Taylor Swift reveals dark meaning behind Ophelia as fans can’t get over one lyric
The much-anticipated new Taylor Swift album, Life Of A Showgirl, is finally out and fans are already poring over the lyrics.
Taylor is doing the rounds of all of the UK radio stations to discuss the new album, which came out on Mean Girls day, no less, and has been chatting about life, love with fiancé Travis Kelce, and showing off that engagement ring.
Swifties always love finding easter eggs in Taylor's projects, so they trawl through the artwork and lyrics as soon as they are able to.
Taylor has given fans a further head start, though, by opening up about what some of the lyrics mean in a radio interview.
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Speaking on Heart Radio, she told breakfast hosts Emma Bunton and Jamie Theakston about some of the lyrics to 'The Fate Of Ophelia' from the new record.
They had just played the new track, when she explained the darker meaning behind the song, which on the surface sounds upbeat.
Jamie joked: "That noise is Swifties googling Hamlet, desperately trying to find out," as Taylor replied: "You know what, we've got to get the kids reading!"
Ophelia is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's drama Hamlet, which was written some time between 1599 and 1601.
Theakston added: "I seem to remember though, she went mad and then died?"
Taylor explained: "Yeah, she was driven mad by love, and so the play on it, the hook is that someone comes into your life and rescues you from the fate of being driven mad by love."
Fans have been sharing the lyrics online, with one writing: "No longer drowning and deceived, all because you came for me,” with a sad eye emoji, while another wrote: "Late one night, you dug me out of my grave and saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia."
The 'no longer drowning' line has definitely struck a chord with Swifties, though, with many of them getting emotional over the lyrics.
One said they were 'sobbing', as another added: "Genuinely happy cried to that."
"She's in her happiest era," added one swooning fan, while this person insisted: "There's just no way 'The Fate Of Ophelia' won't be a global smash hit.'
Over on Hits Radio, she explained: "I just have this fixation on Shakespeare characters that I fall in love with and I can't stand to see them meet a tragic demise."
"I don't want that to be what happened to them because like, wait, are you talking about Ophelia... she died? What do you mean? I was really excited to see what happened with her and Hamlet, they seemed great," she went on to joke.
"Going back to the song 'Love Story' which I wrote when I was a teenager, I was like, I can't watch Romeo and Juliet not work out, what do you mean they both die?" she added. "They don't in my version of things. I just turn the movie off before the bad ending!"
"This is a little bit like that, where 'The Fate Of Ophelia' talks about how Ophelia was driven mad by love, the hook says 'dug me out of my grave and saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia' so it's a love song, and it's also got like one of the catchiest post-hook sections, that I'm pretty proud of."
Back on Heart, Emma Bunton asked if Taylor has a favourite song, to which the singer said it might be 'Wish List'.
"It's a song that was actually the last song that we made for the album and it's the song where after we finished it I was like 'Oh, we're done, we're good, we're done with this, it's the final piece' and it's a really dreamy song," she explained.
"It's a really romantic song, it details all these different things people aspire to have in their lives and all the wishes people are making all over the world, of things in their lifestyle or things they wanna buy, or places they want to go, and then in the chorus it talks about what mine would be."
Topics: Taylor Swift, Music, Celebrity, Sex and Relationships, Travis Kelce
Jen Thomas