showgirl

Sea otters love to play, play, play, play, play and they also have to eat, eat, eat, eat, eat — at least that’s what people say — so the Monterey Bay Aquarium is tapping Taylor Swift fans for help.

The Central Coast aquarium launched a fundraising campaign Thursday involving a re-release of one of its classic T-shirt designs to support its sea otter program and other marine conservation efforts after noticing a curious flood of $13 donations it could attribute only to Taylor Swift fans.

The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter is seen sporting a vintage 1993 Monterey Bay Aquarium shirt with sea otter art in “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” her movie celebrating the release of her latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl.” Swift’s fiancé, Travis Kelce, a tight end with the Kansas City Chiefs, is a known sea otter fan, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium had previously invited the couple for a special visit.

“Swifties, you truly walk the talk,” the aquarium said in a post on its website announcing the new campaign. “We tracked down the original artwork — first printed in the 1990s — and are bringing it back to say thank you, sustainably.”

The limited-time fundraiser, which offers the new eco-conscious reprints of the shirt in adult and kids sizes to those who donate $65.13, hit its initial goal in a mere seven hours, according to an update posted Thursday by the aquarium. When this story was published Friday, the total was approaching $2.2 million and the shirts were available on back order only.

“Intentional or not, by putting our sea otter conservation work in the spotlight, this has brought a new era of support and awareness to the Aquarium’s long history of ocean conservation,” the Monterey Bay Aquarium said on its website, which also features some fun Swift and sea otter crossover facts.

In addition to debuting the music video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” Swift’s “Release Party” movie included behind-the-scenes footage and commentary from the artist about her songs. The 89-minute movie made $34 million at the box office over its one weekend in theaters.

Madonna’s “MDNA.” Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising.” Mariah Carey’s “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel.”

According to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, none of these albums — each the 12th studio LP by its respective maker — has sold 4 million copies in the United States in the decade or more since it was released.

Yet that’s what Taylor Swift just did in a single week with her 12th album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” which Billboard reported Monday had moved 4.002 million copies in the seven days between Oct. 3 and 9.

That figure, which combines sales and streaming numbers, represents the biggest opening week for an album in modern history, breaking the record set by Adele 10 years ago when her “25” moved 3.482 million units in its first week.

Swift marked the achievement on Instagram on Monday with a note to her 281 million followers.

“I’ll never forget how excited I was in 2006 when my first album sold 40,000 copies in its first week,” she wrote. “I was 16 and couldn’t even fathom that that many people would care enough about my music to invest their time and energy into it. Since then I’ve tried to meet and thank as many people as I could who have given me the chance to chase this insane dream. Here we are all these years later and a hundred times that many people showed up for me this week.

“I have 4 million thank you’s I want to send to the fans,” she added, “and 4 million reasons to feel even more proud of this album than I already was.”

The speed with which Swift hit the 4-million mark is undeniably impressive. Morgan Wallen’s “I’m the Problem,” the biggest album of 2025 so far, has sold and streamed the equivalent of 4.2 million copies, according to the trade journal Hits. But “I’m the Problem” has been out since mid-May; “Showgirl” will almost certainly have surpassed Wallen’s LP by the end of this week (if it hasn’t already).

What’s more remarkable is where “Showgirl’s” blockbuster success comes in the arc of Swift’s career.

Madonna and Springsteen were both in their early 50s when they released their 12th LPs; Carey was 40 when “Imperfect Angel” came out. Swift, in contrast, is only 35 — one advantage of starting out professionally as a teenager.

Still, Swift has been a star for nearly two decades, a point at which many pop musicians have shifted the focus of their work to touring even as they continue to make new records generally ignored by all but their most devoted fans. In 2024, according to Pollstar, Madonna’s and Springsteen’s latest road shows — each drawn from a catalog packed with hit songs — were among the year’s 10 highest-grossing tours.

And indeed Swift has been amply rewarded on the road: At No. 1 on Pollstar’s list was her Eras tour, which sold more than $2 billion in tickets across 149 dates on five continents.

Yet unlike virtually every other veteran act in music, Swift’s recording business is growing along with her live business.

“Everything that’s happening here is historic and unprecedented,” said Hits’ editor in chief, Lenny Beer. “Maybe if the Beatles had stayed together, we’d have seen something like it.”

Also worth considering: Nobody seems to think “The Life of a Showgirl” is Swift’s best album. Reviews have been mixed, and even some fans have expressed disappointment with the record on social media — a once-unthinkable development among the fiercely loyal Swifties.

So how did the singer pull off such a feat?

First, a little math: Of “Showgirl’s” 4 million units, approximately 3.5 million were sales of either digital or physical versions of the album (including CDs, cassettes and vinyl LPs); the remaining half-million came from streams of the album’s songs on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, which the data firm Luminate counts toward what it calls streaming equivalent albums.

“Showgirl’s” 12 songs racked up 681 million streams in all, Billboard said — the fourth-biggest streaming week of all time, behind Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” and Drake’s “Scorpion” and “Certified Lover Boy.” But the album’s sales number is the largest ever recorded since Luminate started tracking sales electronically in 1991.

Among Swift’s strategies to get to that number was selling more than three dozen editions of the album, each with its own artwork and bonus material designed to lure collectors. On vinyl alone, “Showgirl” came out in eight so-called variants, which helped drive the album’s first-week vinyl sales to a modern record of 1.3 million copies.

Offering something for sale doesn’t necessarily mean anyone will buy it, of course. Yet Swift was positioning “The Life of a Showgirl” as a juggernaut from the moment she announced it. Appearing with her fiancé, the NFL player Travis Kelce, on his “New Heights” podcast in August, the singer described the album as a return to the hit-making ways of albums like “Red” and “1989” after the relatively experimental “Folklore” and “Tortured Poets Department.”

To make “Showgirl,” she reteamed with the Swedish producers Max Martin and Shellback, with whom she’d collaborated on some of her biggest singles, including “Blank Space,” “Bad Blood” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” On “New Heights” she and Kelce talked about the new album as a “180” from the moody confessions of “Tortured Poets,” whetting appetites for the kind of crisply hooky Taylor Swift songs that blanketed Top 40 radio in the mid-2010s.

Promised the football star: “12 bangers.”

Fans visit an activation for Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” at the Westfield Century City mall on Oct. 4.

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

Once “Showgirl” was out, Swift jumped into the promotional fray with more gusto than she’d summoned in years, sitting for numerous radio interviews and putting in appearances on Graham Norton’s, Jimmy Fallon’s and Seth Meyers’ late-night shows; the weekend after the album’s release, a glorified sizzle reel called “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” played in AMC movie theaters across the country.

On Monday, Swift kept the conversation going with the announcement that two Eras-related projects are headed to Disney+ in December: a six-part behind-the-scenes docuseries and a concert film of the tour’s finale in Vancouver.

“One of the hardest parts of ensuring you have a record-setting first week is making sure that everyone who could possibly be interested in your album knows about it,” said Bill Werde, director of the Bandier Program for Recording and Entertainment Industries at Syracuse University. “I’m not sure anyone has ever covered that need the way Taylor did with this album cycle.”

Yet “The Life of a Showgirl” has not been greeted as enthusiastically as some of Swift’s earlier work.

Pitchfork said “her music’s never been less compelling,” while The Guardian called the album “dull razzle-dazzle from a star who seems frazzled.” Fans on TikTok have complained that Swift’s lyrics — which take up her romance with Kelce, the burdens of fame and an apparent beef with Charli XCX — are unusually shallow; some have even formulated a kind of tradwife critique of “Showgirl” in which Swift is seen as upholding regressive ideas about marriage and domesticity.

The album has also attracted criticism from people who say Swift’s songs recycle familiar elements from other pop tunes without giving credit: the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” in “Wood,” for instance, and the Jonas Brothers’ “Cool” in the LP’s closing title track.

“When every song is a derivative of another song, that’s an issue,” said one hit songwriter who asked not to be named in order to speak freely. “That one song is the Jonas Brothers song — the exact same melody. And here’s how lazy that is: It’s the same key and the same tempo.”

In Werde’s view, Swift’s place atop the pop hierarchy makes such carping inevitable. “Anytime an artist gets this big, there’s going to be backlash,” he said — a take with which Swift would likely agree.

“I welcome the chaos,” she said in an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “The rule of show business is: If it’s the first week of my album release and you are saying either my name or my album title, you’re helping.”

Even so, the polarized reaction to “Showgirl” — Swift’s 15th album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — raises questions about the breadth of Swift’s popularity as compared to its depth. Should the album’s gargantuan numbers be taken as a sign that she appeals to a wide spectrum of pop music lovers or to a committed group of hardcore Swifties willing to spend untold amounts of money to demonstrate their loyalty?

“Showgirl’s” second-week stats should provide the beginnings of an answer, given that they won’t be shaped by one-time sales of all those limited-edition variants.

Then again, another unprecedented chart achievement from the album’s first week is already shedding some light on the matter: “The Fate of Ophelia,” the album’s lead single, is the first song ever to debut inside the top 10 of Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart — an indication of the heavy Top 40 radio play it’s getting along with the millions of daily streams that have kept it atop Spotify’s U.S. Top 50 tally since the song came out.

That’s one banger certified, with more perhaps to come.

Taylor Swift is “shockingly” offended by the idea that “The Life of a Showgirl” could be — given her recent engagement to Travis Kelce — her final album.

“It is not the last album. That’s not why people get married,” the singer told BBC Radio 2 on Monday.

“They love to panic sometimes,” she said, talking about conspiracy theorists in the Swifty-verse, “but it’s like, I love the person I am with because he loves what I do and he loves how much I am fulfilled by making art and making music.”

Rumors started to make their rounds after the couple announced their engagement in August through a joint Instagram post. Fans speculated that after she said “I do,” she would have children and move on from music — or so BBC host Scott Mills had informed his guest.

Wait, mothers can’t have careers? Swift called that a “shockingly offensive thing to say.”

Weeks earlier, the Grammy-winning singer announced the impending arrival of her 12th album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” on her now-fiancé’s podcast hosted along with brother Jason Kelce. Since the release last week, the rumors grew louder and louder, with some fans predicting this album would be it for the pop artist.

To which Swift pushed back:

“That’s the coolest thing about Travis, he is so passionate about what he does that me being passionate about what I do, it connects us,” Swift said.

Their passions in life aren’t so different, according to the singer.

“We both, as a living, as a job, as a passion, perform for 3½ hours in NFL stadiums,” the showgirl said. “We both do 3½-hour shows to entertain people.”

When she’s touring, she gets a dressing room, Swift said, but when he’s playing in the same space, they call it a locker room.

“It’s a very similar thing and we’re both competitive in fun ways, not in ways that eat away at us,” she added.

Over the weekend, while Kelce prepared for the Kansas City Chiefs’ “Monday Night Football” game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the future Mrs. Tight End released “Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” in theaters. The experience earned $33 million over the weekend, topping the box office, according to Box Office Mojo.

The music video for the album’s opening track, “The Fate of Ophelia,” premiered along with the release-party movie. Swift wrote and directed it.

“[The music video] is very, like, big and glitzy and it’s so fun and it’s supposed to be like the day in the life of a showgirl,” she said.

Multitasking has become a norm for the “Cruel Summer” singer, who juggled her last tour with the recording of the album.

Swift said she flew to Sweden on multiple occasions during the Eras Tour to record the album. Her loyal inner circle did not leak any information.

“My friends don’t rat, they do not rat and you can tell by the amount of stories about me that are out there that are absolutely not true,” she said.

OK, Swifties, you can breathe now. You can stop looking for clues into whether this is it for Tay-tay’s music career. Shake it off until her next release.

Only Taylor Swift could compel hundreds of Angelenos to spend their Saturday morning at a listening party film screening for an album they’ve already heard.

“The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” which hit theaters this weekend for a limited three-day run, features the debut of the Swift-directed “The Fate of Ophelia” music video, behind-the-scenes footage and notes from Swift about the inspiration for each of the songs on her new record, “The Life of a Showgirl.” The 89-minute companion film opened to an estimated $15.8 million on Friday and is projected to gross more than $30 million over the weekend.

The box office success comes as no surprise, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” brought in $96 million in 2023 in its first four days in theaters and became the highest-grossing concert film of all time. Hitting 21 countries in 21 months, the Eras Tour itself earned more than $2 billion in revenue, the first music tour to ever hit that milestone.

Even as “Showgirl” seems destined to become Swift’s most divisive album yet — with critics and fans alike split in their reactions — the Taylormania was palpable Saturday morning at AMC Century City, which that day screened “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” 21 times across three screens.

Madison Story, 34, made sure to catch the film at the luxury Dolby Cinema, calling “Showgirl” Swift’s “most cinematic album yet.”

“When I was listening to it, I just pictured Nora Ephron movies,” Story said. In true rom-com fashion, the longtime Swiftie wore a Lover cardigan. Others sported various Swift tour merch, sequined scarves and showgirl-inspired attire.

Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” is advertised outside of AMC Century City 15, which is screening “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl.”

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

As theatergoers took their seats during the prelude to the show, Swift’s “Reputation” opener “Ready for It?” played over a slideshow of “Showgirl” promo photos. At 10 a.m. on the dot, the screen went dark, then switched to an Eras Tour-style countdown clock — set to 12 seconds, for Swift’s 12th studio album (which, naturally, also features 12 songs).

When Swift finally graced the screen to introduce the program, audience members were mesmerized. Hardly anyone made a peep.

“I’m Taylor, the official hypothetical showgirl in question,” Swift said, telling the crowd that in making the movie that’s not quite a movie, she was, as always, “trying to surprise you guys.”

“I hope you guys have a blast. I hope you sing along,” she said.

Despite Swift’s invitation, and the help of lyric displays for each “Showgirl” track, the crowd was surprisingly quiet throughout the screening aside from a few rounds of applause and occasional laughter at Swift’s trademark awkward-girl charisma. (“My bread is actually a music video star!” was a crowd-pleaser.)

“I feel like her quirkiness has been the same since she did [her] debut [album], and it’s neat to see that that has lasted through all the different iterations and eras,” said moviegoer Kelley Sheets, 30.

Sheets and her friends Sarah Borland, 29, and Ariana Diaz, 30, were taken aback by the quiet atmosphere in the auditorium, especially compared to “The Eras Tour” movie.” They suspected the album might be too fresh for people to feel comfortable singing and dancing along.

Attendees’ low energy may have also been a symptom of the morning showtime. Still, their delight was clear from their wide smiles and intermittent head bobbing, most pronounced during the ear-catching “Opalite” chorus.

As expected, some of Swift’s more questionable lyrics — many of which were exponentially funnier as clean versions — garnered some chuckles, and “Actually Romantic,” an alleged Charli XCX diss track, notably concluded without applause. But claps were generous for Swift’s closer, which saw the artist sincerely thanking her fans for being her muse.

“This album was completely inspired by the most incredible time of my life that was so exciting, because you made the Eras Tour what it was,” Swift said.

“The way that that tour felt, the way that it just kind of lit up my whole life, was such a through line of making this music,” she said. “So thank you for being that unknowing inspiration behind the scenes. I was internalizing all of that love and putting it into that record.”

During Swift’s album rollouts more than a decade ago, she hosted listening parties she dubbed “secret sessions.” At these intimate gatherings, the singer gave select fans a sneak peek at her new music, explaining the inspiration for each track and even playing some songs live.

Nick Eittreim, 28, was always jealous of the fans who got to attend those parties. With “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” he said, “It’s like I’m finally invited to that ‘secret session.’”

Rachel Birnam, 30, said while the “secret sessions” were “such a special thing, it’s nice that this is accessible to everybody.”

Taylor Swift fans Nick Eittreim and Melissa Roberts, both 28, arrive for “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” at AMC Century City 15 on Saturday.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Anthony Cendejas, a manager at AMC Century City, said the theater has been noticeably busier with the release of “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl.”

“More people than usual are dressing up,” Cendejas said, adding that many theatergoers have followed up their AMC visits with a stop at “The Life of a Showgirl” TikTok fan activation, running until Oct. 9 in the Westfield Century City Atrium. The immersive experience allows visitors to take photos and videos on a series of sets replicating those in “The Fate of Ophelia” music video.

Jamie Phillips and her daughters Rowan, 11, and Finley, 12, visited the TikTok activation Saturday afternoon. The trio also brought the biggest Swiftie in their family, their Saint Bernard named Lincoln, along with them. In their family photos, Lincoln wore a feather boa to match Rowan and Finley’s.

Jamie Phillips, left, takes a photo of her daughters Finley, 12, center, and Rowan, 11, with their dog Lincoln at a TikTok fan activation for Taylor Swift’s new album.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

When the Phillips family heard “The Life of a Showgirl” for the first time, Jamie Phillips said, “All of us were pleasantly surprised.”

“Usually it takes me, particularly with her albums, a lot of listens to be like, ‘OK, it’s OK,’” she said. But this one they loved on the first go-around.

The trio hadn’t yet made it to “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” but they hoped to squeeze it in Sunday along with a “Gilmore Girls” anniversary event at the Grove.

In the meantime, they couldn’t wait to get back home, where their “Showgirl” merch was waiting for them.

For better or worse, “The Life of a Showgirl,” Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, is unlike anything the megastar has done before.

On the 12-track album, which dropped Friday to mixed critical reception, Swift is uncharacteristically risqué and, for possibly the first time, indulges her inner theater kid without reservation. In that sense, much of the pop record is daringly new.

Still, on each track are sonic echoes from the 14-time Grammy winner’s decades-spanning discography — from the verve of “Reputation” to the romantic whimsy of “Lover.”

Swifties are sure to be playing “The Life of a Showgirl” on repeat today. But if that gets a bit tiresome after the 13th time, here is a list of Swift sister songs to try instead, based on your favorite track from the new album.

(Some song pairings are based on sound, while others are based on shared themes.)

“The Fate of Ophelia”

“Showgirl’s” opening track has a sultry groove and low pulse that could easily be the soundtrack to a flirty nightcap or the series finale of a dark comedy.

Find the same alluring melody with an extra dash of spice in “I Can See You,” a vault track from 2023’s “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).” And for bonus points, head to the music video for a dose of the Swift-signature theatricality dripping from “The Life of a Showgirl.”

“Elizabeth Taylor”

This allusive track boasts the album’s most sweeping chorus, anchored by Swift’s mesmeric alto and a masterfully orchestrated rhythm that uses moments of quiet to its advantage.

“Reputation‘s” slow-burn hit “Don’t Blame Me” follows a similar playbook, using a killer choral backing to achieve the same hymnal quality that complex vocal layering creates on “Elizabeth Taylor.”

Plus, both songs share a secret weapon: Swift’s irresistible enunciation of the word “baby.”

“Opalite”

An immediate inductee into Swift’s “Glitter Gel Pen” song Hall of Fame, “Opalite” is for dancing around your kitchen with a glass of orange wine in hand.

Fuel that infectious joy with the most twirl-worthy — and arguably most underrated — track of Swift’s career, “Sweeter Than Fiction.” Swift released this shimmering tune in 2013 for the “One Chance” film soundtrack, and true to its title, it is sweet as a peach.

Honorary mention: If you prefer a tambourine to a synth, try “Lover” B-side “Paper Rings,” perhaps more suitable for kick-stepping than spinning but nonetheless another “Opalite” lookalike.

“Father Figure”

The natural choice here would be “The Man,” another song wherein Swift adopts a masculine persona to prove just what a boss she is.

But I have no more sage advice than to head to George Michael’s original “Father Figure” (1987), which recently got a streaming boost after being featured in the 2024 erotic thriller “Babygirl.” Swift used an interpolation of Michael’s song in her track of the same name — with a gleeful sign-off from the late singer’s estate.

“When we heard the track we had no hesitation in agreeing to this association between two great artists and we know George would have felt the same,” George Michael’s estate wrote Thursday on his official Instagram.

“Eldest Daughter”

It doesn’t feel entirely fair to compare these two — especially given one of them has Phoebe Bridgers and the other one has the line “I’m not a bad b—, and this isn’t savage” — but “Eldest Daughter” and “Nothing New (Taylor’s Version)” share the same grief for a younger self that a woman in her 20s knows best.

If you need a good cry, these two are here for you.

“Ruin the Friendship”

Speaking of debilitating nostalgia, this one might feel a bit out of place in this album’s universe, but it’s a heartrending gem nonetheless.

For a similar remorseful trip into the past, minus the boppy bass line, try “We Were Happy,” a vault track from “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” about young love lost.

“Actually Romantic”

While this alleged Charli XCX diss track may be more scathing than usual for Swift, the singer is no stranger to shade, as evidenced in “Reputation” B-side “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” — a perfect pairing for “Actually Romantic.”

In both songs, Swift is unapologetically petty, offering her foes a metaphorical bouquet of flowers thick with thorns.

These tracks aren’t everyone’s speed, but every misfit has its fans. And in the case of “Actually Romantic,” Nicki Minaj seems to be one of them.

“Wi$h Li$t”

Showcasing this album’s gentler side, “Wi$h Li$t,” which Swift said may be her personal favorite, is a tender tribute to her fiancé Travis Kelce, backed with ethereal synth sounds and soft vocalization from a clearly smitten showgirl.

“I just want you” is also the mission statement of “Glitch,” a short and sweet pop number from 2022’s “Midnights.” Turn this one on, and in no time you’ll find yourself swaying side to side, daydreaming about the love you never expected but can’t imagine letting go.

Honorary mention: For a more upbeat option, go for “Gorgeous,” a bubblegum–pop anthem just as swoonworthy as the aforementioned tracks.

“Wood”

This raunchy disco track had jaws dropping across the globe upon its release, and for good reason.

While not as high on shock factor, Swift’s “I Think He Knows,” a lesser-known track from “Lover,” is equally dancy and down bad. On top of that, it’s famously set at a perfect strutting pace. What more could you ask for?

“CANCELLED!”

This is the second song in Swift’s oeuvre featuring a title with an exclamation point (we’ll get to that later), and it’s not the best one.

But if you like the dark energy Swift has going on here, you can get plenty more of it in her live rock ’n’ roll version of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” which she pulled out for the 1989 World Tour and hasn’t played since.

Here’s hoping the country crossover artist has another genre hop in her.

“Honey”

True to its title, “Honey” is a welcome salve for some of this album’s more sour numbers and shares striking sonic similarities with Swift’s best song adorned with an exclamation point, “‘Slut!’”

The “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” vault track, like “Honey,” uses a name-calling motif to paint a rosy portrait of her romantic partner. Neither is lyrically complex, but if “‘Slut!’” is any indication, “Honey” is sure to wind up a true fan favorite.

“The Life of a Showgirl (feat. Sabrina Carpenter)”

Finding a song that sounds like “The Life of a Showgirl” is a tall order, if not an impossible one.

So for a theme-based pairing, try fellow album closer “Clara Bow,” which caps off the original edition of “The Tortured Poets Department” (2024) with a mournful commentary on the constant churn of young female stars.

As Swift and Carpenter say, “You don’t know the life of a showgirl, babe, and you’re never gonna wanna.”

Honorary mention: For another Swift track about the pitfalls of fame, try “The Lucky One,” off 2012’s “Red.”

Showgirl breaks Spotify records as Taylor Swift’s most pre-saved album, highlighting her enduring popularity.

Taylor Swift has dropped her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, and already, it is the most pre-saved album ever on the Spotify streaming platform.

Showgirl even broke the record set last year by none other than Swift’s last album, The Tortured Poets Department.

The 35-year-old artist reunited with Swedish hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback for her hotly anticipated collection of bouncy pop songs.

“Tonight all these lives converge here, the mosaics of laughter and cocktails of tears … I can’t tell you how proud I am to share this with you, an album that just feels so right,” Swift posted on Instagram after the album’s release, along with photos of her in showgirl outfits.

The megastar described the album as a “self-portrait” and thanked Martin and Shellback, adding: “If you thought the big show was wild, perhaps you should come and take a look behind the curtain,” referring to her record-shattering Eras Tour.

The 12 tracks reveal a lighter, happier Swift – in love with her NFL Super Bowl champion fiance, Travis Kelce, and happy to have bought back her music catalogue.

Ahead of release, Swift said the new album “comes from the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life”.

Fans will be combing through the lyrics and liner notes for “Easter eggs” – coded words and phrases that could reveal things about Swift’s life or future projects.

After the mess, the mop-up.

That’s one way to understand Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” on which music’s biggest star offers up a dozen precision-cut pop songs just 18 months removed from last year’s sprawling and emotionally unstable “The Tortured Poets Department.”

That earlier LP, which contained 16 tracks before Swift expanded it with 15 more, was perhaps the most divisive of the singer’s two-decade-long career; it racked up bonkers sales and streaming numbers, of course — at this point, she’s truly too big to fail — but its mixed reception among tastemakers and even some fans seemed to rattle Swift, who for all her alertness to the brutality of being a woman in the public eye has become accustomed to a certain level of idolatry.

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So here’s “Showgirl,” her 12th studio LP, for which she stepped away from her longtime creative partner Jack Antonoff to reteam with Max Martin and Shellback, the two hit-making Swedish producer-songwriters who helped her transition cleanly from country to pop in the mid-2010s with blockbuster albums like “Red” and “1989.” Swift has said she made the new album while roaming around Europe in the summer of 2024 on her record-obliterating Eras tour, which explains the title even as it begs all sorts of questions about her psychotic work ethic.

And let’s be clear: These three can craft a hook as neatly and as skillfully — as deviously, really — as anyone in the business. In contrast with the bleary “Tortured Poets,” which yielded only one pop-radio monster in the Hot 100-topping “Fortnight,” “Showgirl” is likely to spin off several, not least the album’s lead single, “The Fate of Ophelia,” which rides an irresistible new wave groove that evokes the veteran hookmeisters of Eurythmics. (Look ’em up, kids.)

As a piece of psychological portraiture, though — the framework, for better or for worse, by which Swift has trained us to interpret her music — this collection of expertly tailored bops falls well short of its predecessor; “Showgirl” feels like a retreat from the vivid bloodletting of “Tortured Poets,” which captured a woman whose one-of-one success had emboldened her to speak certain toxic truths.

Is that because she’s ended up in a healthy romantic relationship with Travis Kelce, the NFL star whom she’s engaged to marry? One hates to indulge hoary ideas about happiness being bad for songwriters. Yet there’s no denying that Swift’s lyrics about love here lack the kind of depth she’s mined in tunes thought to have been inspired by the dastardly likes of John Mayer and Matty Healy.

“Please, God, bring me a best friend who I think is hot,” she sings, somehow, in the electro-trappy “Wish List,” which recounts all the hoping and dreaming she did before she finally met Mr. Right; “Wood,” a kind of kiddie-disco number that sounds like Martin was aiming it for the “Trolls” movie franchise, exults in the erotic thrill of a guy brandishing “new heights of manhood.” (In case you missed it, I’m sorry to say that’s a reference to Kelce’s podcast, on which Swift recently appeared and dropped a bar about her fiancé — “He may not have read ‘Hamlet,’ but I explained it to him” — that she really should have saved for “The Fate of Ophelia.”)

Elsewhere, she makes familiar complaints about the punishing experience of celebrity, as in “Elizabeth Taylor” — “Oftentimes, it doesn’t feel so glamorous to be me” — and “Cancelled!,” which feels like a goth-Nirvana redo of “Look What You Made Me Do,” from 2017’s genuinely startling “Reputation.”

And then there’s the acidic “Actually Romantic,” which seems to be a response to Charli XCX’s “Sympathy Is a Knife,” in which Charli expressed her anxieties about being compared to Taylor in a zero-sum pop scene; Swift gets off some funny lines about chihuahuas and cocaine but totally forgoes the sense of empathy that made her such an icon to every pop songwriter who’s come up behind her.

What’s good on “Showgirl”? “Opalite” is a gorgeous soft-rock tune about overcoming old instincts — “I had a bad habit of missing lovers past / My brother used to call it ‘eating out of the trash’” — while “Ruin the Friendship” looks back at a shoulda-woulda high-school dalliance with the pin-prick precision that Swift has always mustered when writing about her adolescence. Both songs ride coolly laidback Fleetwood Mac-style grooves that feel new for Martin and Shellback, who throughout the album rely more than you’d expect on live instrumentation. (Hang with “Wish List,” if you can, for a killer bass line that shows up in the second verse.)

Swift sings more than once about legacy and inheritance on this album: “Father Figure,” which interpolates George Michael’s late-’80s classic of the same name, is narrated by a mentor who’s betrayed by his protégé; the Broadway-ish title track, which closes the album with a feature from Sabrina Carpenter, tracks the aspirations of a showbiz hopeful from fresh-faced naivete to all-knowing cynicism.

Maybe those songs are Swift’s way of telling us that she knows “The Life of a Showgirl” isn’t as sharp as it could’ve been. We’ll see if it’s as tidy as it needed to be.

TAYLOR SWIFT has admitted she no longer believed in ­marriage and had given up on love after splitting from long-term boyfriend Joe Alwyn.

The superstar has used her new album The Life Of A Showgirl — out today — to document going from depression to being wooed back to life by her fiancé, Travis Kelce.

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Though in a move that is sure to get the world talking, Taylor savages a ­mystery person, believed to be singer Charli XCX, for mocking her.

Taylor and Travis started dating in the summer of 2023 before he popped the question in August this year.

On lead single The Fate Of Ophelia, Taylor sings: “And if you’d never called for me. I might have drowned in the melancholy.

Rediscovered love of life

“I swore my loyalty to me, myself and I, right before you lit my sky up.”

She adds: “You dug me out of my grave and saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia.

“And if you’d not come for me, I might have lingered in purgatory.

“No longer drowning and deceived, all because you came for me.”

The song is based on Shakespeare’s character Ophelia in Hamlet.

After being toyed with by rich and powerful men, Ophelia goes insane and kills herself by drowning.

The track acts as a bridge between the doom of Taylor’s 11th album The Tortured Poets Department and her new, rediscovered love of life, all thanks to her Kansas City Chiefs man.

On Eldest Daughter, Taylor pines for true love, admitting she feels played and betrayed by men her whole life.

She says: “I’ve been dying just from trying to seem cool. But I’m not a bad bitch.

“The last time I laughed this hard was on the trampoline in somebody’s backyard. I must have been eight or nine.

“The night I fell off and broke my arm. Pretty soon I learned cautious discretion. When your first crush crushes something kind. When I said I don’t believe in marriage, that was a lie.”

Vowing she still secretly pines for true love despite being hardened to disappointment, Taylor sings: “And I’m never gonna let you down. I’m never gonna leave you out. So many traitors. Smooth operators.

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“But I’m never gonna break that vow. I’m never gonna leave you now.”

Despite only being out today, thanks to pre-orders The Life Of A Showgirl is already the fastest selling album of the year.

Written during Taylor’s record-breaking Eras Tour last summer, the record peels back what life was like for the star away from the stage.

On song Elizabeth Taylor, she sings about dating Travis: “Sometimes it doesn’t feel so glamorous to be me.

“All the right guys promised they’d stay, under bright lights they withered away. But you bloom. Tell me for real. Do you think it’s forever?”

Despite the glitz and glamour, Taylor says she had “everything and nothing all at once” — pining for true love over material goods.

She sings: “Hey, 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.”

On Opalite, Taylor sings about “dancing through the lightning strikes”, a reference to her splitting with British actor Joe just weeks before embarking on the biggest tour of her career.

Storytelling best

Continuing with the theme of yearning for the simple things in life, Taylor uses Wi$h Li$t to double down on wanting love over material goods.

She pines: “I made wishes on all of the stars. Please, God bring me a best friend who I think is hot, I thought I had it right once, twice but I did not.”

She adds: “I just want you. Have a ­couple kids.”

For the title track, Taylor reverts to her storytelling best alongside fellow superstar Sabrina Carpenter.

The Life Of A Showgirl tells the brutal reality of life on the road chasing fame and fortune.

Taylor sings: “The more you play the more that you pay. You’re softer than a kitten so. You don’t know the life of a showgirl, babe

She continues: “I’m married to the hustle. And now I know the life of a showgirl, babe. And I’ll never know another. Pain hidden by the lipstick and lace.”

As a final nod to her record-breaking 24 months, the song —  and album —  fades out with live audio thanking fans as she takes her final bow on her Eras Tour.

CHARLI XCX

‘It’s sweet all the time you’ve spent on me‘

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THE most brutal track on the album is called Actually Romantic.

It appears to be a full take-down of Brit singer Charli XCX, who is friends with Taylor’s love rat ex Matty Healy.

Charli’s husband George Daniel is part of Matty’s band The 1975.

Taylor sings: “I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave.

“High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me.

“Wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face. Some ­people might be offended. But it’s actually sweet, all the time you’ve spent on me.”

Charli has long been accused of glamorising drug use – even ­releasing a vinyl of her latest record Brat filled with white powder. Rather than being a flash-in-the-pan spat, the duo have a long ­history.

Charli supported Taylor on her 2018 Reputation Stadium Tour. But the Brit hated the experience.

She told Pitchfork mag in 2019: “I’m really grateful that Taylor asked me on that tour. But, as an artist, it kind of felt like I was getting up on stage and waving to five-year-olds.”

From then on things seemed to sour further – and Charli’s Brat album track Sympathy Is A Knife is believed to be about Taylor.

Charli sings: “This one girl taps my insecurities. Don’t know if it’s real or if I’m spiraling. Cause I couldn’t even be her if I tried.

“I’m opposite, I’m on the other side. I feel all these ­feelings I can’t control.”

SCOTT BORCHETTA

‘They don’t make loyalty like they used to’

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DESPITE plenty of floor fillers, Taylor’s new album is not all sweetness and light. As well as having a dig at Charli XCX, on Father Figure Taylor appears to round on Scott Borchetta.

He is the CEO of her first label Big Machine Records, who sold the rights to her first six albums in 2019.

The track features lines of George Michael’s 1987 single of the same name, as she seemingly talks about how Borchetta, right, boasted about being able to make her a star before stabbing her in the back.

“I’ll be your father figure, I drink that brown liquor. I can make a deal with the devil because my d’s bigger. This love is pure profit, just step into my office.”

She later adds: “They don’t make loyalty like they used to.”

Her reference to brown liquor is thought to be a nod to how Borchetta celebrated selling her masters to Scooter Braun over a glass of whisky.

In an open letter to fans about the sale, Taylor wrote: “These are two very rich, very powerful men.

“Then they’re standing in a wood-panel bar doing a tacky photoshoot, raising a glass of scotch to themselves.

“Because they pulled one over on me and got this done so sneakily that I didn’t even see it coming.”

Earlier this year, Taylor finally bought back her masters.

Hinting at her victory, she ends the track singing: “We drank that brown liquor. You made a deal with this devil. Turns out my d’s bigger. You want a fight, you found it.”

BIZARRE VERDICT

★★★★☆

THE Tortured Poets Department – for me the best Taylor album until now – was always going to be a hard act to follow.

But a drastic change of direction here has served the star well.

Lyrically, she continues at her best – with enough metaphors and coded literary references to keep fans speculating for ages.

Pop records are the hardest to perfect when it comes to both lyrics and melodies, but with producers Max Martin and Shellback by her side, Taylor has once again made magic.

With The Life Of A Showgirl, she proves yet again she’s the best in the business. Are there a couple of skips? Yes. But there’s also some of her best ever work.

Lead single The Fate Of Ophelia is an earworm of a track that’s perfect for both radio and dancefloors. It’s also possibly the most infectious Taylor lead single of all time.

Elizabeth Taylor, Ophalite and Cancelled! are also standouts.

Taylor’s reign atop the music industry is far from over.

I KNEW The Life Of A Showgirl was going to be a massive album.

But Taylor Swift has exceeded all expectations by scoring the fastest-selling album of the year — before it’s even been released.

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Music insiders tell me she has so many pre-orders for physical copies of her 12th album, which will finally come out tomorrow, that it is a dead cert for No1 next Friday.

And along with pre-save data from streaming services Spotify and Apple Music, it will instantly surpass Sam Fender’s record of the biggest single-week sales in 2025, which he set with 107,000 copies for February’s People Watching.

An industry source told me: “The reception from fans has been very impressive because the pre-orders for this album have been absolutely massive. She hasn’t even released a song from the album yet so it’s remarkable.

“No one can compete with her in terms of sales.”

Spotify has said The Life Of A Showgirl is the most pre-saved album in the streaming service’s history, with more than 5.5million saving it to instantly appear on their accounts tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, Apple Music has said it is her most pre-added album ever, and she is the most “favourited” artist on the service.

In 2022, Taylor shifted 204,500 UK copies of her album Midnights in its first week.

But last year, she blew those sales out of the water when The Tortured Poets Department achieved 270,000 chart units in its first week.

That made it the biggest seven days of sales for an album in the UK for seven years, since her pal Ed Sheeran sold an eye-watering 670,000 copies of Divide in 2017.

There are other records she is breaking, too.

She has become the first solo female artist in American history to have certified album sales in the US of more than 100million, as determined by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Their figures also show her album 1989 is now her biggest-selling album, as it has gone 14-times platinum.

I don’t envy the other artists who have albums out tomorrow. I doubt they’ll get a look in.

Hailey marks another rear

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HAILEY BIEBER put on a flirty display in this yellow negligee – as she missed her wedding anniversary for Paris Fashion Week.

The model posted a string of snaps on Instagram, alongside the caption “bisou”, which means “kiss” in French.

While her husband Justin remained at home in the US, she stayed in Paris on Tuesday, six years since their South Carolina wedding.

The event on in 2019 was attended by friends and family, but they had secretly tied the knot , on September 13 2018.

Perhaps they had already celebrated this year, or maybe the pics were his anniversary gift.

Zara’s stripped off for the main pose

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ZARA LARSSON is on track to score her fourth Top 20 album tomorrow with the release of brilliant new record Midnight Sun.

But the Swedish singer has also been hard at work on clothing and lifestyle brand Main Rose, which she unveiled with this revealing snap of her in a long-sleeved pink leotard.

The Swedish singer, who started the project a year ago, wrote on Instagram: “Building Main Rose is genuinely a lust for me to creatively expand myself.

“To elevate one’s first layer, literally and figuratively, feels like a fun and natural first chapter for me to explore. Afterall, my dream outfit is really just a pair of panties.”

Amal’s looking lawsome

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AMAL CLOONEY stole her husband George’s thunder at his latest movie premiere.

She looked sensational in this designer minidress at the New York launch of comedy drama Jay Kelly.

It remains to be seen whether their twins Alexander and Ella will follow his career path, become a human rights lawyer like Amal, or do something else.

Asked if they had inherited the acting bug, he told E! News: “I don’t know, it’s so hard to tell at eight.

“They’re very funny kids, and they love to get up and sing. But you know, I hope they do exactly what they want to do in life, and that’s all you can hope for.”

On whether they know he’s a big star, George added: “They have some idea. My kid came up to me the other day and said, ‘Papa what’s “famous?” Somebody in my class said you’re famous’. I said, ‘Tell that kid I’m very famous’.”

“They saw Fantastic Mr. Fox. I won’t let them see Batman & Robin, I want them to have respect for me.”

The Becks Factor reaches £73m

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GOLDENBALLS has done it again – enjoying another year of record-breaking profits.

David Beckham’s company racked up revenue of £73.4million, as he goes from “face to founder” with more behind-the-scenes deals than ever.

The latest figures for DRJB Holdings, the umbrella company for his business ventures, show consolidated profits up 24 per cent to £35.1million.

A source said: “David is still an incredibly sought-after face for campaigns, but he has matured into an incredibly impressive and canny businessman, too.

“He really enjoys the boardroom machinations and while he looks as incredible as ever, probably won’t want to be on billboards in his pants for ever.

“Six years after setting up his own brand management operation, he is more hands-on than ever. Right now he’s at a really exciting next stage of evolution, and loves getting involved with new projects.”

This is partly thanks to successful deals with Boss menswear, and a license agreement with Safilo eyewear.

David also branched out into the wellness industry for the first time, with his IM8 supplements.

Other strategic partnerships include deals with speaker makers Bowers & Wilkins, Stella Artois beer and tech firm Shark Ninja.

Meanwhile, the former England captain’s profile has never been higher internationally following his four-part documentary from 2023.

News of his latest commercial success comes ahead of wife Victoria’s own Netflix docu-series, which comes out next week.

I can’t wait to see plenty more Becks on my box.

Stel-Hel Fashion week secret

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STELLA McCARTNEY went to extreme lengths to keep Helen Mirren’s role at Paris Fashion Week show a secret.

The designer secretly enlisted the actress to open her show with a recital of The Beatles classic Come Together.

Helen was driven around the block to give the illusion she had simply arrived to watch the event.

A source said: “It was a full-on military operation. No one knew Helen was taking part.”

Robbie reveals ‘I have Tourette’s’

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ROBBIE WILLIAMS says he has Tourette’s syndrome, but claims his tics are “intrusive” and not verbal.

The neurological condition causes sudden, repetitive and involuntary sounds or movements.

But Robbie, who was previously diagnosed with ADHD, suggested his is different.

He told the I’m ADHD! No You’re Not podcast: “I’ve just realised I have Tourette’s, but they don’t come out. They are intrusive thoughts. I was just walking down the road the other day, and I realised these intrusive thoughts are inside Tourette’s. It just doesn’t come out.

“Not only that, you would think that a stadium full of people professing their love to you would work as (a distraction), but whatever it is, inside me cannot hear it. I cannot take it in.”

Robbie also said he recently took a test to see if he is autistic.

He added: “It turns out I’m not, but I’ve got autistic traits. And it’s around social stuff, it’s about interaction.”

Dua’s in Bruise control

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DUA LIPA has had a lucky escape after accidentally injuring her shoulder while on tour in America.

The New Rules singer was spotted with a deep bruise, leading fans to fear she could have seriously hurt herself.

But I’m told while the mark does look bad, Dua hasn’t been hugely harmed.

More importantly, while she is due to undergo physio to make sure of a full recovery, it also means her US tour can carry on without a hitch.

A source said: “The injury happened while Dua was enjoying some down time from her show.

“It’s been painful but after being checked over by a radiologist, she’s been given the all clear.

“The tour will still be going ahead as planned. It’s just one of those things.”

While it’s no secret Dua loves a holiday and has previously joked about her life being one big vacation, she is also one of the hardest working women in music.

I just hope she is looking after herself too.

It’s a Slim volume

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FATBOY SLIM is releasing his first book, with the brilliant title It Ain’t Over . . .  ’Til the Fatboy Sings.

It documents his 40 years in showbiz through photos, flyers and stories and is out on October 16.

But fans can also see him at the Theatre Royal in Brighton on October 14 for a Q&A about it.

The DJ, whose real name is Norman Cook, said: “This year I’ll have been in showbiz for 40 years, and to celebrate that we thought we’d create a big book full of stuff which I’ve kept over the years. I’m really excited to appear in one of my favourite venues for something a little different this time.

“It’ll be nice to get up close and personal with the audience in a beautiful setting and to share some of my stories.”

Taylor Swift will enter her latest era in a matter of months.

The ubiquitous “Shake It Off” pop star announced her upcoming album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” would drop Oct. 3 as she made her podcasting debut Wednesday on “New Heights,” co-hosted by her NFL star boyfriend Travis Kelce and his retired football pro brother, Jason Kelce. The Grammy winner also unveiled the album’s tracklist, which touts a finale featuring Sabrina Carpenter.

“It was something I was working on while I was in Europe on the Eras tour,” she explained to the Kelce brothers. “I was physically exhausted at this point on the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating.”

Swift revealed her 12th album was imminent earlier this week in a teaser promoting the latest “New Heights” episode. In the clip, she pulls a blurred-out record out of a briefcase decorated simply with her initials.

“The Life of a Showgirl” will be her second record in two years — following last year’s “The Tortured Poets Department” — and her first release since reacquiring the rights to her early recordings in May.

That was a move that “changed my life,” she said Wednesday.