Trending badgeTrendingPosted 1 hour agoSubscribe to Taylor Swift NewsletterCaret DownHere's A Breakdown Of Taylor Swift's "The Life Of A Showgirl" Tracklist, And What Each Song Could Be AboutFrom the breakdown of her Blake Lively friendship to those relentless capitalist claims, it looks like Tay has covered everything on her upcoming album.by Stephanie SoteriouBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLinkHot Topic🔥 Full coverage and conversation on Taylor Swift I am sure you have heard by now that Taylor Swift's 12th album, The Life Of A Showgirl, is on its way, with the star announcing her upcoming record in a teaser clip for her appearance on the New Heights podcast on Tuesday. New Heights / Via youtube.com And last night, the highly anticipated interview dropped in its entirety, with Taylor sharing some more info about the album during the two-hour conversation with her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and his brother and New Heights co-host, Jason Kelce. New Heights / Via youtube.com In addition to releasing the cover art for The Life Of A Showgirl, Taylor confirmed that it will be released on October 3rd, and unveiled the 12-song tracklist.
It's worth noting that Taylor insisted that this album will genuinely be limited to the 12 songs as she shut down speculation that she will be surprise-dropping a whole bunch of new music after its release, like she did for her 2024 album, The Tortured Poets Department. And while, of course, we have absolutely no way of knowing what the songs will be about until October 3rd, we can certainly make some educated guesses on the general themes from each track's title. New Heights / Via youtube.com So, here's a breakdown of the meaning behind The Life Of A Showgirl's tracklist, and what the songs might just be about: Kevin Winter / Getty Images BuzzFeed TrendingHot TopicThink you're Blondie's biggest fan? Put your ~reputation~ to the test.
See our Taylor Swift Discussions 1. "The Fate of Ophelia" Imelda Bell / Getty Images The opening track on Taylor's 12th album is called "The Fate of Ophelia," with Tay certainly no stranger when it comes to turning to literary references in her songwriting. See "Peter," "Cassandra," "Wonderland," and heck, even her breakout single "Love Story."So, when it comes to Ophelia, Taylor no doubt sought inspiration from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, with the character being renowned for her pretty depressing fate.
In the play, Ophelia is a young, innocent noblewoman who is in love with Prince Hamlet, but is warned off him by her father, Polonius, and brother, Laertes.
At one point, Polonius even uses Ophelia as a pawn to figure out if Hamlet is insane, and in this scene, Hamlet is cruel to her - with one of his famous lines being: "Get thee to a nunnery." While a nunnery is, of course, now only known to be a convent, back in Shakespearean times, it was also slang for a brothel.
Hamlet's cruelty, coupled with the death of her father, leads to Ophelia descending into madness, and she wanders around the court singing fragmented, symbolic songs about death, love, and betrayal while handing out flowers with hidden meanings to the other characters. But mostly, Ophelia is known for her tragic death, with the character drowning in a brook. Whether this was suicide or an accident is left ambiguous in the play.
Therefore, it's pretty fair to speculate that "The Fate of Ophelia" will follow themes surrounding the loss of innocence and a spiral into insanity at the hands of corruption, men, or both. And knowing Taylor's love for hidden messages and secret codes, I also wouldn't be surprised if there are references to Ophelia's symbolic flowers as well. 2. "Elizabeth Taylor" Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images Next up is "Elizabeth Taylor," and Swifties will know that this is not Taylor's first reference to the Hollywood icon, with Elizabeth also getting a shout-out on Tay's 2017 song "...
Ready For It?," the opener for her Reputation album.
In this track, Taylor alludes to Elizabeth's tumultuous relationship with the actor Richard Burton, singing: "He can be my jailor / Burton to this Taylor," but given the overriding showgirl theme of this article, it's safe to say that this song may be inspired by Elizabeth's wider career. And in that case, here's the lowdown. In the '40s, Elizabeth was discovered as a child due to her striking beauty, and was particularly known for her piercing eyes. She was just 10 years old when she was signed to MGM Studios, and made her film debut that same year. By the age of 12, Elizabeth was a bona fide rising star and gained global fame for her appearance in National Velvet. She successfully transitioned into adult roles as she got older, and won two Best Actress Oscars throughout her career. Notably, one of them was for the 1966 movie Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which may sound familiar to Taylor fans, with the singer releasing the song: "Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me?" last year.
In 1963, Elizabeth made history as the highest-paid actress of he