How did Swift get the ideas for the tracks of The Life of a Showgirl? There are insights into the cinema event
Those who enter the Multiplex cinema Cinemaxx on Berliner Potsdamer Platz on Friday, October 3: women in pink, glittering jackets, as much glitter on the face, cowboy boots in different colors and shapes, and a group of girls who exchange friendship bracelets at the entrance. Sounds like Swifties? Exactly! Finally, this cinema evening is all about the US Megastar Taylor Swift, who released her twelfth studio album on the same day and wants to celebrate this with her fans over three evenings with release parties worldwide in cinemas.
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And so a group of mostly female fans in tour shirts of the “Eras” tour-Swift’s youngest world tour, which not only broke all the cash register records, frolic in the courses of the cinema house, but also offered inspiration for the new album The Life of a Showgirl. “The album is an absolute banger,” calls a young woman to her friends when they are looking for their places in the cinema. During the “Official Release Party of A Showgirl”, which can be seen not only in Germany, but also in the USA, but also in the USA, in the UK, France, France, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, Swift shows the premiere of the music videos for the first track on the album “The Fate of Ophelia” and explains that Fans, which is behind the twelve songs of the record and their lyrics.
“Art history for Popfans”
When the lights are finally dimmed and a picture flared up in front of the not completely filled cinema seats, expectant murmur and delighted screams go through the crowd. The music video for “The Fate of Ophelia”, with which the film event enters, finds a worthy place on the cinema screen with its elaborate production and its colorful, performance-heavy dance shop. Rich of colors, feathers, pearls, glitter and stage sets, the music video acts like a nostalgic memory pool of a timeless, immortal pop star.
Swift, accompanied by a dance group, already know the fans from the “Eras” tour through the various owls of pop art until they, numerous outfits and style images later, in the here and now. “The video is a journey through the different historical phases of a show girl,” explains Swift the fans in the film. “Over the centuries, it tells the story of what it means to be in the eye of the public, and ultimately leads back to the picture of the album cover. It is art history for Popfans.”
Absolutely, personally and with a good pinch of humor, Swift offers its fans an insight into the creation of the video and the album through the movie and explains what is behind every song behind every idea. After all, she knows her fans well enough to know that Swifties are starving after insight into the world’s thoughts and emotional world. When every track of the album is presented with displayed lyrics below and commented by Swift, many of the cinema seekers can already sing along with text – only 15 hours after the album publication.
Schmiedin of her own happiness
In “Elizabeth Taylor”, says Swift about the second song on the album, “is half a fictional story, half about my own. It is about celebrity, attention, emergency, and the fear that all of this is not forever.” The song is named after the Hollywood icon of the same name, which was known for both her world career and for her stormy love life. “Your story has parallel to mine. And the production of the song is luxurious, feminine and at the same time hard, I love it.”
The track “Opalite”, according to Swift, references the fact that opalit is opal for people. “It is a metaphor that you are the blacksmith of your own happiness. A man -made jewel symbolizes that happiness does not just happen to us, but we fought hard.”
The piece “Father Figure” then occupies a central place on the album. Swift built him on a line of George Michael’s 1987 hit “Father Figure”. In consultation with Michael’s estate, she promptly used the section as creative. This has become a story about power, change and betrayal. “It is about the relationship between a young talent and a mentor and the question of who of them wins in the end. I can find myself in both characters,” says Swift. She emphasizes that the cooperation with Michael’s re -completion team was respectful and great.
“You have to admit that you need someone”
“Father Figure” follows “Eldest Daughter” – a concept with which SWIFT would have a lot to deal with. “Oldest daughters often experience the same feelings and experiences. They are constantly looking for perfection. And in a culture where it is only about being cool and sexy, but at the same time powerful and indifferent. Nobody wants to come over on the Internet. Nobody wants to look like he would need someone,” explains Swift. “The song wants to tear down this mask. I am none of it. You have to allow yourself to be gentle and honestly – and admit that you might need someone.”
The song “Ruin the Friendship” is a memory of school – usual for Swift. He asked the question of whether one should have shown more courage as a teenager. So he alludes to experiences in which you have held back from the consequences. In retrospect, question of the song what one would have had to lose, you would have just dared. “Everything feels so important at school. But it would have been okay. I was always so disciplined at school. But what if I had just said to a person, I like them? Then I would at least know it. It wasn’t that dramatic.”
Hate is also attention
“Actually Romantic” presents the humorous, sarcastic, playful side Taylor Swift. The track is about the effort that someone shows to make Swift clear that he or she hate Swift and her music. This effort and this obsession with Swift are almost better than a proof of love, she jokes. “I don’t even think about you and you put all this work in to show me how much you hate me. Thank you for the effort! Attention is affection and you give me a lot of how cute,” says the musician grinning in the film. Meanwhile, fans had rumored, the piece referred to Charli XCX.
This is followed by the song “Wi $ h Li $ t”, in which Swift sings that you don’t care, the main thing is that her wish come true – love. “Wood” in turn acts of “everyday superstition”.
Against social indignation
In tenth place on the album tracklist is “Canceelled!”, In which Taylor Swift wants to put her rebellious side in the foreground. “It is about the social anger that sometimes strikes everyone, not only when you are a person of public life. You can feel canceled from any form of the social headwind,” says the 35-year-old. “I experience a lot of discussion about everything I do. And it has done me wiser. I definitely judge less since I was constantly under the microscope. I have learned the only thing that counts for me to judge you are your actions.”
On “Canceelled!” follows “Honey”. The track tells how terms such as “Honey” or “Sweetheart” were mostly used as cultural weapons in their experience, as hateful or trivial names. That changed when someone had stepped into their lives, who for the first time occupied these words positively and used with love and respect.
The last song on the album is the “The Life of a Showgirl” with Sabrina Carpenter. As Swift explains to her fans in the movie, the piece turns around the fictional show girl Kitty. She hits a girl who is so enthusiastic and inspired by her that she wants to take a similar career. But Kitty warns: This is a hard business, you are too gentle and kind-hearted for the show girl business. “I got that very often myself,” says Swift. “I chose Sabrina to sing this song with me because it is more than any other for this career. She resists social hatred and has the right temperament to use criticism as a drive. She has such a love for this game that it is stronger than the fact that life as a show girl is incredibly hard,” says Taylor Swift.
A tragedy with a happy ending
Last but not least, after fans tracked the production of the video for “The Fate of Ophelia” and see it in its entirety, Swift talks about Ophelia again. “I love the tragedies of Shakespeares. I love their characters so much that it hurts me when they die in the end.” And further: “So I thought, what if you don’t die in the end? But marry? People could drive Ophelia crazy – but not me.”
The Berlin fans leave the cinema hall with new insights into the thoughts and feelings of their favorite star. The video for “The Fate of Ophelia” impressed many, you can hear from the murmur when the cinema seekers: flow back into the entrance hall inside. “The album was inspired by the best time of my life because you fans made the ‘Eras Tour’ what it was” – with these words Swift closes at the end of the movie. “You had my life illuminated. I internalized this love and made it an album.”