Taylor Swift: Closing the Curtain on her Life of a Showgirl

By Kaitlin McDowell

Edited by Taylor Morgan

If you’ve been anywhere on the internet in the past two weeks, you know that Taylor Swift released a new album. The 12-track album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” was met with love and adoration as well as disappointment and judgment. As Swift says herself, “haters gonna hate.” 

Stephen Mease / UNSPLASH

After too many streams to count over the past two weeks, I have concluded for myself that this album is perfect and exactly what I had expected when Swift announced this new showgirl era in August. 

Disclaimer: I will not pretend that my feelings about Swift’s newest album are free from bias. I am a HUGE swiftie, but I believe this makes me a credible source to discuss the latest tracks. 

For some background, when this album was announced, Swift wrote that this album was produced by Max Martin, who also produced popular tracks like “22,” “New Romantics” and “Delicate.” 

This alone fueled my excitement for “The Life of a Showgirl.” Don’t get me wrong, I love Swift’s slower, emotional songs as much as the next person, the bridge of “The Black Dog” being a personal favorite, but there’s nothing I love more than some Taylor Swift pop. “1989” is one of my favorite albums of hers, so needless to say, I was ready to get up and dance again. 

For some insight on this album and its energy, in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past two years, Swift has been dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and the pair got engaged this past August. 

For an artist whose songs are usually about heartbreak and betrayal, seeing Swift’s engagement post as I walked home from class felt like watching a fairytale come to life. I couldn’t wait to see how Swift’s real-life love story was portrayed in this album.

All my excitement and expectations for the new record were fulfilled the moment the first drum beats of “The Fate of Ophelia” played at midnight on October 3. I was listening with my best friends, just as we have done throughout our years of college, each time Swift releases a new album.

By the end of the song, we were all dancing to this first track despite not knowing the lyrics. The beat was contagious and practically summoned us to get up out of our seats. 

Not only is this song irresistibly danceable, but it’s also lyrically brilliant. Swift draws a parallel between herself and Ophelia, the Shakespearean heroine who meets a tragic end, drowning after being betrayed and rejected by her love, Prince Hamlet.

Anyone who has listened to a Taylor Swift album, from “Fearless” to “The Tortured Poets Department,” knows that Swift has faced her own set of tragedies of the heart, but in this song, she says that her fiancé, Kelce, “saved her from The Fate of Ophelia.” This song also ties into the cover of “The Life of a Showgirl,” which depicts Swift submerged in a pool with only her face above water, a visual metaphor suggesting that she, too, nearly drowned.

I found this song and its lyricism to be such a genius way to write about finally finding love after losing hope. Swift could have written about this relationship in much simpler terms, and I most likely would have still loved the song, but the use of this symbolism and a Shakespearean tale makes the song all the more emotional and adds a layer of intellectual depth. 

The rest of this album showcases Swift’s happiness throughout other songs like “Opalite,” “Honey” and “Wi$h Li$t.” As a long-time Taylor Swift listener, I’m happy to see Swift find her own happily ever after. 

The album wraps up with the title track, “The Life of a Showgirl,” featuring Sabrina Carpenter. Swift and Carpenter’s vocals blend beautifully as they sing about the struggles and hardships of being a showgirl. 

I have read several listeners' reviews, which state that this album's name and title track were misleading. That it does not reflect the overall messages throughout the album, and that Swift doesn’t know the life of a showgirl, but I beg to differ. 

For those who might have forgotten, Swift recently wrapped up her record-breaking, two-year-long Eras Tour. While that doesn’t technically make her a showgirl, the relentless schedule of three-hour performances and constant travel certainly earns her the right to sing about the exhaustion and vulnerability that come with life on stage. Swift’s songwriting has always been slightly fictional; thus, I think comparing this impressive feat to that of a showgirl is very fitting. Not to mention that showgirls are also characterized by elaborate costumes and sequins, which Swift donned throughout the Eras Tour. 

As a perfect conclusion to the final song and album itself, Swift includes her previously recorded farewell to the crowd of the Eras Tour, as every showgirl must thank their crowd.