The Japan Times - Taylor Swift breaks streaming records with new 'Showgirl' album

Critical opinion of "Showgirl" ranged from glowing to unimpressed, but fans flocked to music platforms to hear the 12 tracks, breaking streaming records on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music, the services said.

Swift reunited with Swedish hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback for her 12th studio album, and their influence is clear in the driving beats and catchy hooks.

"I can't tell you how proud I am to share this with you, an album that just feels so right," the 35-year-old artist posted on Instagram.

On Spotify and Apple Music, the album became the most-streamed in one day in 2025, and on Amazon Music it broke an all-time record -- surpassing a previous Swift album, "The Tortured Poets Department".

Lead single "The Fate of Ophelia" also broke a first-day streaming record for 2025 on Apple Music, and in "Spotify history", the platforms said in statements online.

While the album still features plenty of introspection, it reveals a lighter, joyful Swift -- in love with her NFL Super Bowl champion fiance Travis Kelce, happy to have bought back her music catalog and proud of her record-shattering Eras Tour.

"I just want you, have a couple kids, got the whole block looking like you... Got me dreaming about a driveway with a basketball hoop," she sings on the dreamy "Wish List."

On "Opalite," which Kelce has said is his favorite track, she says, "You were dancing through the lightning strikes / Sleepless in the onyx night / But now the sky is opalite."

"I used to have this dark fear that if I ever were truly, like, happy and...nurtured by a relationship -- what happens if the writing just dries up?" Swift told BBC Radio 1.

"And it turns out that's not the case at all."

Elated fans worldwide snapped up tickets to special "release party" screenings in movie theaters -- including the premiere of the video for lead single "The Fate of Ophelia."

In Melbourne, Swifties -- many dressed in orange, the artist's signature color for the album -- were among the first to dance and sing to "Showgirl."

"I love the album," Kerry Brookes, a 54-year-old British IT manager attending a screening in the suburbs of Washington, told AFP.

"I'm just interested to see what she has to say about it," said Brookes, who was wearing a showgirl headpiece and a feather boa.

- 'Only as hot as your last hit' -

"Showgirl" represents a shift from the folksy pandemic-era "Folklore" and "Evermore" in 2020, the pensive "Midnights" in 2022 and the introspective "Tortured Poets" last year.

Swift said ahead of the release that the new album "comes from the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life."

Some of that drama comes through on "Elizabeth Taylor," on which she sings: "You're only as hot as your last hit, baby."

Then she goes for the jugular on "Father Figure," a reinvention of late pop crooner George Michael's hit of the same name in which she skewers power dynamics in the music business.

She could be singling out Big Machine Records founder Scott Borchetta, who discovered Swift when she was a teen, and Scooter Braun, who bought the label and took control of the master recordings of her first six albums.

"You want a fight, you found it / I've got the place surrounded / You'll be sleeping with the fishes before you know you're drowning," she sings.

Fans are also musing that "Actually Romantic" is a diss track referring to a rumored feud with pop singer Charli XCX.

"Showgirl" is available on streaming platforms. Special editions are for sale at retail giant Target, including the "Portofino orange glitter vinyl" or the "summertime spritz pink shimmer vinyl."

Aside from the "Ophelia" video, the weekend screenings feature behind-the-scenes footage and lyric videos.

The one-off cinematic event is estimated to gross $30-50 million, according to film industry website Deadline.

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

K.Inoue--JT