearsal process with all the dancers, crew members and choreographer Mandy Moore. Swift both wrote and directed the “Fate of Ophelia” video, hoping to capture a “journey through time periods.”
“You could be a showgirl by being a cabaret, burlesque club performer, you could be a theatrical actor putting on a performance, you could be a Vegas showgirl, or you could be one of the girls in the Busby Berkeley screen-siren era of the ‘30s and ‘40s,” she explained of her vision. “You could be a pop singer on The Eras Tour, so it’s a journey through all these different time periods and different characters.”
Swift also explained that she wanted to fill every frame with “tons of details,” many of which feature water scenes as a play on Ophelia’s drowning in the original Shakespearean play.
All Sorts of Easter Eggs and Cameos
Fans will quickly note that all of Swift’s Eras crew are present on film, from dancers Jan Ravnik and Kam Saunders to guitarist Paul Sidoti. There is also a blink-and-you-missed-it appearance by one of Swift’s homemade sourdough loaves.
“That would be so fun,” she quipped, brainstorming an idea to add her baked goods to the very theatrical shoot. Swift even played stage mom for her round loaf, meticulously arranging it on a platter between takes.
There is another Easter egg that fans might want to keep an eye out for, which nods to Swift’s fiancé, Travis Kelce. In one shot of the video, Swift rides on a hotel room service cart and is tossed a football. She expertly catches the pass before throwing the pigskin over her shoulder. So, maybe Swift knows ball and Aristotle?
Why Does Taylor Swift Wear a Finger Splint?
In the BTS footage of the music video, Swift had a split on her pointer finger. She quickly explained to her dancers that she dropped glass bowls while baking but all was well.
Breaking It Down
The bulk of the screening was dedicated to original footage of Swift explaining each of the 12 songs from Showgirl. She detailed how “Elizabeth Taylor” was an amalgamation of cosplay and reality for a comparison of her life to the iconic actress’, explained that “Opalite” was partially born from her and her mom Andrea’s mutual affinity for opals and “unmasking” the perfectionism that most eldest daughters struggle with in the emotionally devastating Track No. 5, “Eldest Daughter.”
“I thought it was cool to use the song, ‘I’ll be your father figure,’ as a creative writing prompt and turn it into a story about power and a story about a young ingénue and their mentor and the way that can change over time and betrayal and cunning and cleverness and strategy,” Swift said of writing “Father Figure” off the record. “I love that song because I can relate to both characters in certain parts of the song.”
Is ‘Actually Romantic’ About Charli XCX?
While true Swifties know that the musician rarely names her lyrical muses, fans theorized that the song is about the “Brat” singer.
“The song ‘Actually Romantic’ is sort of a love letter to someone who hates you,” she quipped in the screening. “It’s, like, sometimes you don’t know that you’re a part of someone else’s stories, but you are. There can be this moment, where [it’s revealed] to you through things that they do that are very overt. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started being, like, ‘Oh my God, you did so much with this. It’s flattering. I don’t hate you, and I don’t think about all this.’”
Did Taylor Swift Mention Travis Kelce?
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce kiss after the AFC Championship game in January 2025. Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Aside from the football clue, Swift did not discuss the Kansas City Chiefs tight end by name and only danced around how she feels when they’re together.
“The song ‘Wish List’ is one that I love so much because it’s really romantic, it’s got a lot of really vivid imagery of different wishes people have for how they want their lives to be,” she said. “It’s very accepting of all of those … and then in the chorus, it’s like, ‘This is what I want. I hope they get what they want. This is what I want.’ I just love this one. It makes me feel like I’m flying through clouds.”
In the song, Swift revealed that her wishes included having a family and a house with a “basketball hoop” in the backyard.
Meanwhile, Swift said that “Honey” was all about redefining the once-passive-aggressive pet names when it comes from a place of sincerity.
“It just feels different from anything we made before,” she explained. “If someone calls you ‘honey’ sincerely, it turns out it’s awesome. It feels great. … Somebody coming into your life and repurposing those same exact words and turning them sweet and [realizing] how good that feels.”
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce began their romance before The Tortured Poets Department dropped in April 2024, making it the first album that featured songs inspired by their love. Swift and Kelce started dating in summer 2023 after the Kansas City Chiefs tight end revealed he wanted to give the singer his number via a […]
Self-proclaimed Shakespeare fan Swift also detailed the romantic twist of writing “The Fate of Ophelia.”
“My eyes scanned across ‘the fate of Ophelia’ [in my songwriting journal], I was like, ‘Wait, Ophelia drowned because Hamlet just messed with her head so much that she went crazy and she couldn’t take it any more and all these men were gaslighting her until she drowned,’” she said of her writing process. “What if the hook is that you saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia? Basically, you are the reason I didn’t end up like this tragic, poetic heroine who passed away in a fictional story.”
While Swift waxed poetic about “Wish List,” “The Fate of Ophelia” and “Honey,” she played especially coy about “Wood” after the lyrics appear to reference Kelce’s body and their sex life. (All of the videos played were the clean versions, and the line “open my thighs” was swapped to be the more wholesome “open my skies.”)
“‘Wood’ is a song about superstitions, knocking on wood, black cats, stepping on a crack,” she said in a 21-second video. “And things like that.”
At the end, Swift flashed the camera a knowing glance while the audience erupted in laughter because, ahem, the lyrics suggest otherwise. (For more on the racy song, click here.)
The Truth Behind ‘Cancelled!’
Ever since midnight, Swifties have debated whether “Cancelled” references the star’s friend Brittany Mahomes or ex-pal Blake Lively. (Swift and Lively drifted apart earlier this year amid Lively’s It Ends With Us lawsuit after the pop star was subpoenaed by film director Justin Baldoni. Swift has since asserted that she was not involved in the movie whatsoever.)
“It’s sort of a tongue in cheek glimpse at social outrage that everybody goes through now,” Swift said of the song. “You can feel cancelled by any sort of social backlash that you get. I’ve been through a lot of discussion about everything that happens in my life and everything that I do and everything I say. So, anytime that people get backlash, I tend to be the person they reach out to.”
She added, “I wanted to write a song about how you can become wiser for it and you can become sharper, and I definitely judge people a lot less 1759556946 that I’ve been under the microscope for so long. I just judge people based on who I know them to be [and] their actions, not some general consensus where people are like, ‘Step away, they’re radioactive!’ I’m not going to do that. I’m going to do that if someone proves they’re not a good person.”
Introducing a VIP Guest
Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter perform on the ‘Eras Tour’ in New Orleans in October 2024. TAS2024/Getty Images for TAS
The title track is what Swift called the “album closer” and is a duet with friend Sabrina Carpenter.
“The song tells the story of being inspired and being warned by them, and do you choose to take that advice or not?” Swift said. “We finished [writing] it, and I was like, ‘I want Sabrina to sing on this so bad ‘cause she is a friend of mine, she’s one of my favorite artists and she’s been the opener for the Eras Tour but she’s also really well-equipped for this career.’ She is so good at moving through backlash and criticism and people who’ve been unfair to her or picking her apart. She has the temperament to pivot and use it as fuel.”
Since Swift’s song had the same “mentality” as Carpenter, she enlisted the “Espresso” singer’s assistance on the track.
“She was like, ‘Are you kidding? I’m dead, yes,’” Swift recalled of asking Carpenter to appear on the record. “[She] had the most wonderful, immediate response and when she was on tour on Sweden, she took her days off and went and recorded it. That is a showgirl for you!”
The Release Party of a Showgirl is currently in theaters until Sunday, October 5.
