Understanding The Life of a Showgirl (Part 1)

7 hours ago 1

4AllThings Android App

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Emmanuel chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

With the release of her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift has caught some heat in the media for the work not being as “sophisticated” as some of her previous work. As a die hard 1989 and evermore stan, I must disagree with this notion and say Swift’s twelfth album is a perfect mix of infectious beats and lyrical storytelling.

In her guest appearance on the New Heights Podcast the 14-time GRAMMY Award winner says her goal for this album was to incorporate her storytelling writing that she fell in love with on folklore onto a classic Max Martin and Shellback track. While successfully doing so, I believe some fans may have missed the clever lyricism in each song due to their infectious beats and were far too quick to judge Showgirl for its pop perfection.

Each track can be broken down to a message or story that Swift is giving her fans. She talks about this in The Life of a Showgirl Official Release Party that was available to preview the weekend of the release in cinemas across the United States. Swift also recently released a track by track breakdown on streaming services to give listeners insight on what she wrote each song about or ideas that inspired each track.

Breaking down each track from The Life of a Showgirl (Part 1)

“The Fate of Ophelia”

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia finds herself to be in love with the title character and goes mad when the love is unreciprocated. Her fate is set in stone when she ends up drowning due to her own despair of never being enough for Hamlet. In the opening track of the album, Taylor Swift rewrites the tragic end for a Shakespearean character for the second time in her discography. Swift writes that the song’s character “might’ve drowned in the melancholy” of a broken heart but that someone had “saved her heart” from the doomful fate by pulling her out of the same madness that consumed Ophelia. Drawing inspiration from the famous painting by John Millias, both the album cover for The Life of a Showgirl and the final scene of “The Fate of Ophelia” music video, Swift is pictured posing in a bathtub with just her face above the surface emphasizing the idea she was nearing the same fate as the Shakespeare character, but was saved by mere moments.

The opening track to her twelfth album is none other than a love song. By using the juxtaposition of Shakespearean inspired language in the verses: “Ophelia lived in fantasy / But love was a cold bed full of scorpions / The venom stole her sanity” to twenty first century lingo in the chorus: “Keep it one hundred / On the land, the sea, the sky / Pledge allegiance to your hands / Your team, your vibes” Swift emphasizes the storyline that she was living a modern day story of Ophelia prior to being “saved.” The infectious beats and upbeat tempo symbolize the happiness she now feels in hindsight of the emotions previously expressed on her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department.

“Elizabeth Taylor”

The second track dives into the struggle of living your life under a microscope in the public eye. In her track by track breakdown of the album, Swift calls Elizabeth Taylor a “quintessential showgirl” who handled her life in the limelight with humor and grace, earning her a track on the album. Swift has also said she finds Elizabeth Taylor to be a role model with how similarly they are viewed in the media. Both showgirls are often minimized to the number of relationships they have been in during their careers and not for their work and art they have put out in the world. Swift’s lyrics in this track convey the anxiety she feels around a new relationship being perceived by the world because of this with the question in the chorus “Tell me for real, do you think it’s forever?”

Taylor (musician) also writes about the struggles of the music industry and the struggle of being deemed an “it” girl through her own experiences in this second track: “Be my NY when Hollywood hates me / You’re only as hot as your last hit baby.” Famously in 2014, Swift moved to New York City while working on her first full fledged pop album, 1989, causing an absolute uproar by the genre switch. Ironically enough, her fifth album was also negatively received in its first couple weeks for its bubble gum pop sounds. It is now the most awarded pop album of all time. Moral of the story, give TLOAS time to marinate and really listen to what Ms. Swift is saying rather than judging so quickly.

A personal favorite of mine for this song is the use of an easter egg in the first verse “The view of Portofino was on my mind when you called me at the Plaza Athénée.” Portofino, Italy is famously the location where Richard Burton proposed to Elizabeth Taylor for their first marriage, emphasizing Swift’s idea that she thinks the relationship referenced in the song is forever and foreshadowing the message of track 3, “when you know you know.” It is also a nice call back to her lead single from reputation, “You could be my jailer / Burton to this Taylor.”

“Opalite”

The next track on the album requires a quick geology lesson. Opalite is a man-made glass resined stone resembling the naturally occurring gemstone, opal. Across various interviews on her press tour, Swift has said she has had the word opalite saved in her notes for songwriting uses since meeting her now fiancé, Travis Kelce, whose birthstone is an opal.

Whilst telling interviewers what opalite is, Swift explained she loved the idea that the stone is man-made and so is happiness. And so the first verse song tells a story of her journey to happiness, her moving from her TTPD era to Showgirl. Her mom, Andrea, and brother, Austin, both get shoutouts early in the song, suggesting they played a big role in helping her build up this infectious happiness that bleeds through the track: “I had a bad habit / Of missing lovers past / My brother used to call it / Eating out of the trash” and “But my mama told me / Its alright / You were dancing though the lightning strikes.” As the song progresses the perspective changes, and it is then Taylor helping a new character to their own happiness using what she had learned on her journey. I think this is a direct message to Swifties, letting them know that despite the dark and rainy days, the sun will eventually rise again. That they too can leave their TTPD days behind and experience the happiness we hear on TLOAS.

“Father Figure”

Swift interpolates George Michael’s 1987 hit “Father Figure” on the fourth track of the album, using the idea that a fatherlike figure in someone’s life could be someone with extreme power. The song references someone helping another reach stardom but under one clause: they stay loyal.

As a Swiftie since 2009, there is deep lore embedded in this song that a casual listener may not understand. This song is allegedly about Taylor Swift’s former record label president, Scott Borchetta. CEO and founder of Big Machine Records, Borchetta is credited to “discovering” Swift in 2005 and is also a reason why we have the Taylor’s Version’s of four of her albums. When he sold the label, Swift’s masters went with it, launching her into her rerecording expedition. Using this information it could be inferred that the first half of this song is allegedly Borchetta “talking” to Swift as her career is just getting started. He had the money and the connections to get Swift to where everyone knew her name, thus the lyrics, “When I found you, you were young, wayward, lost in the cold / Pulled up to you in the Jag / Turned your rags into gold.”

We see yet another perspective change with Swift’s writing in the bridge, suggesting the father figure broke their pact of loyalty: “I saw a change in you / My dear boy… / They don’t make loyalty like they used to.” Suddenly the “protégé” is now the one with all of the power, “You made a deal with this devil turns out my d–k’s bigger.” This allegedly alludes to the idea that Swift, in the end, won the long battle with her formal record label. Taylor Swift announced on May 30, 2025 that she had officially bought back her masters, and officially owns all of the work she has put out within the last 19 years. She also hosted the highest grossing tour of all time.

“This empire belongs to me.”

“Eldest Daughter”

The legendary track 5. Note: Taylor Swift famously puts the most heartfelt/meaningful track as the fifth track on her albums. The song, a piano ballad, compares the constant need to seem cool and unbothered online to the incessant need for an eldest child to seem composed at all times. On social media, people like to poke the bear, or “ragebait” as Swift refers to it in her Release Party Movie. She tells how if you do not respond to haters and keyboard warriors you are “cool”. But the reality is you want to clapback and lose your composure. The song reflects on times when she felt as though she tried to push this narrative in the media but faces reality and admits it’s a lie: “I’ve been dying just from trying to seem cool / But I’m not a bad b–h / And this isn’t savage.” Using outdated media buzzwords, Swift accepts she will not be the “cool girl” the media wants and often falls behind on trends, but moves forward into accepting herself for who she is. She writes how the lows she faced in the media, and as an eldest daughter, made the highs in her life all the more beautiful. In a very folklore coded bridge, she is reflecting on the time it took to the happiness she experiences now.

“Ruin The Friendship”

Taylor Swift takes us back to her high school days in the sixth track on the album. In arguably the most Fearless sounding track, the song tells of a high school crush that was never acted on because it was easier to stay friends. At different key high school moments, Swift repeats “should’ve kissed you anyway” in the chorus. The twist in the last verse has Swift visiting the grave of the friend, finally confessing she should’ve ruined the friendship in hindsight.

The song is more of a message to Swifties, telling us to take the risk and that it is better to do so than to live with never knowing the outcome. This goes for any kind of hard decision, in love or in life. You never know, until you do.

The first half of the album tells of the extreme highs Swift has had since leaving TTPD behind. From having the biggest tour of all time and regaining her masters to falling in love and feeling like her true self, we see behind the curtain on The Life of a Showgirl. Her use of infectious backing tracks to her lyrical storytelling, I can confidently say this is one of my favorite albums by the artist.

Stay tuned for part 2, breaking down the second half of the album!

Citations

1 New Heights. (2025, August 13). Taylor Swift on Reclaiming Her Masters, Wrapping the Eras Tour, and The Life of A Showgirl | NHTV [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved October 5, 2025, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2lX9XESvDE

2 Taylor Swift. (2025). The Fate of Ophelia [Song]. On The Life of a Showgirl. Republic.

3 ibid

4 Taylor Swift. (2025). The Fate of Ophelia [Song]. On The Life of a Showgirl. Republic Records.

5 Taylor Swift (2025). Elizabeth Taylor – Track by Track [Song]. On The Life of a Showgirl (Track by Track Version). Republic Records.

6 Taylor Swift (2025). Elizabeth Taylor [Song]. On The Life of a Showgirl. Republic Records.

7 ibid

8 Taylor Swift (2025). Elizabeth Taylor [Song]. On The Life of a Showgirl. Republic Records.

9 Taylor Swift (2017). …Ready for it? [Song]. On reputation. Big Machine Records.

10 Taylor Swift (2025). Opalite [Song]. On The Life of a Showigirl. Republic Records.

11 Taylor Swift (2025). Father Figure [Song]. On The Life of a Showigirl. Republic Records.

12 ibid

13 ibid