Taylor Swift was obviously inspired by Travis Kelce while making her 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl.
The pop superstar, 35, released her new record on Friday, October 3, and it didn’t take long for fans to find references to the NFL player, also 35.
The album opens with “The Fate of Ophelia,” a poppy song about Kelce revealing on his “New Heights” podcast in July 2023 that he had tried (and failed) to give Swift a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it during her Eras Tour shortly before their romance began.
“I heard you calling / On the megaphone / You wanna see me all alone,” she sings in a nod to him publicly shooting his shot.
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Later in the same track, Swift seemingly references Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs with the lyric, “I pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes.”
The Grammy winner also appears to gush over the athlete in “Elizabeth Taylor” (“All the right guys promised they’d stay / Under bright lights, they withered away / But you bloom”) and “Honey” (“When anyone called me ‘lovely’ / They were finding ways not to praise me / But you say it like you’re in awe of me / And you stay until the morning, honey”).
However, the most clear reference to Kelce occurs in “Wood” when Swift shouts out his podcast by singing, “New heights of manhood.” She also sweetly looks ahead to their future together in the “Wish List” chorus: “I just want you / Have a couple kids / Got the whole block looking like you / We tell the world to leave us the f*** alone and they do, wow / Got me dreaming about a driveway with a basketball hoop / Boss up, settle down.”
Swift and Kelce have been together since the summer of 2023. Nearly one year into their relationship, she dropped her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, in April 2024, with two songs believed to be about Kelce. “The Alchemy” made several nods to his NFL career with a slew of football references, while “So High School” included more allusions to their romance, such as how he holds the car door for her and mentioned her in a “marry, kiss or kill” game in a resurfaced interview.
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For weeks, Swift has been hinting that her 12th album would be heavily influenced by her relationship with Kelce.
“It just comes from the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life, so that effervescence has come through on this record,” she revealed on “New Heights” in August. “This album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during this tour, which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant.”
Swift added that The Life of a Showgirl draws from “everything that was going on behind the curtain” in her personal life during The Eras Tour.
“This album isn’t really about what happened to me on stage. It’s about what I was going through off stage,” she said. “It’s the life beyond the show.”
According to Swift, she “wanted the album to feel the way my life felt, and this completely matches the way that my life has felt.”
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Meanwhile, Kelce was clearly an early fan of the album.
“It’s so much fun,” he teased during Swift’s podcast debut. “I’ve been fortunate enough to hear every single song on here, so I know they’re all 12 bangers. It’s a lot more upbeat, and it’s a lot more fun pop excitement. I think it’s a complete 180 from a lot of the songs on Tortured Poets.”
In response, Swift gushed, “Life is more upbeat,” seemingly referring to her relationship with Kelce.
Later that month, Kelce told “New Heights” listeners that his favorite song from The Life of a Showgirl is “Opalite,” sharing, “Every time it comes on, I always catch myself [dancing].”
Kelce then emphasized that fans would be busting a move to more than just the one song he shouted out.
“I know she mentioned that it’s gonna be a lot more pop beats, but it’s just still so poetic in her melodies and her references and stuff,” he continued. “It’s just so much fun to listen to, man. I’ve been dancing all throughout the house.”
Weeks after Swift announced The Life of a Showgirl, she and Kelce confirmed their engagement, captioning Instagram photos from the proposal, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”
