Taylor Swift reunited her entire “Graham Norton Show” lineup in a nostalgia-soaked, ’90s-themed “Opalite” music video.
Domhnall Gleeson, Cillian Murphy, Jodie Turner-Smith, Greta Lee and Norton himself all make playful cameos alongside Swift’s Eras Tour dancers. The video opens with dancer Karen Chuang starring in a hilariously chipper commercial for “Opalite” spray, a cure for even the dreariest days.
A brunette Swift, sporting a yellow scrunchie, clicks off the TV just as the song kicks in. From there, it’s full throwback: Swift in overalls folding a paper fortune teller, swinging on playground bars and crafting a “Friends4Ever” bracelet for the pet rock she treats like a soulmate. Midway through, Domhnall Gleeson appears as a man devoted to his beloved cactus, his plus-one everywhere he goes.
Once he spritzes it with “Opalite,” the cactus shapeshifts into Swift, and the pair embark on a sweetly absurd rom-com montage: mall dates, dance-off wins and a final shot where the once-lifeless cactus and Swift’s rock meet as happily as their owners.
Not releasing on YouTube
The singer-songwriter’s in-house marketing team, Taylor Nation, first shared the news on social media on Feb. 4: “It’s officially official, Opalite is Taylor’s new single! And if you go to http://TaylorSwift.com now, you can count down to the release of the MUSIC VIDEO on @Spotify Premium and @AppleMusic.”
The timing and platform choice make this release unusual. Swift usually starts with a YouTube premiere, but this time the video won’t hit the video app until 8 a.m. ET Feb. 8 as she opts to debut it first on paid streaming platforms.
‘Now the sky is opalite’
In August, Travis Kelce told his brother Jason Kelce on a “New Heights” episode he can’t stop listening to the third track from “The Life of a Showgirl.”
“I keep listening to this album,” Travis said. “It’s still so poetic in her melodies and references. I’ve been dancing throughout the house.”
It was reported by The Sun that Swift surreptitiously flew in and out of the United Kingdom the week before Thanksgiving, slipping through London and surrounding towns without a single photograph of her surfacing.
‘When you know you know’
Swifties speculated the music video was dropping after choreographer Mandy Moore teased a “top secret music video that [she couldn’t] talk about” on the Joe Vulpis podcast on Dec. 23.
“That’s exciting,” the host said laughing.
“Yes, which is very exciting,” she responded. “It’s gonna be a big year.”
Moore worked with Swift on “The Fate of Ophelia,” the first music video released from “The Life of a Showgirl.”
“When you get to work with someone who sees the vision,” Moore said. “She’s an amazing director, probably my favorite director to work with, she just knows what she wants.”
‘Dancing through the lightning strikes’
“Opalite” has quickly become a fan favorite, breaking the Spotify record as the fastest non-single to hit 100 million streams in the first eight days of release. The song documents the glitter-tinged and giddy excitement of finding a love that feels effervescent and secure.
The lyrics weave together advice from Swift’s family (“I had a bad habit / Of missing lovers past / My brother used to call it / ‘Eating out of the trash'”) with the feeling of finding a love that feels steady and secure.
Swift has long been drawn to the beauty and metaphor of its namesake stone.
“I really loved the idea that the sort of man-made gemstone jewel is also a metaphor for choosing your own path to happiness, making it yourself,” she said during her “Official Release Party” film released in theaters the same weekend as her 12th studio album. “It didn’t just happen to you. You had to fight for it. You had to work for it. You had to earn it.”
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‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.usatoday.com ’
