Why Taylor Swift Name-Dropped Elizabeth Taylor in Her New Album

Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor is prominently featured in Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”

The inclusion of the other Taylor has some younger fans wondering who Elizabeth Taylor was. To older generations, of course, the National Velvet and Cleopatra actress—famed for her many marriages, her tumultuous romance with Richard Burton, her violet eyes, and her gems—needs no introduction.

But why did Swift include Taylor in her album, and what’s the meaning behind the lyrics?

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Swift named the second track on her album after Taylor, who died at the age of 79 in 2011 after a life of great fame but also great heartbreak (she married and divorced Burton twice and lost one husband, Mike Todd, in a plane crash. Altogether, Taylor was married eight times.)

Swift’s lyrics feature her asking Taylor for advice. “Tell me for real/ Do you think it’s forever?” she sings.

According to TODAY, Swift appears to contrast the media attention over Taylor’s many romances with her own past failed relationships, singing that those relationships were “in the papers, on the screen and in their minds.”

As with her song “Ophelia” about a doomed character from Hamlet, in “Elizabeth Taylor,” Swift appears to be looking at a crossroads that features two different fates, and expressing happiness and maybe relief that her love match with Travis Kelce has spared her from the tragic ending.

TODAY noted that Swift has referenced the legendary actress in a previous track in 2017. In that song, she challenges a new lover to be her “Burton to this Taylor.”

Taylor was known for more than her love life, of course, and Swift may see other parallels between her life and fame and Taylor’s. A new docuseries on Elizabeth Taylor’s life will delve into the star’s groundbreaking fame and contributions.

“Each episode explores how Taylor shattered Hollywood’s glass ceiling, built a billion-dollar business empire, and transformed celebrity activism through her pioneering work in the fight against HIV/AIDS,” a release announcing the docuseries says, according to Page Six. Kim Kardashian is producing it for Fox Nation.