What do the “Elizabeth Taylor” Lyrics Really Mean?
Taylor’s second track on The Life of a Showgirl is the brooding Elizabeth Taylor. Told from alternating points of view, Swift asks the “world’s first mega-celebrity” for advice on freedom, fame, and love.
Let’s go through the parallels between Elizabeth Taylor and Taylor Swift, then dissect the lyrics line by line to see what meaning we can glean.
I’m your Swiftie English teacher, and this is a deep dive into the lyrics of Elizabeth Taylor, line by line.
- Title: “Elizabeth Taylor”
- Track: 2, The Life of a Showgirl
- Written By: Taylor Swift, Max Martin & Shellback
- Pen: Fountain
Elizabeth Taylor: Narrative Summary
- POV: Dual first-person (two separate showgirl narrators and points of view)
- Setting: Verses and bridge take place in the past inside Elizabeth Taylor’s world, choruses take place inside our “showgirl’s” present world
- Characters: Elizabeth Taylor (narrator), Taylor Swift (narrator)
- Mood: Anxious, brooding, trying to be optimistic
- Conflict: Personal life vs. public life: how fame disrupts both
- Quest: Figure out if fame lasts, and figure out if love can last amidst fame
- Theme: The perils and pitfalls of celebrity life
- Lesson: You can have “everything and nothing all at once”
Important Context Around the Real Elizabeth Taylor
Taylor has referenced Elizabeth Taylor previously in her lyrics, most notably in …Ready For It?, where she says, “he can be my jailer, Burton to this Taylor.” That line alludes to Elizabeth Taylor’s on-again, off-again marriage to Richard Burton, which was the subject of intense tabloid scrutiny. Their toxic relationship played out in the headlines for years.
But in Elizabeth Taylor, Swift takes another angle, paralleling her life to the “world’s first mega-celebrity” who also shares her name. She also seems to write portions of the lyrics from Elizabeth’s point of view.
Listing all the parallels between the two would take a dissertation, but for the context of understanding the lyrics, here are (what I think) are the most important bits (most can be found in this candid interview, recorded at the Plaza Athénée, no less):
- Elizabeth Taylor began as a child star, and entered into a binding contract with a movie studio when she wasn’t old enough to know better. The studios “owned” her, and she felt she was “promoted for their own pockets”.
- Her personal life was used as public fodder, which likely contributed to her many divorces: the public spotlight was too harsh for her relationships to survive.
- Elizabeth collected jewels that, to her, represented relationships or personal achievements. Her (actually priceless) jewels held more sentimental value than monetary value for her.
- Oh, and she was also a cat lover. Like, obsessed with cats. And her nickname was “Kitten”, or “Kitty,” which will come back around in the title track of this album.
“You can always avert throwing yourself in front of an oncoming train. There is something that just pulls you away — and it has pulled me away, because I’m not dead yet — just at the brink of impact. Sometimes I have been really grazed by that train.The world and the press and people have always enjoyed doing that. That’s the nature of things. You create an idea, a star. They’re yours. You have created this monster. So what do you do? It becomes boring unless you tear it down. I’ve been on that yo-yo trip all my life. Except like the times when I almost lose myself.
But I didn’t lose myself, did I? Something always made me save myself.”
-Elizabeth Taylor, interview at the Plaza Athénée, in 1987 by Rolling Stone
Elizabeth Taylor Lyrics Meaning: Line by Line
Please note, this is only my interpretation of Taylor Swift’s writing. Art is subjective, and the only person who truly knows what these lyrics mean – or what she intended them to mean – is Taylor herself.
What these lyrics mean to you is really what matters, and there is no single “correct” interpretation. I hope my annotations below I can simply point out things you may have missed, open the door to alternate meanings, and draw parallels between Taylor’s other lyrics and art.
Verse 1: Private Portofino
*For clarity, I’ll mostly refer to Elizabeth Taylor as “Liz,” so as not to confuse the two Taylors.
“Elizabeth Taylor,” she begins in the intro, “Do you think it’s forever?” At this point, it’s Taylor Swift’s showgirl character speaking to Elizabeth Taylor: an idol or mentor “showgirl”.
The golden-age movie star famously starred in her own ad campaign for her fragrance line, “White Diamonds.” In those ads, she whispered the tagline: “diamonds are forever.” This line alluded to the sentiment, ‘men are disposable, but diamonds are forever,’ making light of her many failed marriages and enormous jewelry collection.
Neither of our showgirls are speaking about physical diamonds, however, and this will become a loaded metaphor as the lyrics go on.
“That view of Portofino was on my mind when you called me at the Plaza Athénée,” she begins in the first verse.” Now we’re inside Elizabeth Taylor’s mind, or Taylor Swift’s interpretation of her mind.
Portofino was significant in Liz’s life: she enjoyed 4 of her honeymoons there. Portofino was also where Richard Burton proposed, on the balcony of the Splendido Hotel. Portofino is known for its brightly-colored orange buildings and blue ocean, but it’s also just down the beach from “The Gulf of Poets.”
But those perfect, brightly-colored houses of Portofino are also an illusion. Many of them are just facades, where windows and doors and flower boxes are painted on for effect. So “that view of Portofino” is a loaded line: it’s a gorgeous view, but once you look up close, it’s not real. It’s a facade, like the facade of a showgirl.
The Plaza Athénée had two locations: Paris, and New York, though New York has since closed. Either setting within these lyrics is possible, as Liz was known to frequent both. The point is that wherever she is, she’s thinking about “the view of Portofino”, which likely means thinking of better, more romantic, easier times. Why? Because the following line is, “oftentimes it doesn’t feel so glamorous to be me.”
If there is a thesis statement in this song, this is it. It’s the invisible string that truly ties both Taylors together: the harsh spotlight of celebrity and fame can blind the wrong people. Only the very strong, and very equipped, can stand beside you when the world gets very loud.
But “it doesn’t feel so glamorous to be me” comes right after “that view of Portofino was on my mind.” Just like those pretty buildings in Portofino, the life of a mega-celebrity is polished on the outside. But once you really look up close, it’s all a facade.
“All the right guys promised they’d stay,” she continues, “Under bright lights, they withered away, but you bloom.” She is surprised and delighted that this new romance isn’t fading before her eyes. This new love grows under very harsh conditions, and she wasn’t expecting it.
“Portofino was on my mind (And I think you know why),” she closes the first verse, not letting us in on the inside joke. Something has happened in Portofino, for Liz or for Taylor or for both, and we don’t get to know exactly what that is.
Chorus: Violet Eyes
“And if your letters ever said, ‘Goodbye,” she sings in the pre-chorus, beginning her transition out of Liz’s perspective and into her own point of view. But it’s almost as if both characters are speaking this line – they both hope that this lover will stick around, as she’ll lay out in the chorus.
“I’d cry my eyes violet, Elizabeth Taylor,” says Taylor Swift’s character in the chorus. Elizabeth Taylor was well-known for her violet-hued eyes. But violets are also important in Taylor Swift’s universe.
In the previous track The Fate of Ophelia she references Hamlet, in which Ophelia’s violets have wilted with her father’s death. In the Elizabethan era, purple violets meant that love, or heartbreak, was on your mind.
It’s also not the first time Taylor has mentioned violets or shades of purple. There’s “my knuckles were bruised like violets” of The Great War, the “lavender haze” of new love, and the “lilac short skirt” she dresses to kill in imgonnagetyouback.
“I’d cry my eyes violet” as a metaphor, however, conjures imagery of drastic change. She’d be so depressed – so despondent – that even the color of her eyes would darken.
This love has transformed her for the better, and if it went away, it could transform her for the worse. It’s almost like “this love’s left a permanent mark.”
“Tell me for real, do you think it’s forever?” she asks Elizabeth Taylor directly. This is a loaded question, and I believe it’s really asking multiple things at once. Here are a few possibilities:
- ‘Is this love forever? Will it really last? Or will it fade away like all the rest – like all your lovers faded away?’
- ‘Is fame forever? Or will I get cancelled again?’
- ‘Will I become as infamous as you, and if I do, will it be for my personal life, or for my art? Can I have one without the other?’
- ‘Will my “diamonds” – my achievements – live on, or is this all temporary?’
“Been number one, but I never had two,” she continues, “And I can’t have fun if I can’t have –”
She’s been at the top of the charts, and at the top of her game, but there’s still something missing, and she won’t reveal what it is until the final line of the chorus. We all know it’s probably “you,” but this omission (the dash at the end of the line) reflects the meaning: the “you” is absent.
“Be my NY whеn Hollywood hates me,” she says, but now she’s not speaking to Elizabeth Taylor. She’s talking to herself, and to her lover. Liz famously left Hollywood for the jet-set lifestyle, but she could never run away from bad press (that was mostly about her failed relationships).
“Hollywood hates me” could also refer to the backlash Swift received for her recent film rollouts, where she partnered directly with theatres and bypassed the traditional route. But either way, it means ‘be my refuge when the world gets too loud.’
“You’re only as hot as your last hit, baby,” she continues, which is a sentiment likely felt by both artists. They know that the industry will chew you up and spit you out, and at points it seems like none of your past work or achievements matter. Only what you’re doing, or not doing, at the current moment matters in our culture.
Life is long, but the public’s memories are short and fickle. They’ll often remember the scandals and forget your successes.
She closes out the chorus with, ”Been numbеr one, but I never had two, and I can’t have fun if I can’t have you.” This time she includes the “you.” This tells us directly: ‘I want this person. Life would be no fun without them.’
It’s a sentiment likely shared by Liz, who really wanted a partner she could trust and share her life with.
Verse 2: Hollywood Glam
“Hey-ey, what could you possibly get for the girl who has everything and nothing all at once?”, she begins the second verse. She’s speaking as Liz once again.
Both showgirls really do have it all on the surface: jewels, money, fame. Both have been scandalized for their romances and labeled “serial monogamists” (and in Liz’s case, “erotic vagrancy” by the Vatican).
But on the inside, Liz had spoken about being deeply lonely. Taylor has written about this predicament, too, in songs like The Prophecy, mirrorball, I Look in People’s Windows, I Hate it Here, and more. The pedestal of fame probably feels pretty isolating at the top.
“Babe, I would trade the Cartier for someone to trust (Just kidding),” she says cheekily. Liz would never give away her prized jewels, which she said were more sentimental than material. As Elizabeth Taylor, Swift jokes about trading jewels for love, but we get the feeling that our showgirl would, actually, give it all up just to have someone to share it with.
“We hit the best booth at Musso and Frank’s,” she continues, narrating Elizabeth Taylor strutting into the classic Hollywood hot spot frequented by Rita Hayworth, Greta Garbo and Marilyn Monroe. But as she imagines Liz going out to dinner, she also imagines the public perception of her: “They say I’m bad news, I just say, ‘Thanks’.”
The public perception of both Taylors was equally polarising. But both learned to shake it off, because haters gonna hate.
But not all are haters: “And you look at me like you’re hypnotized, And I think you know why.” Her lover stares at her in awe. But is he staring at the movie/pop star, or the human woman underneath the facade?
This is the duality that most of this album grapples with, even in its title: it’s The Life of a Showgirl, not “The Life of Taylor Swift”. Her public persona, and the corporation that bears her name, is not the same as the human inside. Is there a partner who can love both versions of her?
Leading into the next chorus, we get one changed line: “And if you ever leave me high and dry.” If you ever leave me stranded, I’d be devastated. But this can’t help but remind us of a similar line: “how dare you say it’s romantic, leaving me safe and stranded.”
Bridge: Diamonds are Forever?
The chorus repeats with a short post-chorus, then we dive into the bridge where we learn more about what this song is really saying.
“All my white diamonds and lovers are forever,” she begins the bridge, “In the papers, on the screen, and in their minds.” In this stanza, it seems she’s narrating from both points of view.
She’s once again alluding to Liz’s iconic “diamonds are forever” quote from her White Diamonds perfume ads. But the second line adds crucial meaning.
The lovers and gemstones (which could symbolize her art or achievements) live on forever because they’ll always be “in the papers, on the screen, and in their minds.” So while “you’re only as hot as your last hit,” your mistakes, too, will be forever memorialized on the internet and in the court of public opinion.
The people you’ve dated and the scandals you’ve endured will also be a part of your story, even long after you’ve moved on. This is equally true for both stars: both the diamonds and the coal will always be a part of your mythology.
“All my white diamonds and lovers are forever,” she repeats, emphasizing that all her previous lovers will always be associated with her. But then she adds: “Don’t you ever end up anything but mine.”
She doesn’t want to see this new love in some internet archive. She doesn’t want this person in the past tense, ever. She wants them in the present, as hers, just like her “diamonds.” She wants this person forever.
The chorus repeats, and the outro echoes the bridge but adds one line from the intro: “Elizabeth Taylor, do you think it’s forever?”
The repeated question feels like a protege asking their “father figure” for advice, and if there’s anyone Taylor could ask for really applicable advice, it would be Elizabeth Taylor. She’s one of the very few superstars who have trod this path before.
But as Liz is no longer with us, she’ll have to settle for imagining her answers. No one can tell us what the future holds, anyway. But we can see that as happy and optimistic as the album is, there are tinges of worry, the same as she’s always had: “who could ever leave me, darling, but who could stay?”
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