Attempting to demystify the clues behind a brand new Taylor Swift album is kind of like attempting to unravel The DaVinci Code. It’s a extremely specialised, concerned job, so we normally go away it to the die-hard Swifties of the world. Nevertheless, since Swift introduced her twelfth studio album, The Lifetime of a Showgirl, on the New Heights podcast on August 12, the following guessing recreation about what Easter Eggs album would possibly include has been leaning curiously cinematic.
The pop icon’s physique of labor has at all times gone to nice lengths to make reference to literature and tradition, even particularly referencing film stars a number of occasions in songs like Model (“You bought that James Dean, daydream, look in your eye”) or the merely titled “Clara Bow.” Greater than ever, nonetheless, The Lifetime of the Showgirl’s 12 music titles, together with one known as “Elizabeth Taylor,” have detectives discovering loads of film-specific hints. Listed below are all of the potential cinematic references that The Lifetime of the Showgirl could possibly be making primarily based on the tracklist titles, forward of the album’s launch on October third.
The Final Showgirl (2024)
By definition, the idea of a “showgirl” is a really theatrical one. It’s clear that Swift’s new album shall be a mirrored image of the place she is in her profession. Having lately completed a record-breaking, momentous world tour, the Eras tour, Swift has grow to be a pop monolith corresponding to nobody else. A world of id politics comes with such fame, and nobody is extra concurrently cherished and hated than she is. After all, there’s a distinction between a public persona and an actual particular person. A “showgirl,” colloquially, is somebody who’s adorned in sparkly, stunning outfits and paraded about for public leisure. She is an emblem rooted in leisure historical past, pressured to smile, dance, and do methods. Presumably, The Lifetime of a Showgirl shall be a dissection of Swift’s personal life away from all of this movie star and the way this unimaginable degree of stardom has affected her.
Since The Lifetime of a Showgirl was introduced, the 2024 movie The Final Showgirl has been circulating in discourse throughout the web. Seeing because the movie was launched in the identical 12 months that Swift would have been writing the album, followers have theories that the film may have been a potential inspiration. Thematically, it doesn’t appear to be a lot of a stretch. The Final Showgirl stars the legendary Pamela Anderson as an getting old performer confronted along with her impending remaining efficiency after a three-decade profession. Swift’s profession exhibits no signal of stopping, however she did simply sort out a behemoth in her profession (The Eras Tour). The movie primarily focuses on the titular showgirl’s reflection on her life and price away from the stage, and as a lady outdoors the highlight.
Elizabeth Taylor
So, this really is not the primary time that Swift has referenced Elizabeth Taylor in her music (“He might be my jailer/Burton to this Taylor,” “Prepared for It” (2017). There appears to be some Taylor-on-Taylor factor taking place right here. Elizabeth Taylor is objectively nice fodder for music, granted. Identified for her hanging eyes, Elizabeth Taylor was found and signed to MGM at simply 10 years previous.
She would go on to grow to be the highest-paid actress of her time for Cleopatra (1963), however it will be considerably overshadowed by the scandal of her affair with co-star Richard Burton. Taylor would come to be married eight occasions over the course of her life, a truth which has arguably grow to be extra synonymous along with her legacy than her profession. It would not take a “Mastermind” to see why this resonates with Swift, whose profession is recurrently pushed apart in favor of discussing her companions.
‘Hamlet,’ ‘Babygirl,’ and ‘It Ends With Us,’ Oh My!
The remainder of these film parallels contain fairly a little bit of playful extrapolation, however is not that what a Taylor Swift album announcement is all about? Let’s go so as of the tracks. The primary observe on The Lifetime of the Showgirl is slated to be “The Destiny of Ophelia.” It is a clear reference to William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, or maybe even to the beloved portray by Millais (which the album artwork seems to be referencing). After all, Hamlet and Ophelia have been tailored to the silver display greater than as soon as. Ophelia has been performed by the likes of Jean Simmons, Kate Winslet, and Daisy Ridley, and the tragic feminine determine is on model for the sort that Swift likes to research. It’s not outdoors the query {that a} Hamlet movie adaptation may make it into the combination.
The following observe value mentioning is the burgeoning fourth, “Father Determine.” George Michael’s music of the identical identify has at all times been iconic, however it notably turned cemented as a part of movie historical past simply final 12 months attributable to its inclusion in Babygirl (2024). Attributable to Babygirl‘s position in making “Father Determine” such a renewed hit, additionally it is not outdoors the query that Swift’s music in a roundabout way pertains to the movie.
Sixth on the album is a music known as “Damage the Friendship,” which followers are positing may have one thing to do with final 12 months’s It Ends With Us drama. Famously, Swift and actress Blake Energetic have been shut associates till their latest estrangement. Their falling out coincided with the very public lawsuit that surrounded Energetic and her co-star Justin Baldoni on the set of It Ends With Us, which additionally provides up with the timeline of the writing of the album. If the sleuths are right, It Ends With Us is one more film that has its talons in The Lifetime of the Showgirl.
This one’s somewhat extra opaque, however Swift’s relationship with Travis Kelce additionally appears to be the topic of Observe 11, “Honey!”. Followers have been fast to level out the parallels between the title and Kelce’s cameo efficiency within the latest movie Comfortable Gilmore 2. Kelce seems briefly and is doused in honey. Swift overtly publicized Comfortable Gilmore 2, saying, “Comfortable Gilmore 2 had me cackling and cheering the entire film! An absolute should watch, 13/10, go watch it on @netflix as quickly as humanly potential 🍯.”
Lastly, the final music shares a title with the album and can function Sabrina Carpenter. It’s value noting that Carpenter’s model, not in contrast to Swift’s, is essentially primarily based on a theatrical, whimsical, stagy type of efficiency. The 2 sparkly blonde pop icons each current themselves in a really “movie-forward” method, which appears to be why they’re collaborating on “The Lifetime of a Showgirl.”
There are infinite film hints one may discover even on this easy tracklist, and we nonetheless have loads of questions. What do vaguer titles like “Wooden” have in retailer for us? We may get excessive and attempt to tie that one to Natalie Wooden, however we’ll spare you… Does the album artwork include any references to movie (in all probability!)? Has Taylor Swift ever seen the misunderstood masterpiece Showgirls? For now, these questions will stay unanswered, however we’re having loads of enjoyable pondering up all the probabilities for the Taylor Swift Cinematic Universe (TSCU).
The Final Showgirl
- Launch Date
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January 10, 2025
- Runtime
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89 Minutes
- Director
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Gia Coppola
- Writers
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Kate Gersten
- Producers
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Alex Orlovsky, Natalie Farrey, Robert Schwartzman, Josh Peters, Nick Darmstaedter, Kara Durrett