Taylor Swift is known for littering her songs and social media with Easter Eggs, and she has finally explained a particularly big one hiding in plain sight during her record-breaking tour
Recorded during gaps in her record-breaking Eras Tour, Taylor’s new album The Life Of A Showgirl is steeped in her love for Travis – while simultaneously dialling up the fun and glamour. “Travis is a definite lyrical influence on The Life Of A Showgirl, ” says Annie Zaleski, author of Taylor Swift: The Stories Behind The Songs. “For starters, the album doesn’t dwell on her past relationships or heartbreak. And lead single The Fate Of Ophelia, especially, is a song about how her relationship with Travis resurrected her.”
Speaking in the summer, Taylor herself told how the record reflected the big change in her personal life as Eras stormed the world. “This album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during this tour, which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant,” she said on Travis’s New Heights podcast in August. “It just comes from like the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in my life. That effervescence has come through on this record.”
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Released at midnight on 3 October, The Life of A Showgirl saw her reunite with Swedish pop masterminds Max Martin and Shellback, who previously worked with her on the likes of Shake It Off and I Knew You Were Trouble. As Taylor said, she wanted a record full of “bangers” and “melodies that were so infectious that you’re almost angry at it”. Annie believes Taylor more than delivered on her goal, saying, “Musically, the album contains echoes of 1989 and Reputation, but it’s less brooding than The Tortured Poets Department, hewing towards modern pop.”
At just 41 minutes in length, The Life of A Showgirl is the shortest album since Taylor’s debut in 2006. It is also her first record in over a decade not to feature production by her long-term collaborator, Jack Antonoff. Its various editions included seven vinyl versions, three CDs and a cassette, as well as a Look Behind The Curtain video option. Around half of its 12 songs are about falling in love, while the remainder are focused on the darker side of stardom.
Released as the first single, The Fate Of Ophelia quickly became the most-streamed song in a single day in Spotify history. It was accompanied by a lavish video directed by Taylor herself, which saw her showcasing several bold looks inspired by her Showgirl era, as well as the character of Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet . But instead of suffering a tragic drowning as per the literary classic, the track sees Taylor metaphorically being rescued by Travis.
“You dug me out of my grave and saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia,” she sings, while dropping more overt references to the Kansas City Chiefs ace. “Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes,” say the lyrics.
“Don’t care where the hell you been, ’cause now you’re mine.” Unsurprisingly, the video packed in several of Taylor’s hidden Easter eggs – including shots of her catching a football and baking bread – a reference to her real-life obsession for sourdough.
In the song, Wi$h Li$t , Taylor suggests she would swap all of her riches for a life of domestic bliss with her man, singing, “I just want you, huh / Have a couple kids,” while adding, “Bring me a best friend who I think is hot.” On Elizabeth Taylor , she expresses her hopes that their relationship will last forever, while Opalite – revealed as Travis’s favourite song – portrays their romance in serene tones after a passing storm. Fittingly, his birthstone also happens to be opal.
Somewhat more eye-opening is the saucy track Wood, a play on the superstition of knocking on wood, with Taylor cheekily appearing to pay homage to her fiancé’s manhood. Fans and celebs were stunned upon hearing its allusions to a “magic wand” and a “redwood tree”, but the star insisted it was more innocent than many imagined.
“It’s a love story,” she said in an Amazon Music explanation. “[It’s] about using, as a plot device, popular superstitions [and] good luck charms, bad luck charms and all these different ways we have decided things are good luck or bad luck — like knocking on wood and seeing a black cat. That is the way I’ve decided to explore this very, very sentimental love song.”
With equally romantic sentiments, the track Honey sees Taylor reflect on how the meaning of words can change when they are proffered in the right way. “ Honey is a song about how words that have been meant to hurt you in the past can be repurposed by someone who loves you in a way that feels totally different,” she told Amazon.
Meanwhile, touching ballad Ruin The Friendship harks back to Taylor’s high school days in Tennessee, in which she wishes she had kissed a secret crush. More feisty is the track Cancelled! , which reflects on friends who have been involved in public outcry and drama. Many believe it refers to her rift with actress Blake Lively, and the line “I like ’em cloaked in Gucci and in scandal,” saw fans pointing out that Blake was once a Gucci brand ambassador. It was claimed that another reference to “poison thorny flowers” may refer to Blake’s role as a florist in the film It Ends With Us.
Elsewhere on the album, Father Figure is thought to address Taylor’s difficult relationship with former record label boss Scott Borchetta, who she fell out with over the sale of her master recordings. And closing the album, the bittersweet title track sees her duet with close pal Sabrina Carpenter in a song that dissects the perils of fame. “The more you play, the more that you pay,” the pair sing.
As you would expect, excitement prior to the unveiling of The Life Of A Showgirl reached unprecedented levels, with the album pre-saved on Spotify more than five million times. “The release achieved what few artists even dream of before anyone had even played it,” PR expert Lynn Carratt tells us. “She remains peerless in modern music, because she doesn’t just drop albums, she creates cultural moments and controls the narrative from day one, with the songs, the stories and hidden meanings keeping Swifties engaged.”
An audaciously ambitious marketing drive offered fans an 89-minute launch film called The Official Release Party Of A Showgirl, screened in more than 100 countries and generated millions in advance ticket sales. The film included the video premiere of the single The Fate Of Ophelia , as well as behind-the-scenes footage and lyric videos. The release campaign also had an orange theme to represent the album’s vivid energy, and when it was first announced in August, even the Empire State Building was doused in the colourful hue.
Typically, Taylor dropped one of her famous clues during her final Eras show, when she left the stage through an orange door instead of the usual elevator. “That actually was an Easter egg,” she said on the New Heights podcast. “Basically, the reason why I chose to exit that way is because I kind of wanted to give a little subliminal hint to the fans that I may be leaving The Eras Tour era, but I was also entering a new era.”
There were many other numerological clues in the lead-up to the release too, and the chosen date of 3 October – or 10/3 – chimed with Taylor’s favourite number 13. Neatly, she also announced the 12-track album at 12.12am on 12 August. The cover art proved highly symbolic too, with Taylor in a showgirl outfit while submerged in water, conjuring up the artist John Everett Millais’ iconic painting Ophelia .
Within hours of it dropping, the album attracted a host of glowing reviews, with Variety declaring that it offered an “uncomplicated good time”, and Billboard hailing its “wall-to-wall bangers”. The Times called it the perfect companion to Taylor’s 2017 album Reputation, and fittingly added, “Where that album railed against the vagaries of fame, this one accepts them, possibly because a fairytale love story has made Swift a lot happier and more capable of handling it all. That’s why it is so much fun.”
With The Life Of A Showgirl, there is no doubt that Taylor has upped the ante yet again. “Her artistry and marketing talent is unmatched in the industry,” adds Lynn. “She’s not simply releasing music, she’s creating moments that dominate headlines and drive conversations. When Taylor steps into the spotlight, no one else even comes close. She remains unequalled, not because she seeks attention, but because attention seeks her.”
