Taylor Swift fans congregated at an Upper West Side AMC theater on Friday in “Folklore” cardigans. The seats of an auditorium were adorned with friendship bracelets reading “I’d Lie” and “Reputation” — names, of course, of Swift songs. Instead of trailers, the theater played a preshow of Swift tracks with album art from “The Life of a Showgirl,” the pop star’s newly released 12th original album.
The occasion was “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” Swift’s not-quite-a-movie that’s taking over screens around the world this weekend.
Unlike the concert film “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” from 2023, “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” feels more like the bonus features on a DVD. The 89-minute movie includes the video debut for the lead track, “The Fate of Ophelia,” which Swift wrote and directed, and behind-the-scenes footage of the shoot, plus lyric videos for the rest of the songs on the album featuring looped images of Swift in showgirl regalia.
Before each video, Swift gives brief explanations of her thought process behind the song. Here are five highlights:
She wanted ‘The Fate of Ophelia’ to have firm connections to Shakespeare.
The “Ophelia” video opens with Swift mimicking John Everett Millais’s painting of the doomed heroine of “Hamlet.” She then cycles through what she later describes as various types of showgirls. In one scene she’s a 1960s go-go dancer; in another, a Sarah Bernhardt-type theater actress; later she stages a Busby Berkeley-style dance sequence where she’s dressed in retro swimwear. She finally transforms into the pop star we know her to be — catching a football in a hotel hallway while wearing a sparkly minidress.
The video ends with Swift, half submerged in a tub, the exact image on the album cover. It’s an effort to underscore the Ophelia connection, she says in the film while in conversation with her collaborators, which include the “Killers of the Flower Moon” cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. “So, art history for pop fans.”
Swift breaks down her diss tracks.
“Father Figure” and “Actually Romantic” are two of the most speculated-about songs on “Showgirl” because they are the easiest to read as diss tracks. In “The Official Release Party” Swift explains herself — sort of.
Discussing “Father Figure,” she describes why she decided to interpolate George Michael’s song of the same name. “I always thought it could be cool to use the line ‘I’ll be your father figure’ as a creative writing prompt and turn it into a story about power and a story about a young ingénue and their mentor,” she says, later noting that she relates to both parties in her invented tale.
Swift also discusses reaching out to Michael’s estate and keeping it updated on the process, “because I know how sacred songwriting is.” That statement could add fuel to the theory that “Father Figure” is about Olivia Rodrigo, who gave Swift writing credit on two tracks off her debut, “Sour.”
Swift was more coy when talking about “Actually Romantic,” which many presume is about Charli XCX. In the “Release Party,” Swift calls the song a “love letter to someone who hates you,” and adds, “in my industry, attention is affection.” Her intro was met with laughter and applause from the audience who were, naturally, Team Swift.
‘Wood’ gets a clean version
Swift wrote what is probably her most sexually explicit track to date with “Wood,” which seems to reference her fiancé’s anatomy, but “The Official Release Party” is a clean affair. Instead of fessing up to her not-so-thinly-veiled innuendo, she says that it’s a song about “superstitions.” The lyric video changed the likes of “His love was the key that opened my thighs” to “His love was the key that opened my skies.”
Swift is a go-to call for ‘canceled’ pals.
Swift has a rarefied life, but in her introduction for “Cancelled!” she tries to make the case that anyone can know what it’s like to feel “social backlash.” In the track, she sings about her friends getting along because they have “matching scars.” Apparently, Swift is mentor for those who need support after being publicly shamed. “Any time people get backlash, I tend to be the person they reach out to,” she says.
Swift thinks Sabrina Carpenter has what it takes to be a superstar.
The only other artist featured on “The Life of a Showgirl” is Sabrina Carpenter, who shows up on the title track, a story song about a fictional showgirl named Kitty, who tries to warn Swift about her lifestyle. Swift tells her viewers that she wanted Carpenter to sing a verse because her fellow singer and songwriter has what it takes to follow in her footsteps.
“She’s also really well equipped for this career. She is so good at moving through backlash or criticism or people just being unfair to her or picking her apart,” Swift says. “She has the temperament to, like, pivot and use it as fuel.” Carpenter recorded her part during days off from her tour in Sweden. “And that is a showgirl for you,” Swift announces, beaming.