Fourteen-time Grammy Award winner Taylor Swift released a new album on Friday, Oct 3, 2025. “The Life of a Showgirl” is Swift’s twelfth album, and she shows no signs of slowing down. “The Life of a Showgirl” features 12 songs accompanied by two-time Grammy Award winner Sabrina Carpenter. On her fiancé, Travis Kelce’s podcast “New Heights”, Swift said she was working on this album while she was in Europe for the Eras Tour.
Swift writes all kinds of music. In her early career, her preferred genre was country, then she transitioned to pop, and later in her career ventured into the indie-folk genre. Swift’s twelfth album is upbeat and joyful, and she talks about her journey traveling the world during the Eras Tour.
This new album touches on Swift’s dreams about the future, praise for her fiancé and other feelings and thoughts Swift had while on tour in Europe. The best hits from this album are “Elizabeth Taylor,” “The Fate of Ophelia,” “Opalite” and “CANCELLED!” These songs are the most interesting because of how thoughtful the lyrics are, and Swift expresses herself the most in these few songs.
For example, in the song “The Fate of Ophelia”, Swift tells us about her life through the lens of Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet— but changes her fateful ending. In Hamlet, Ophelia’s story ends very tragically when she drowns after becoming overwhelmed with grief and betrayal. This song is very upbeat, which has become very controversial because some people expected this song to be very emotional and complicated, but got a much different result. On the other hand, some people prefer the song this way because it talks about her love and relationship with Travis Kelce and how he “lights her sky” and “pulls her out of the darkness.”
Online, people around the world felt some of the songs were boring and not as fun or as catchy as Swift’s prior albums. On the other hand, some fans are loving the “showgirl” vibe and how energetic and upbeat the album is.
In the song “Elizabeth Taylor,” Swift longs for a stable relationship. In her past she has been under a lot of pressure and under the spotlight all of the time which takes her time and energy away from her relationships. “All the right guys promised they’d stay / Under bright lights they withered away.” This quote from the song explains how Swift’s previous relationships started steady but once it mixes with the world and people on social media, it gets complicated. Fans like the way she’s using her love life and expressing it through her music compared to other songs in this album where the lyrics are not as relatable and lack some of Swift’s real thoughts and feelings.
“The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” is a movie celebrating the album which was shown in theaters from Oct. 3-5. The movie reveals “The Fate of Ophelia” music video, behind the scenes content from the video, lyrics from other songs in the album, as well as reflections and thoughts from Swift on her album as a whole.
Overall, Swift has accomplished so much, including four Album of the Year awards, the highest-grossing concert tour of all time and being named most played artist on Spotify in 2023. From writing and releasing her first album at just 16 years old to slowly becoming one of the most accomplished singers of this generation, it’s exciting to see Swift’s progression as an artist.
Tracklist for The Life of a Showgirl:
“The Fate of Ophelia”
“Elizabeth Taylor”
“Opalite”
“Father Figure”
“Eldest Daughter”
“Ruin The Friendship”
“Actually Romantic”
“Wi$h Li$t”
“Wood”
“CANCELLED!”
“Honey”
“The Life of a Showgirl (feat. Sabrina Carpenter)”
