On Friday, October 3, Taylor Swift released her 12 studio album titled “The Life of A Showgirl.”
Taking a turn from her past few albums, “The Life Of A Showgirl” has more of an upbeat and happy feel, using synth and pop sounds. It is nice to hear a happy album from Swift.
“I like a lot of the sounds and beats from this album. I do think that the lyrics could use some work,” says Adeline Houser, ’26
Swift has used William Shakespeare as an inspiration for many of her past albums. She likes the stories because of the tragedy. In this album, she used them to compare her feelings as happier than the tragedies that Shakespeare gave these characters.
In the album opener, “The Fate of Ophelia,” Swift expresses her feelings of finally finding a love that saved her from the fate of Ophelia.
Ophelia is a character from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” According to The Bubble, Ophelia is Hamlet’s love interest. She is overpowered by men and the misogynistic society. She suffers physical and emotional abuse from Hamlet, her lover. She is driven mad by the loss of both Hamlet and her father. She ends up drowning due to all of her tragic struggles.
Swift chose to go back to her pop roots with this album. For her last couple of albums, Swift had Jack Antonoff as a producer. Those were her sadder albums. She chose to have Max Martin and Shellback come back to help her produce this album. Martin and Shellback worked with Swift on “1989” and “Reputation.”
However, Swift does have only one slower-paced song on this album, titled “Eldest Daughter.” She describes her feelings of being an eldest daughter and having the need to fit in, and to always be there for everyone, no matter the circumstances. She felt that she could not be there for her inner child, and that the love she found had reminded her how to have fun and feel like a kid again.
The song “Father Figure” is about her owning her masters, which she bought back in the spring of 2025, after having them sold away from her in 2018. She talks about being the father figure, making deals because she is the stronger person, and protecting the family (in this case, her music).
The song “Opalite” is about Swift making her own happiness. She said in a recent interview with Jimmy Fallon that she feels the same way now that she did when she wrote the album, which is uncommon for her. She says “Opalite” is exactly how she feels in her life at this moment.
The curtain call for this album is the title track. Swift collaborated with Sabrina Carpenter on the final song due to her belief that Carpenter is one of the best in the business, with her ability to throw away anything that people say about her.
Swift wrote the final track as an homage to the historic “Eras Tour,” which was concluded in December of 2024. The song talks about growing into the show business industry and getting to know “The Life Of a Showgirl.”
The end of the song includes an imitation of a farewell on a show night, with both Swift and Carpenter saying goodbye to the crowd. A sentiment to fans, was that Swift included the real audio of the crowd from her final show of the “Eras Tour” in Vancouver.
You can listen to the album on any music streaming platform such as Spotify or Apple Music. How do you feel about “The Life of a Showgirl”?