Taylor Swift Drops 12th Album The Life of a Showgirl

In her 12th album, Taylor Swift reconnects with Max Martin and Shellback to sing about love, and fame

Taylor Swift has officially entered her next era. As of 12 am EST this morning, Taylor Swift’s new album “The Life of a Showgirl” has officially dropped. With 12 songs and no bonus tracks as explicitly announced on her fiancé’s podcast, “New Heights”, this makes it Swift’s shortest album. The album cover and setlist were revealed on the show as well as posted to her Instagram on August 12. The cover art is a reference to Ophelia’s fate in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with Swift posing in the water similar to paintings depicting Ophelia’s drowning. “The Life of a Showgirl” was inspired by her finishing every night of the Era’s Tour in a bathtub, she explained it “isn’t really about what happened to me on stage, it’s about what I was going through offstage”. This album marks the return of the producing duo Max Martin and Shellback who Swift has previously worked with on 1989 and Reputation along with some of the songs off her Red album. 

Songs on the album range from celebration and joy to melancholy, reflective and angry. Notable songs from the album include, Father Figure which interpolates George Micheal’s song of the same title, and is seemingly about Swift’s relationship with Scott Borchetta, an executive for Big Machine Records who signed her to his record label in 2004 and worked with her on her first six albums after which he sold her masters, launching Swift’s release of her Taylor’s Version albums. Earlier this year, Swift was able to buy back her masters, which she explained the importance of in a letter to her fans on her website. Whereas Michael’s original song is about protection, Swift flips the script between Borchetta’s and her own point of view to explain the father figure as a betrayer. 

In “Actually Romantic”, Swift seems to be throwing shade at Charli XCX who was an opener for Swift’s Reputation tour but has since shaded Swift mentioning in her song Sympathy is a Knife, “Don’t wanna see her backstage at my boyfriend’s show/Fingers crossed behind my back/ I hope they break up quick” which many took to be in reference to Swift’s short lived relationship with Matty Healy who is in the same band as Charli’s husband. Swift’s Spotify canvas for this song features her holding an apple, which is the title of one of Charli XCX’s biggest songs off her Brat album. The promo for the Brat album included a picture of an amputated hand wearing friendship bracelets, which is a sign to many in the music universe of Swift fans due to their big use in the fandom, causing further speculation about the song’s subject. However, the song pokes fun at the feud, referring to it as a one-sided obsession that is actually romantic. 

Another interesting song on the album is “CANCELLED,” which paints the narrative that Swift doesn’t care about the scandals her friends face, as she has also faced her fair share of hate, likely referring to the drama revolving around her and Kanye West in 2016, and will support them as they did her. Blake Lively seems the most likely subject of the song, as she is a close personal friend of Swift’s and has been around since 2016. Lively is currently involved in a lawsuit with co-star Justin Baldoni regarding workplace sexual harassment.

However, Lively is not the only friend facing backlash, as Swift herself faced backlash when she was seen hanging out with Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Patrick Mahomes and quarterback for Travis Kelce’s team, the Kansas City Chiefs. The concern revolves around Swift’s political beliefs, which are strongly Democratic, which most of her fans take after, and who find an issue with the fact that she seems to be close with Brittany Mahomes, who is a Republican. Brittany Mahomes is not well-liked by NFL fans for her online comments on gameplay and poor behavior regarding an incident where she sprayed champagne on opposing teams’ fans during a cold winter game. 

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“Eldest Daughter” is a piano ballad that holds the fifth track spot on her album which has historically been reserved for some of Swift’s most gutwrenching songs such as “loml” from TTPD, “You’re On Your Own, Kid” off Midnights, Red’s “All Too Well”, and “The Archer” on Lover. This track is not as lyrically powerful as the others but talks about the pressures of public fame and being an eldest daughter to be perfect. 

With Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s recent engagement it makes sense that most the songs are about their relationship like “Opalite” which is Kelce’s birthstone, “Wi$h Li$t” which talks about her want to start a family, “The Fate of Ophelia” where she writes that she was saved from the fate of Ophelia seemingly by her relationship with Travis Kelce. “Honey” and “Wood” are about how her relationship with Kelce has changed her view of the world, in that he has redefined words that people tended to use to talk down to Swift such as “honey” and “sweetheart” and that she is no longer worried about relationships failing to the point that she doesn’t even bother participating in superstitions such as knocking on wood because she knows the relationship will survive. 

The ‘Life of a Showgirl” and “Elizabeth Taylor” explore her relationship with fame and how she looks to others to give her advice with the struggles. “Life of a Showgirl” features Sabrina Carpenter who opened 25 shows for Swift’s Eras Tour, and had her own album release earlier this year. They are close friends as she has gone to some of Kelce’s games with Swift, and is seen as Swift’s protege by some. The song itself starts with Swift trying to get advice from a prior showgirl and the candid response she receives about the negative sides of the business, as Swift knows these struggles first hand, she then hands the baton off to Sabrina Carpenter as the next showgirl, or big star. The end of the song has a snippet from the Eras Tour of Swift asking the fans to thank the band, the dancers and Carpenter, then expressing her love to the crowd, a message meant to include everyone listening to the album and her music. 

Spotify announced earlier this week that “The Life of a Showgirl” was the most pre-saved album in the platform’s history with 5.5 million saves, which is no surprise as Swift’s last album, “The Tortured Poet’s Department,” sold 2.61 million units, with 1.9 million of those being physical sales. She similarly announced no less than 8 vinyl variants of the album as well as CDs and a cassette, featuring different covers with outfits designed by Bob Mackie, a fashion designer, who also dressed Elton John and Cher.

Keeping with her last several album rollouts, she released “The Life of a Showgirl” cardigans that kept with the color scheme of the album in a glittery burnt orange. Swift’s promotion of the album extends to the event, “The Life of a Showgirl Experience” put on by Spotify in New York, as well as the announcement of “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” which is a movie being shown in theaters from October 3-5 featuring the music video and behind the scenes footage from “The Fate of Ophelia”, Swift’s explanations of what inspired the music, and new lyric videos from the album, and is expected to have a big box office. Only time will tell how successful this album is; however, it has been positively received thus far, now we must wait for the award shows.