Let's assume that The Life of a Showgirl is not the magnum opus of Taylor Swift that many were expecting. Just as we should assume that perhaps she never intended it to be. There is little of the sorrow and depth of her latest album The Tortured Poets Department. Neither does the sparkling electronic pop that captivated listeners in Reputation prevail. Nor the combination of both that the pop megastar showcased in Midnights. And yet, almost like a sidelong glance at her 20-year career, something of all that seems to have remained locked in this new Taylor.
Because The Life of a Showgirl is presented - as the author herself did - as a dissection of fame and everything necessary to survive it. That is the facade, and as one delves deeper, one ends up encountering a Taylor Swift who spins her crown as the queen of pop, an undisputed mass phenomenon, as an exercise in pure entertainment while singing about love, marriage, fame, and, incidentally, kicking some butt. What in any other artist would be a transitional album, in her case, is an unlimited display of artistic, musical, and personal references that are difficult to fully grasp.
Even in the image that accompanies the album cover, that of a Taylor Swift semi-submerged in a sparkling bodysuit, is the first reference that links to the initial theme, The fate of Ophelia. This is a modernized version of the Shakespearean Ophelia portrayed by John Everett Millais among the reeds in the mid-19th century. And its lyrics are a reimagining of the tragic story of Hamlet's lover. "Pledge loyalty to your hands, to your team, to your vibes / I don't care where the hell you've been, because now you're mine" or "you saved my heart from Ophelia's fate," Swift sings at the end of that track in a direct message to her fiancé and NFL player, Travis Kelce.
To find the second reference, one only needs to look at the title of the next song on the album, Elisabeth Taylor, in which Taylor Swift delves into how difficult it has been for her to find love amidst success -"I've been number one, but I've never had a number two"- until now -"Be my New York when Hollywood hates me"-. And she does this through the figure of an actress who married up to eight times with seven different men to give way to Opalite, a nod to the sound popularized by Stevie Nicks in Fleetwood Mac, and a declaration of love to her partner. "I've never met anyone like you before / you had to create your own sun / but now the sky is opalite," the singer tells Kelce.
Already in the pre-chorus of Opalite there is a warning -"And all the enemies and all the friends (Ha, Ha) / They've screwed up before and will screw up again (Ha, Ha)- that The Life of a Showgirl is intended for Taylor Swift to settle some old scores as she had done in 2014 with her feud with Katy Perry in Bad Blood. In Father Figure, an enraged Swift fires off a "I can make deals with the devil because my penis is bigger," "you pulled the wrong trigger" or "mistake my kindness for weakness and find your card canceled". All phrases that seem to point towards Scott Borchetta, the artist's discoverer who decided to sell the masters of her songs to Scott Braun. Just this past year, Swift announced an agreement to reclaim them.
And, in that same settling of scores, from the first verse of Actually Romantic where Taylor Swift sings "I heard you call me a boring Barbie when cocaine made you brave / you high-fived my ex and then said you were glad I ignored you." A statement that seems to be directed towards another current pop queen, Charli XCX, who was her opening act on the Reputation tour. Why this attack? Because the British singer had made statements at that time claiming to have been bored and because in her song Sympathy Is a Knife from the highly successful album Brat, she said "I don't want to see her backstage at my boyfriend's concerts." A reference that seemed to allude to the American singer because Swift had a romance in 2023 with Matty Healy, the lead singer of The 1975, and Charli XCX is married to the band's drummer, George Daniel.
Even very subtly, the pop icon seems to have another message to convey at the beginning of Eldest Daughter when she sings "everyone is so punk on the internet / everyone seems to bother you until they don't anymore / all jokes are trolling and memes" and it seems that this is directed, among others, towards the White House. Because, since showing her support for Kamala Harris, Donald Trump has turned Taylor Swift into an enemy, with a series of messages on his social media where he even admitted to hating her. Why could the singer say this to the President of the United States? Because the Republican leader has made social media his platform to attack anyone who does not follow his beliefs -"everyone is so punk on the internet"-, because after several attacks against her, he eased tensions when her engagement to Travis Kelce was announced -"everyone seems to bother you until they don't anymore"- and because Trump has made memes his favorite political weapon "all jokes are trolling and memes".
Closing the chapter of settling scores -although maybe not entirely-, The Life of a Showgirl also traverses quite evident musical references such as the already announced sampling of George Michael's original 1987 song in Father Figure. In fact, the artist has included him as a co-author of that track. And the beginning of Wood inevitably transports any Jackson Five fan back to the first chords of I Want You Back. Furthermore, that small sound, reminiscent of the start of a cassette, that appears in Taylor Swift's song only enhances it.
In the final stretch of her album, the American singer also includes in the shiny pop of Wi$h Li$t an unexpected reference to Real Madrid -although her concerts in Spain during the Eras Tour were among the first major concerts held at the Santiago Bernabéu after its renovation- amidst her criticism of the materialism she considers prevalent in society: "They want it all / they want a contract with Real Madrid." In Cancelled, Swift once again drops a reference that can be interpreted as a glimpse into her personal life. Since the announcement of The Life of a Showgirl, the artist's fans had speculated that Ruin the Friendship would address the distancing with actress Blake Lively after being mentioned in the sexual harassment trial involving Justin Baldoni. Nothing could be further from the truth, but there is a segment of Cancelled that could address that fact. "Thank goodness I like my canceled friends / I like them dressed up in Gucci and scandal," Swift sings, mentioning a brand that Blake Lively was associated with after her success in Gossip Girl.