Posted 20 minutes agoSubscribe to Taylor Swift NewsletterCaret Down53 Lyric References, Meanings, And Easter Eggs From Taylor Swift's "The Life Of A Showgirl"I have a theory that "Actually Romantic" contains a Mean Girls reference!by Kristen HarrisBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLinkHot Topic🔥 Full coverage and conversation on Taylor Swift Taylor Swift dropped The Life of a Showgirl at midnight last night, offering fans a "peek behind the curtain" into her life during The Eras Tour (and her relationship with Travis Kelce). Like every other Swiftie, I've been analyzing and decoding her new lyrics. Jon Kopaloff / WireImage / Via Getty So, here are 53 references you may have missed in The Life of a Showgirl: Also, remember, this is all just one person's speculation, so don't take my word as gospel, and feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments! 1. "The Fate of Ophelia" is a reference to the character in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Ophelia's father and brother don't think she should trust Hamlet's romantic interest in her. After her father's death, she goes mad, and, unable to free herself from other people's expectations, she tragically drowns. To me, this somewhat parallels Taylor's previous album, The Tortured Poets Department, particularly the songs "But Daddy I Love Him" (which is about other people judging her relationship) and "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" (which is about how trying to meet other people's expectations and "at all costs keep your good name" made her "mean"). Emma McIntyre/TAS24 / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management 2. The line, "I heard you calling on the megaphone / you wanna see me all alone" seems to be a direct reference to Travis Kelce publicly shooting his shot with Taylor on his podcast, New Heights. New Heights / Via youtube.com BuzzFeed TrendingHot TopicThink you're Blondie's biggest fan? Put your ~reputation~ to the test.
See our Taylor Swift Discussions In a July 2023 episode, he said, "I was disappointed that she doesn't talk before or after her shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs that she sings. So, I was a little butt-hurt I didn't get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her... If you're up on Taylor Swift concerts, there are friendship bracelets, and I received a bunch of them being there, but I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my [phone] number on it... She doesn't meet anybody - or at least she didn't want to meet me, so I took it personal." New Heights / Via youtube.com When she made her New Heights debut in August, she said, "This podcast has done a lot for me. I owe a lot to this podcast. This podcast got me a boyfriend ever since Travis decided to use it as his personal dating app about two years ago... It was such a wild, romantic gesture to just be like, 'I WANNA DATE YOU!' At first, when I looked at it, I was like, 'This dude didn't get a meet-and-greet, and he's making it everyone's problem.' That's what I thought at first, and then... You realize he didn't even reach out to our management. When this podcast came out, I was like, 'Did he ever reach out to be, like, in the tents, or did we know he was in the building?' He came with Pat [Mahomes], and he thought that 'cause he knows the elevator lady, that he could talk her to her about just getting down in my dressing room." New Heights / Via youtube.com She explained that she's not on the internet very much and doesn't even look at her DMs. She continued, "This kind of felt more like I was in an '80s John Hughes movie, and he was, like, standing outside of my window with a boombox being like, 'I WANNA DATE YOU! DO YOU WANNA GO ON A DATE WITH ME? I MADE YOU FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS? DO YOU WANNA DATE ME?' I was like, 'If this guy isn't crazy, which is a big if, this is sort of what I've been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager." New Heights / Via youtube.com 3. "If you never called for me, I might've drowned in the melancholy" calls to mind the TTPD track "The Prophecy," in which Taylor sang about her fears she was "cursed" to end up alone with lines like, "Don't want money / Just someone who wants my company / Let it once be me." Emma McIntyre/TAS24 / Getty Images for TAS Rights Management 4. "I swore my loyalty to me, myself, and I" seemingly references her plans to have a "single girl summer" after ending her long-term relationship with Joe Alwyn and her short-term relationship with Matty Healy. On July 7, 2023, she shared a picture with some of her friends to Instagram, writing, "Happy belated Independence Day from your local neighborhood independent girlies 😎 See you tonight Kansas Cityyy." View this photo on Instagram Instagram: @taylorswift Of course, the ironic part is that Travis Kelce attended that very Kansas City show, striking the match that would end Taylor's singleness once and for all. Kansas City Star / TNS / Via Getty 5. "You dug me out of my grave" feels like a callback to "So Long, London," where she described the end of a rela