The second track on Taylor Swift’s 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, is named after iconic actress Elizabeth Taylor.
“I wanted to sort of, like, glamorize the different aspects of how [The Eras Tour] felt … to be at the end of the night when all this has gone down,” Swift, 35, said during her August 13 appearance on the “New Heights” podcast. “You won’t be able to get to bed till 4 in the morning after this, but you had to jump through 50 million hoops in the obstacle course that is your show, and you did it. ‘You got two more in a row, but you did it tonight. That’s all that matters right now.’”
Swift’s fiancé, Travis Kelce, jumped in to note that the pop star was truly “a showgirl” amid the European leg of Eras in 2024. Fans, meanwhile, noted via social media that the classic Hollywood star, who died in 2011, was also a showgirl during her own career.
“Elizabeth Taylor: famous child star in the 1940s and even more of a superstar in the 1950s,” one social media user wrote via X. “Tay rose to fame at 16 and got even bigger 10 and 20 years later. [Elizabeth] was married seven times. Tay could touch on this with the media’s perception of her and her partners throughout her career.”
The song, which dropped Friday, October 3, is presumably a reference to Kelce and their love story.
“Hey-ey, what could you possibly get for the girl who has everything and nothing all at once? / Babe, I would trade the Cartier for someone to trust (Just kidding),” she sings in a track about searching for a “forever” type of love. “We hit the best booth at Musso and Frank’s / They say I’m bad news, I just say, ‘Thanks’ / And you look at me like you’re hypnotized / And I think you know why.”
In an Apple Music behind-the-scenes featurette released on Friday, Swift confirmed “Elizabeth Taylor” was the first Showgirl song she wrote.
“Usually [Max Martin and Shellback] have copious amounts of notes, this one they were like, ‘Well, that’s the chorus,’” she recalled of sending her initial hook and lyrics.
Elizabeth made her first movie in 1942, starring in There’s One Born Every Minute. She went on to star in National Velvet, Life With the Father, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Butterfield 8, Cleopatra and many more.
In addition to her celebrated and award-winning acting career, Elizabeth was known for her numerous, highly publicized romances. She was married eight times and often commanded attention wherever she went.
Elizabeth’s son Christopher Wilding even once revealed that Swift’s aura reminded him of his late mother.
“Well, I can’t tell you how much I admire Taylor Swift. I’m now a Swiftie. [Her Instagram post] at the end of that presidential debate was so f***ing great,” Wilding, 70, told The Guardian in September 2024, referring to Swift’s endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the general election by calling herself a “Childless Cat Lady” after now Vice President JD Vance’s digs about unmarried women. “Huge props to her. That reminds me a little bit of the same spirit my mom had.”
The 14-time Grammy winner has also compared herself to the Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? actress.
“And he can be my jailor / Burton to this Taylor,” she sings in “Ready for It,” making a pun out of her first name and referencing the Oscar winner’s two-time husband, Richard Burton.
Not only did Swift’s Reputation feature a nod to Elizabeth, but the musician name-checked her again in a December 2023 Instagram video. At the time, Swift’s friend Keleigh Teller gifted her an opal ring for her 34th birthday. (The Life of a Showgirl also features a song called “Opalite,” presumably inspired by the man-made version of the gemstone.)
“This is unreal, Keleigh, opal and blue topaz,” Swift marveled in the clip. “This is like a present for Elizabeth Taylor, not me.”
Keleigh, who is married to actor Miles Teller, subsequently called Swift “my Elizabeth Taylor.”
The Life of a Showgirl is now available.
