Recommendations of the Editorial team
Taylor Swift’s new music video for “Elizabeth Taylor” has sparked passionate reactions from Swifties. Some fans are crying their eyes purple, others are begging the critics to pull themselves together. Of course, the entire discourse takes place in the wonderful, completely non-toxic place that is the Internet.
Swift surprisingly released the video for her latest “The Life of a Showgirl” single on Tuesday. The video is unusual for the pop star in that she doesn’t appear in it at all. Instead, Swift pays homage to the actress with clips from the Hollywood icon’s classics, as well as archival footage from the A-lister’s glamorous life in the spotlight. A fitting visual complement to the dramatic track, which draws numerous parallels between the two Taylors.
Nevertheless, some fans did not appreciate the effort and vented their displeasure on social media. “I’m sorry but this is really disappointing – if we wanted to see clips of Elizabeth Taylor we could google her ourselves. This is just lazy,” one X user wrote. Another compared the video to a fan edit: “Taylor posts an Elizabeth Taylor edit – so real.”
April Fool’s joke or official video?
Others simply refused to believe that this was the “official” music video for the song. One fan account wrote: “I swear this has to be an April Fool’s joke, right?” Another fan praised the “elegant” approach, but was also convinced that another video would follow. “This is probably to keep people interested while they prepare the actual video… I was just expecting more than stock footage,” he wrote.
“It’s just an Elizabeth Taylor montage? THAT’s the music video? 😭 Girl I thought you were excited to make videos for this album – what happened?” another user wrote on
Other fans found the humorous potential of the straightforward homage and made fun “music videos” for other “Showgirl” tracks. One user edited Swift’s “Wood” onto footage of real redwood trees, while another superimposed “Honey” over a video of someone harvesting honey from honeycombs.
Praise for the homage
Some Swifties really liked the video. “Labeling this video a fan edit, even though it’s a carefully curated work from Elizabeth Taylor archives, is an insult to the editor… It’s still art,” one X user wrote. “The permissions, money and time it must have taken to be allowed to use all those clips for a music video… I love that they’re paying homage to her like this – she’s basically the reason this song even exists. What a tribute,” wrote another.
One fan couldn’t believe the wave of negativity towards the video. “Wait, people are REALLY mad about this? Girl, lie to yourself – it’s never that big of a deal, and the archival footage of Elizabeth Taylor is a perfect tribute that fits the song beautifully,” he wrote.
This isn’t the first time “The Life of a Showgirl” has sent the internet into a frenzy. When the superstar released her twelfth studio album in October 2025, she faced massive criticism and even outlandish accusations against her new project. Data analysis by research firm GUDEA found that some of the most baseless claims were actually part of a coordinated attack by “fake accounts.”
Swift’s reminder to the internet
In her acceptance speech at the iHeart Radio Music Awards last week, Swift spoke about the powerful, often destructive force of the internet. “I firmly believe that anything you feed your mind with, it will internalize. Anything you feed the internet with will try to destroy it – and I don’t wish that on your dreams,” she said.
