Swift told the Kelce brothers that she recorded the album while in Europe during the Eras Tour last year. “I’d do like three shows in a row,” she explained. “I’d have three days off. I’d fly to Sweden [to record], and go back to the tour.”
“I was physically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating,” she added. The title—The Life of a Showgirl—is a nod to this chaotic framework. TS12, she said, is “everything that was going on behind the curtain.”
Swifties correctly predicted that the album is a collaboration with Max Martin—whom Swift referred to as her mentor—and Shellback. “It felt like catching lightning in a bottle,” she said of the trio working together again. As for what she hoped to achieve with the album, she said, “My main goals were melodies that were so infectious you’re almost angry at it and lyrics that are just as vivid, but crisp and focused and completely intentional.”
And we have a track list!
Track 1: “The Fate of Ophelia”
Track 2: “Elizabeth Taylor”
Track 3: “Opalite”
Track 4: “Father Figure”
Track 5: “Eldest Daughter”
Track 6: “Ruin the Friendship”
Track 7: “Actually Romantic”
Track 8: Wish Li$$t
Track 9: Would
Track 10: CANCELED!
Track 11: Honey
Track 12: “The Life of a Showgirl” feat. Sabrina Carpenter
And yes, there was an Easter egg about it. At the very last Eras Tour show, Swift exited the stage through an orange door, rather than a lift, as she had done at every other show. “I was leaving the Eras tour era, but I was entering a new Era,” she explained.
She also debuted the cover art for the album, photographed by Mert & Marcus, which features Swift wearing a bedazzled showgirl dress while relaxing in a bathtub. “The reason I wanted to have it sort of like an offstage moment as the main album cover is because this album isn’t really about what happened to me on stage,” she explained. “It’s about what I was going through offstage.”
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