Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” music video is officially out of theaters and on our screens. From learning the choreography for the chorus to understanding the many scenes that show off the life of a showgirl across time, there’s a lot to dissect. We’ve been watching on repeat to bring you all the details.
The Music Video
“The Fate of Ophelia” is the first track on Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. It features Taylor, of course, alongside her Eras Tour dancers in a variety of settings. She choreographed “a journey through the chaotic world of show business” with Emmy Award-winning choreographer Mandy Moore.
The Showgirls
While the song is about how Taylor’s love (Travis Kelce, of course) helped her avoid the same fate as Shakespeare’s ill-fated tragic figure Ophelia, the music video is more focused on showing off the many ways to be a showgirl. Showgirls aren’t limited to the glitz and glam of Las Vegas. Taylor takes on the roles of Pre-Raphaelite model, theater performer, Busby Berkeley screen-siren, Vegas cabaret girl, modern popstar, and the infamous (though fictional) Kitty Finlay. Turns out being a showgirl is an experience that comes with many costumes.
The Dance
Choreography from two verses of the song is catching on as a viral internet trend. The first dance happens during the first pre-chorus. Taylor sings,
And if you’d never come for me
I might’ve drowned in the melancholy
I swore my loyalty to me (Me), myself (Myself), and I (I)
Right before you lit my sky up.
In the video, Taylor is backstage in the dressing room. Her Marilyn Monroe-inspired look is all red, from a dazzling red Versace bodysuit opera gloves to Jimmy Choo pumps. A platinum blond wig and a beauty mark complete the style. She and her dancers perform a chair dance.
These are the lyrics we’re grooving to:
Keep it one hundred on the land (Land), the sea (The sea), the sky
Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes
Don’t care where the hell you’ve been (Been) ’cause now (Now), you’re mine
It’s ’bout to be the sleepless night you’ve been dreaming of
The fate of Ophelia
The Sets
As we move into the Showgirl Era, you have options for the kind of star you want to embody. The “The Fate of Ophelia” music video features nine unique sets with matching showgirl styles.
The video opens in the empty lobby of the Ophelia Hotel. (Could this be inspired by the lobby of Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris?) The walls are adorned with paintings, pictures, and posters of the showgirls in the video. We leave the hotel lobby to enter the painting of Taylor Swift as Ophelia. This Shakespearean Taylor navigates the set pieces of several paintings, dodging film crews and even a fire breather! Later, we will see Taylor return to this theater aesthetic for a dramatic ship scene, complete with wild red hair and a plank-walk demise.
If we leave the theater, we might find Taylor and her dancers for a dressing room intermission. These glamorous girls know the ins and outs of fabulous costumes (It’s Versace!) and dance moves. Continuing to move through time, Taylor trades in her platinum blonde bob for long dark hair in a ’60s girl group. Their moves are as mesmerizing as their geometric leather Roberto Cavalli halter dresses. The “classic” showgirl also appears in bold orange and red cabaret costumes in front of a red velvet curtain and in the sky-blue sparkles of screen sirens on a platformed stage.
Today’s favorite showgirls are actors and pop stars, and they aren’t left out of this music video sequence. A wild pop star appears for a raging hotel party with the bellhops before the papparazzi appear in the window, and Kitty Finlay gets carried into the air in a rope dress behind the scenes of Sequins are Forever. Unlike most of the showgirls in this music video, our final look does not appear to escape the fate of Ophelia. She is alone, submerged in a crystal Area minidress and Zydo Italy diamonds, in the hotel bathroom.
The Easter Eggs
How many Easter eggs can Taylor hide in a three-minute video? Well…a lot. It might be easier if we list them for you.
- Taylor starts by hiding portraits and the name Ophelia in the hotel lobby at the start of the music video. Some notable details include a poster for “Female Rage” (Taylor Swift’s name for the Tortured Poets Department section of the Eras Tour) and “Wood” (track 9).
- A painting of Taylor Swift as Ophelia and the famous Sir John Everett Millais “Ophelia” painting also hang on the walls.
- Behind the painting, we have a megaphone and pyrotechnics perfectly timed with the lyrics.
- Taylor also artfully arranged a still life of pearls and peaches (a reference to the “The Life of a Showgirl” bridge) with her own sourdough.
- In the dressing room, Taylor, as Marilyn Monroe, has the famous “Kiss, Marry, Kill” Travis Kelce on her mirror.
- The jazz club is home to Taylor and two dancers as well as her real band!
- When Taylor boards the ship for her theatrical, possibly Tempest-inspired fight, she is wearing a Paolo Sebastian gown from a Shakespeare-inspired collection.
- A bit more on the nose, Taylor explained that her screen-sirens are holding lifesavers and dancing in a swimming-themed performance as a nod to Ophelia’s death—spoiler alert: no one saved Ophelia.
- When we cut to the world of Kitty Finlay (likely named after Taylor Swift’s opera singer grandmother, Marjorie Finlay), Kitty appears in the final track of the album, but for now, she is on take 100 of the film Sequins are Forever (you know, Diamonds are Forever). 100 also happens to be the combination of Taylor’s lucky number (13) and Travis’ jersey number (87).
- The boxes on the set behind Kitty are marked with the initials of each TLOAS track.
- The Las Vegas showgirl appears briefly enough for us to clock some Chiefs aesthetics.
- Popstar Taylor is having a raging hotel party loaded with Easter eggs. One backup dancer holds a tiny purse with a chihuahua in it (“Actually Romantic”) while Taylor catches a football in honor of Travis.
- Her hotel room, number 87, is another nod to everyone’s favorite Kansas City Chiefs tight end.
- When the papparazzi crash the party and send her running to hide in the bathroom, an Oscar is lying on the floor (Wi$h Li$t), and there’s opalite on the edge of the tub—we decorate our bathrooms in expensive riches too, Taylor.
The last detail? The music video is peppered with exit signs. Each showgirl exists into the next, and we have officially exited the Eras Era.
Did you notice anything else?
