The music video for Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” is currently available for streaming on YouTube, after an exclusive early release in U.S. theaters on Friday (Oct. 3).
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The music video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” written and directed by Swift herself, premiered online on Sunday night (Oct. 5). The visually rich narrative features the pop star portraying various roles, including the ill-fated Ophelia from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a leading lady in a Golden Age Hollywood musical, a frontwoman for a 1960s girl group, and the contemporary Swift showgirl beloved by fans.
In this reimagining, Swift’s single envisions an Ophelia who escapes her tragic fate.
The accompanying music video (featured below) shows Swift emerging from an on-set version of Sir John Everett Millais’ painting from the 1850s, which famously illustrates Ophelia’s drowning. Throughout the video, she performs various interpretations of a “Fate of Ophelia” show—paying homage to Marilyn Monroe in one scene and Ronnie Spector/The Ronettes in another—culminating in her soaking in a bathtub by the end of the clip. Despite her exhaustion from playing multiple roles, she remains vibrantly alive.
The music video for “The Fate of Ophelia” concludes with the image that serves as the official album cover for Swift’s newly released The Life of a Showgirl.
On Sunday, Swift’s team shared a brief interview clip where the singer-songwriter discusses the creation of the album art.
“There was this moment during the photo shoot [with photographers Mert Alaş and Marcus Piggott] right at the end of the day, in the last setup, I’m in this bathtub wearing this bedazzled dress,” she explained. “They take my picture. I see it on the monitor. I see it pop up. Even though it was at the weirdest angle, and I’m in the bathtub, I’m just like, ‘That’s the cover.’ And it was.”
She continued, “I looked at the picture and thought, ‘Yeah. That’s it.’ It represents to me that after all this work—after performing a three-and-a-half-hour show and going through all the preparations—you finally get back; what do you do? You take a bath.”
“That’s what I do in those moments,” she said. “It’s that moment of relaxation when the cameras are down and the lights are off. What do you have to say? What’s your story? Who are you then? That’s really what this album is about.”
On its opening day, album sales for The Life of a Showgirl, as reported by data tracking firm Luminate, reached 2.7 million copies (Oct. 3). This figure includes traditional album sales (both physical and digital) across all versions of the album. It marks Swift’s biggest week ever and represents the second-largest sales week for any album since Luminate began electronically tracking data in 1991; Adele currently holds the record for largest sales week with 25. Further updates on Showgirl‘s first-week sales and streaming activity will be available soon.
The music video for “The Fate of Ophelia” was initially shown in theaters as part of The Release Party of a Showgirl, Swift’s theatrical event that debuted at No. 1 at the box office this weekend. The screening included not only the music video premiere but also behind-the-scenes footage from its production and Swift’s commentary on all twelve songs from The Life of a Showgirl, along with first views of each track’s lyric video. Additionally, it featured an unexpected co-star: a loaf of Swift’s homemade sourdough bread.
