Like clockwork, Taylor Swift’s album The Life of a Showgirl dropped at midnight on Friday, October 3, and by 12:01, fans were reading into the lyrics, looking for hidden meanings.
The album’s third track, “Opalite,” provides quite the tantalizing nugget — one that fans think throws shade at Kayla Nicole, the ex-girlfriend of Swift’s fiancé, Travis Kelce.
The song is seemingly about Swift, 35, searching for the perfect partner, whom she found in Kelce, also 35, when the two began dating in 2023. The pair announced their engagement via Instagram in August.
Kelce’s birthstone is the opal, leaving little question about the song referring to him. When she refers to Kelce in “Opalite,” she sings, “You were dancing through the lightning strikes / Sleepless in the onyx night / But now the sky is opalite.”
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She adds, “Never met no one likе you before / You had to make your own sunshinе / But now the sky is opalite.”
But one particular section caught fans’ attention.
“You couldn’t understand it / Why you felt alone / You were in it for real / She was in her phone / You were just a pose,” she sings. “And don’t we try to love love / And give it all we got / You finally left the table / And what a simple thought / You’re starving ’til you’re not.”
Kelce and Nicole, 33, dated off-and-on for five years before the Kansas City Chiefs tight end connected with Swift after attending one of her Eras Tour concerts.
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The three-time Super Bowl champion even admitted in an August episode of his “New Heights” podcast that “Opalite” is his favorite Life of a Showgirl song.
“I think ‘Opalite’ might be my favorite, though, at least right now,” he told his cohost and brother, Jason Kelce, at the time. “Every time it comes on, I always catch myself.”
Swift later confirmed during a Friday appearance on the U.K.’s Capital FM radio station that “Opalite” is still Kelce’s top pick.
“He loves that one,” she said. “I have favorite words, favorite phrases [and] things I’ll put in an endless file of lyrics that I’m constantly going to go and cherry-pick from when I’m writing.”
She also explained the track’s origins.
“I had written down the word ‘opalite’ because I learned that it is actually a man-made opal,” she said. “Opal can be man-made just like diamonds. Travis’ birthstone is an opal, so I have always fixated on that, and I’ve always loved that stone. And I thought it was kind of a cool metaphor that man-made opal and happiness can also be man-made too,” she said as she talked about the song’s origins.”
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Of course, Opalite is far from the only song to reference Kelce. “Wish List,” “Honey,” “The Fate of Ophelia” and most famously “Wood” all seem to chronicle their romance. Swift opened up about “The Fate of Ophelia” later in the interview, saying the song has some of her “favorite moments” on the album.
“There’s a post-hook section that goes, ‘Keep it 100 on the land, the sea, the sky / Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes,’” she said. “When we wrote that, I was like, ‘Yes! This is why I do music.’”
The Life of a Showgirl is out now.
