On October 3rd, 2025, Taylor Swift released her new album, The Life of a Showgirl. Swift announced the album’s release on the New Heights podcast, hosted by her fiancé, Travis Kelce, and his brother, Jason Kelce. During that podcast, Swift revealed that the album came from “the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place” she has been in.
This album was written and conceived during Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour and explores “everything going on behind the curtain.” Though written during the tour, the album isn’t about the shows themselves, but rather what she was experiencing during the tour.
The album was written in collaboration with pop-producer royalty Max Martin and Shellback. Swift said, “My main goals were melodies that were so infectious that you’re almost angry at it and lyrics that are just as vivid but crisp and focused and completely intentional.”
The album consists of twelve songs on the standard edition. The songs in the album are called The Fate of Ophelia, Elizabeth Taylor, Opalite, Father Figure, Eldest Daughter, Ruin the Friendship, Actually Romantic, Wi$h Li$t, Wood, CANCELED!, Honey, and finally The Life of a Showgirl (featuring Sabrina Carpenter).
Fans are very divided on the album. Swift thanked those fans who appreciated the album’s emotions and themes. For the critics, however, she said she “welcomes the chaos” and “I have a lot of respect for people’s subjective opinions on art. I am not the art police… Everybody is allowed to feel exactly how they want.” Swift’s songs, oftentimes, have deeper meanings or are written about specific people. So what exactly are The Life of a Showgirl‘s songs about?
The Fate of Ophelia
The album’s first track, “The Fate of Ophelia,” is a romance song relating to her fiancé. Ophelia is a Shakespearean character who was so in love that it drove her mad, resulting in a tragic and melodramatic death by drowning. Many fans guessed the “someone” she refers to in the song is Travis Kelce, which Swift confirmed on a United Kingdom radio show, Heart Breakfast. The particular line “keep it 100” is a play on numerology, combining Kelce’s jersey number, 87, and her favorite number, 13, which Swift also confirmed.
Elizabeth Taylor
The late Elizabeth Taylor’s legendary Hollywood acting is sometimes overshadowed by her personal life, which was high-profile and scandalous, to say the least. The lyric “Elizabeth Taylor/ Do you think it’s forever?” seems to be Swift asking the late actress for confirmation that she’s found the one. Other lyrics, like “That view of Portofino was on my mind,” are speculated to reference the Italian village where Richard Burton proposed to Taylor, a callback to Swift’s 2017 track, “…Ready For It?”, with the lyrics: “And he can be my jailer, Burton to this Taylor.”
Opalite
Opalite is not just the name of the third track on Swift’s twelfth album, but it is also the birthstone for October. Fans speculate the title references her fiancé because his birthday is in October. On Amazon Music, in the track-by-track version of the album, Swift shares that the song is about “choosing happiness, and getting through rough times, adversity, and really choosing your own joy and your own sort of path.”
Father Figure
“Father Figure” is also the name of George Michael’s iconic 1987 hit, but Swift put her own spin on it in her fourth track. On October 3rd, when Swift appeared on BBC1, she revealed that the song uses “the idea of a father figure” to “talk about power, power structures and the flipping of the power dynamics.” In the Amazon Music track-by-track version, Swift revealed that the lyrics of Michael’s Father Figure are things she’s always wanted to say. Though who the song was written about has not been confirmed, fans suspect that the song was written from the perspective of Swift’s former mentor, Scott Brochetta. Brochetta, the CEO of Big Machine Records, sold the label in 2019, which gave him complete control over Swift’s first six albums in a career-defining move. Six years later, Swift had bought back her albums, putting an end to the dramatic saga.
Eldest Daughter
“Eldest Daughter,” the record’s fifth track, is a song that Swift confirmed is about “accepting the love she thought she’d never find.” Swift, being an eldest daughter, demonstrates her love story compared to football star Kelce, being a younger child, through this song: “Every eldest daughter was the first lamb to slaughter/Every youngest child felt they were raised up in the wild/ But now you’re home.”
Ruin the Friendship
With the sixth track, “Ruin the Friendship,” devotees were quick to assume this song was about Swift taking a step back from her long-term friendship with Blake Lively while Lively’s lawsuit with co-star of It Ends With Us, Justin Baldoni, is ongoing. The song, however, actually describes the story of a high school crush with a tragic ending. Swift has not confirmed what the song is about, but the parallels directly point to signs that it is about Swift’s late friend, Jeffrey Lang, who passed away in 2010: “My advice is to always ruin the friendship/ Better that than regret it for all time.” At the 2010 BMI Country Awards, during Swift’s speech, she opened up about Lang’s death: “He was 21. I used to play my songs for him. I would like to thank Jeff Lang.”
Actually Romantic
A popular song on the new album is the seventh track, “Actually Romantic.” It is speculated to be a diss track on Charli XCX, a British popstar who previously sang the viral hit, “Everything is Romantic.” Swift’s song points to another musician, saying “high fiving my ex and then said you’re glad he ghosted me” and calling Swift a “boring Barbie.” Fans speculate it is about Charli XCX because she is now married to George Daniel, who is a member of the band The 1975. A fellow bandmate of Daniel is Swift’s prior flame, Matty Healy.
Though Swift has not revealed the subject of the song, she said that the subject wrote her a song “saying it makes you sick to see my face,” which fans assume is a nod to Charli’s song “Sympathy is a Knife,” relating to a rumored feud between the singers. On the track-by-track version of the song on Amazon Music, Swift said that the song is about “realizing that someone else has kind of had a one-sided, adversarial relationship with you that you didn’t know about.”
Wi$h Li$t
The eighth track of the album is yet another love song, this time seemingly about how she wishes for a simple life with Kelce. Her lyrics describe “the world to leave us the … alone” and “having a couple kids.”
Wood
The ninth track title leaves nothing to the imagination. Though this is the most scandalous song on the album, it does reference Kelce’s podcast with the line “New Heights of Manhood/ I ain’t gotta knock on wood.” Swift describes the song as a “very, very sentimental love song.”
CANCELED!
Swift says the tenth track is about her “own experiences with mass judgement” and being in the middle of “dramatic” scandals. Fans also believe the song could be about the Lively/Baldoni saga and used the song to show the world that she is standing by her friend. Others, however, believe this track is about Brittney Mahomes, who received criticism for liking an Instagram post by Donald Trump.
Honey
Track 11 is seemingly yet another song dedicated to her future husband. In the track-by-track version of the album, Swift shared that “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.” Swift sings, “You can call me honey if you want because I’m the one you want.”
The Life of a Showgirl (featuring Sabrina Carpenter)
The twelfth and final track features Sabrina Carpenter, the opener to the Eras Tour. Through the song, the pair brings listeners through a story about Kitty, a fictional showgirl, narrating it as though she’s passed her knowledge through generations. In the track-by-track version, Swift said, “it’s kind of an ode to show business and the women who move through those pitfalls and obstacle courses… I thought who better to ask to be a part of this song than the ultimate showgirl Sabrina Carpenter.”
