Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” emphasizes her exhilarating private world behind the scenes of her high grossing concert, The Eras Tour. “The Life of a Showgirl” truly articulates how everything behind the scenes of her tour was enjoyable, yet stressful.
Swift’s announcement for this studio album happened on her fiance’s, Travis Kelce, podcast New Heights, where she explained, “I would say it’s everything that was going on behind the curtain.” All the songs on this album represent the positive and negative aspects of being a working artist.
Taylor Swift created this album with her favorite producers, Max Martin and Shellback; some of her popular songs she worked on with the two include, “Delicate,” “We are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” “Wildest Dreams,” and more from her past albums. She hasn’t worked with them since her 6th studio album, Reputation, making this one of Swift’s most proud albums. While on The Eras Tour, Taylor Swift created, wrote, and recorded this record in between concerts. With songs like “The Fate of Ophelia,” “Eldest Daughter,” “Elizabeth Taylor” and more, this album truly explains her fame and its cost, the scandals, relationships, and personal allusions through literacy. With a variety of more upbeat rhythms and an overall pop album, this album is reminiscent of her past pop albums 1989 and Reputation.
On October 3rd, the first day “The Life of a Showgirl” went live, not even a full day into the album’s release, the album became the biggest album by first-day streams worldwide on Apple Music. Track 1, “The Fate of Ophelia” became the biggest song by first-day streams worldwide on the first day. Fans, known as “Swifties”, had many superstitions and assumptions about this album, referring to them as “Easter eggs.” Swift is no stranger to dropping these so-called easter eggs through her music, actions, and more. Many of them include rumors regarding Travis Kelce and her Track 3 being “Opalite,” Kelce’s birthstone. Track 8, “Wi$h Li$t,” talks about her future with her fiance, and many more. Some controversies thought of by fans includes Track 7, “Actually Romantic,” is a jab at Charli XCX and the early tensions between the two artists, Track 10, “CANCELLED!,” is about the strained friendship with Blake Lively, and how she copes with it, and Track 4, “Father Figure,” explains how Taylor received her rights back for her original albums, and the feeling of betrayal from the music industry, including inconsistencies with her past record label, Scott Borchetta.
Track 12, “The Life of a Showgirl,” includes global musician phenomenon Sabrina Carpenter, as they were both on tour at the same time, and are both growing artists. This infectious duet was a collaboration fans of both artists were longing for. Both sensations together created a song that is a favorite for many. These songs include lyrics that are more relevant to Taylor’s life now, including her relationship and the future of it, taking ownership of all of her studio albums, and her own past and how she deals with discrimination. The songs help explain the struggles, and good outcomes of being a performer for the public, and how it helped Swift grow as a person and mature. Overall, “The Life of a Showgirl” explains how the behind the scenes of being an artist for the world has its many different stages, both positive and negative. In the words of Taylor Swift, “baby, that’s show business for you.”
