Taylor Swift certainly doesn’t mind if her fiancé, Travis Kelce, calls her “honey” — or watches her songwriting process from the very beginning.
“I think one of the most random places I came up with an idea for a song for this album was the song ‘Elizabeth Taylor,’” Swift, 35, said in a TikTok video shared via Pandora’s account on Wednesday, October 8. “My parents sent me this clip of Elizabeth Taylor’s son saying something very flattering that, basically, if there was one person he might compare to his mother in modern day in terms of the personal and the whole chaos going on around us, he said he would say me.”
According to Swift, she was “so flattered” by the comparison and started brainstorming lyrical ideas while out with Kelce, 36. (Iconic actress Elizabeth Taylor died in 2011 at the age of 79, years before her son Christopher Wilding would praise Swift on multiple occasions.)
“When I read it, I just immediately started talking to Travis about it,” the pop star explained. “I was just going on and on about Elizabeth Taylor, like, talking about all the things about her that I love [and] all the things that made her so glamorous and funny and witty and interesting, and how she kept challenging herself late into her life.”
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Eventually, Swift needed to “get out of the car” to complete her train of thought.
“I was, like, ‘One second, we’re parked [and] I have to get out of the car for a second,’” Swift recalled of her conversation with the NFL star. “I just sang this melody into my phone, got back in the car and that’s what that’s like when that happens.”
“Elizabeth Taylor” was the first song that Swift wrote for her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, with coproducers Max Martin and Shellback. The second track on the LP is also one inspired by Swift and Kelce’s love story. (Swift and the Kansas City Chiefs tight end have been together since 2023, getting engaged two years later in August.)
“It’s got to do with fame, attention, love, notoriety [and] anxiety that this isn’t going to be forever, and how heartbroken would you be then?” Swift said of the song during her “Release Party of a Showgirl” event. “The first line that I came up with was, ‘I cry my eyes violet, Elizabeth Taylor,’ and from that point on I was obsessed with this song. I wanted to tell a story that referenced some of the cool things about her life, but also are parallel to mine.”
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She added, “I used details from her life, but the feelings of what it conveys are things I’ve absolutely experienced time and time again. We really went in on this track, like, the production is something that I’m so proud of. It’s equally luxurious and feminine, and then goes really hard and really tough in the chorus. It’s one of my favorite songs.”
Swift wrote “Elizabeth Taylor” and the entirety of The Life of a Showgirl during the European leg of her jet-setting Eras Tour in 2024, chronicling her experience off of the stage and in her romance with Kelce. In addition to “Elizabeth Taylor,” Kelce inspired the songs “The Fate of Ophelia,” “Opalite,” “Honey,” “Wish List” and “Wood.”
“I’m just the lucky man that gets to be, you know, the support system for Taylor while she drops one of the coolest albums that I’ve ever listened to, that the world’s seen,” Kelce gushed on the Wednesday episode of his “New Heights” podcast, detailing what it was like getting a firsthand glimpse into Swift’s songwriting process. “I’m excited for her. I’m happy for her. Everything seems to have gone perfectly, all this planning.”
He concluded, “You see it from start to finish. She started this thing in the middle of her tour in Europe. To see it all unfold and come together and her connect the dots — from the strategic planning to how the album was all going to look — then listen to the music, and everything comes together. … I’m just happy as hell for it because she’s happy with it. She’s proud of this and obviously I’m proud of her for going through the hoops to live out her dreams.”
The Life of a Showgirl is out now.
