THE RUNDOWN
Taylor Swift has debuted her music video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” the first from her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl.
Fans are getting an early look at the video during the official watch party in theaters this weekend.
The video will publicly premiere on YouTube on Sunday, October 5, at 7 P.M. ET.
The first music video of Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl era has landed—but only select audiences got to see it first. During The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, which dropped in theaters on Friday, October 3, Swift unveiled the music video for “The Fate of Ophelia” for the first time to fans in attendance. (The video will not premiere publicly on YouTube until Sunday night.)
ELLE contributor Brea Cubit was on the scene at the release party, and she described the video as a choreography-stuffed homage to “storytelling and art history” that would likely send fans “falling down historical rabbit roles and digging into the story behind the story.” She also reported that the video features numerous references to Ophelia herself, the tragic ex-lover of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who ultimately loses her mind and drowns.
In an October 3 interview with Hits Radio UK, Swift explained the inspiration behind the single. “I just have this fixation on Shakespeare characters that I fall in love with and I can’t stand to see them meet a tragic demise,” she said. “I can’t. I don’t want that to be what happened to them.” She continued, “Kind of going back to the song ‘Love Story,’ which I wrote when I was a teenager, I was just like, ‘I can’t watch Romeo and Juliet not work out.’ What do you mean they both die? They don’t in my version of things…But this is a little bit like that, where ‘The Fate of Ophelia’ talks about how, you know, Ophelia was driven mad by love. The hook says, ‘You dug me out of my grave and saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia.’ So it’s a love song.”
The music video’s imagery includes Swift dressed in a flowing white gown and strutting between picture frames—a reference to Ophelia’s numerous depictions in classical art—then transitions to Swift as a more modern showgirl, performing in bedazzled get-ups inside her dressing room as well as on a stage. Next, audiences witness Swift at the helm of an artificial ship, her curly red wig rippling in the manufactured wind moments before she tips overboard. (The wig seems a likely nod to the famous John Everett Millais painting of Hamlet’s Ophelia, in which the character drowns in a river, her red hair billowing out behind her in the water.)
Afterwards, we see Swift in a classic mid-century bathing suit-inspired look, surrounded by dancers clutching life buoys. (This is, no doubt, another reference to Ophelia’s would-be drowning.) Yet another bewigged version of Swift appears in a tangle of ropes as attendants fuss over her hair and makeup, only for the ropes to lift her upward and present her in full showgirl attire: sequins, feathers, and all. The video at last concludes with Swift taking a dip in the bathtub depicted on the cover of The Life of a Showgirl.
“The Fate of Ophelia” music video will debut on YouTube Sunday night at 7 P.M. ET. Until then, Swifties who bought tickets to The Official Release Party will lead the charge in identifying Swift’s infamous Easter eggs…and teaching their fellow fans the “Ophelia” choreography. Get your sequins and feather boas ready!
Check back in on Sunday night to watch the full video. In the meantime, see the vizualizer below.
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