Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl has arrived. Following last year’s The Tortured Poets Department and its extended Anthology edition, the album 12-track album finds the pop star working with Max Martin and Shellback, the Swedish production duo with whom she worked on much of 2012’s Red, 2014’s 1989, and 2017’s Reputation. It features Sabrina Carpenter on the closing title track, and ‘Father Figure’ samples the George Michael song of the same name.
Introducing the album on social media, Swift wrote:
Tonight all these lives converge here
The mosaics of laughter and cocktails of tears
Where fraternal souls sing identical things
And it’s beautiful
It’s rapturous.
It is frightening.
———
I can’t tell you how proud I am to share this with you, an album that just feels so right. A forever thank you goes out to my mentors and friends Max and Shellback for helping me paint this self portrait.
If you thought the big show was wild, perhaps you should come and take a look behind the curtain…
The Life of a Showgirl is out now.
The George Michael estate posted a statement to the late singer’s social media accounts, writing: “We were delighted when Taylor Swift and her team approached us earlier this year about incorporating an interpolation of George Michael’s classic song ‘Father Figure’ into a brand new song of the same title to be featured on her forthcoming album. 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 Entertainment wishes Taylor every success with The Life of a Showgirl and Father Figure.”
Opening track ‘The Fate Of Ophelia’ serves as the album’s lead single, with a music video set to arrive 7pm EST on Sunday, October 5. In the middle of the record, the song ‘Actually Romantic’ appears to be a response to former tourmate Charli XCX’s BRAT track ‘Sympathy Is a Knife’, opening with the line, “I heard you call me Boring Barbie when the coke’s got you brave.”
Swift announced The Life of a Showgirl on an episode of New Heights, the podcast hosted by her fiancé, Travis Kelce, and his brother, Jason Kelce. She will be promoting The Life of a Showgirl with appearances on Graham Norton, The Tonight Show, and Late Night in the coming days. She’s also screening an 89-minute “film event” called Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl at movie theaters around the world.
Tonight all these lives converge here
The mosaics of laughter and cocktails of tears
Where fraternal souls sing identical things
And it’s beautiful
It’s rapturous.
It is frightening.
———
I can’t tell you how proud I am to share this with you, an album that just feels so right. A… pic.twitter.com/jIEG65ptR6— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) October 3, 2025
