Celebrity Couples
Which Taylor Swift ‘Life of a Showgirl’ Songs Are About Travis Kelce? Breaking It Down
TS12 is officially here! Taylor Swift dropped her brand new album, The Life of a Showgirl, on Friday, October 3, which means 12 brand-new songs to obsess over for the next several months.
When Swift appeared on the New Heights podcast in August, she revealed that the album, which was written in Europe with Max Martin and Shellback throughout summer 2024, is a “look behind the curtain” of what was going on when she was on the Eras tour in 2023 and 2024.
Of course, this included the time that she was falling in love with now-fiancé Travis Kelce. The couple first met after his podcast shout-out in July 2023 and were together through the international leg of the tour.
Naturally, The Life of a Showgirl includes several nods to Kelce. Scroll down for a breakdown of the songs about the NFL player, as well as some analysis of other buzzed-about tracks.
Which Life of a Showgirl songs are about Travis Kelce?
The majority of the songs on the highly-anticipated album are about Swift’s relationship with Kelce.
“The Fate of Ophelia”
The album’s opening track references the character Ophelia from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. The lyrics feature Swift thanking a certain someone for saving her from having the same fate as Ophelia, who dies by drowning in the play.
“If you never called me, I might have drowned in melancholy,” she sings, referencing Ophelia’s fate, as well as how Kelce called for her on his podcast, which led to their first meeting. In the chorus, she adds that Kelce “saved [her] heart from the fate of Ophelia.”
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Oh, it turns out that Kelce’s summer 2025 photo dump, which included several photos of Swift, also featured an Easter egg for this song, as it includes the lyric, “Keep it 100.” Kelce wrote this in the post’s caption.
“Elizabeth Taylor”
Like Swift, Elizabeth Taylor‘s professional and personal life was thrust into the spotlight, and this song features the singer calling out to the iconic actress for assurance that her relationship with Kelce will last.
“Elizabeth Taylor, tell me for real, do you think it’s forever?” she asks. While Taylor provides the hook for the song, most of the lyrics are direct messages to Kelce, including, “I can’t have fun if I can’t have you,” and, “You look at me like you’re hypnotized, and I think you know why.”
“Opalite”
Kelce once said that this was his favorite track on the album, and we can see why. “Opalite” is the story of how Swift and Kelce were scarred by past lovers, but are now doing OK because they have each other. The chorus states, “You were dancing through the lightning strikes, sleepless in an onyx night, but now the sky is opalite.”
In the first verse, Swift sings about her own past experience with love, and in the second, she switches it to share Kelce’s story, including an apparent nod to his ex, Kayla Nicole. “You couldn’t understand it, why you felt alone, you were in it for real, she was in her phone,” Swift notes.
“Eldest Daughter”
In typical Track 5 fashion, “Eldest Daughter” has lyrics that absolutely cut to the bone. In the chorus, Swift vows to be with Kelce forever. She also notes in the second verse, which was written before Kelce popped the question, that she’s ready for marriage with him.
“When I said I don’t believe in marriage, that was a lie,” Swift admits. “Every eldest daughter was the first lamb to the slaughter.” Later on, she references Kelce as the youngest child, singing, “Every youngest child felt that they were raised in the wild, but now you’re home.”
“Wi$h Li$t”
In case you were ever confused about whether or not Swift wants a family one day, she’s spelling it out crystal clear on this song, which is about the simple life she hopes to live with Kelce, as opposed to the lavish and expensive things other people seem to crave.
“I just want you, have a couple kids, got the whole block looking like you,” she sings. “We tell the world to leave us the f**k alone and they do, wow, you got me dreaming ’bout a driveway with a basketball hoop, boss up, settle down, got a wish list.”
“Wood”
Yes, “Wood” does have several sexual innuendos referencing Kelce’s manhood. Overall, the track is about how Swift no longer feels the need to be superstitious (or “knock on wood)” since she and Kelce have “made [their] own luck,” but there’s plenty more to unpack here.
Swift references Kelce’s podcast when she sings about reaching “new heights of manhood.” Other innuendos include, “I don’t need to catch the bouquet to know a hard rock is on the way,” and “the curse on me was broken by your magic wand.” Another lyric? “Forgive me, it sounds cocky, redwood tree, it ain’t hard to see, his love was the key that opened my thighs.”
Is anyone else sweating?
“Honey”
On Track 11, Swift sings about being called “honey” in the past and feeling like it was “passive aggressive” or disparaging. However, when it comes to Kelce, she’s perfectly OK with him using the pet name.
“You can call me honey if you want because I’m the one you want,” she assures him, while later noting, “You give it different meaning ’cause you mean it when you say.”
Who is ‘Actually Romantic’ about?
With a title like “Actually Romantic,” fans were convinced this would be the most loved-up Kelce track on the album. However, the song is actually her response to someone who she heard was talking about her.
Fans are speculating that Charli XCX is the subject. Charli penned her own song about Swift, “Sympathy Is a Knife,” on the 2024 album BRAT.
“High-fived my ex and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me,” Swift sings in the first verse, likely referencing Matty Healy, who Swift called out for ghosting her on The Tortured Poets Department and is in the same band as Charli’s now-husband, George Daniel.
In the chorus, she says, “It’s actually sweet, all the time you spent on me, it’s honestly wild, all the effort you put in. It’s actually romantic, I really gotta hand it to you, no man has ever loved me like you do.”
Who is ‘Ruin the Friendship’ about?
When the Life of a Showgirl track titles came out, there was a lot of chatter and speculation about this one. Could it be about Swift’s rumored falling out with Blake Lively?
Well, not even close. On “Ruin the Friendship,” Swift looks back at a high school friend who she regrets not kissing when she had the chance. In the bridge, she reveals that the subject has died.
“When I left school, I lost track of you, Abigail called with the bad news,” she sings. “Goodbye, and we’ll never know why. It was not an invitation, but I flew home anyway, there was so much left to say. It was not convenient, no but I whispered at the grave, should’ve kissed you anyway.”
It’s speculated that this song is about Swift’s friend Jeff Lang, who died in 2010 and is also rumored to have inspired her Red (Taylor’s Version) vault track “Forever Winter.”
