In “Opalite” Taylor Swift turns an artificial gemstone into an irresistible trustworthy love track.
There’s one thing splendidly becoming about Taylor Swift naming a track after a pretend stone. Not pretend in a derogatory sense, thoughts you, however manufactured: intentionally created relatively than found.
On “Opalite,” the third monitor from her October 2025 album The Lifetime of a Showgirl, Swift makes use of the man-made opal simulant as a metaphor for the form of happiness it’s important to construct your self.
It’s a intelligent little bit of songwriting, the form of factor that makes you suppose Swift’s been jotting down phrases and phrases every time inspiration strikes. Which, because it seems, is strictly what she does.
Swift revealed on Capital FM that she’d been stockpiling the phrase “opalite” in her countless lyric recordsdata after studying it was artificial, identical to diamonds might be.
The connection to her fiancé Travis Kelce was speedy. Opal is the birthstone for October, when Kelce celebrates his birthday on the fifth, simply two days after the album dropped.
“Travis’s birthstone is an opal. So I’ve at all times fixated on that. I’ve at all times cherished that stone, and I assumed it was a cool metaphor, that it’s a man-made opal and happiness will also be man-made, too. In order that’s what the track is about, that juxtaposition of these two,” Swift defined throughout the interview.
However Swift’s love affair with opals stretches again additional than her relationship with the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tight finish.
In a 2017 interview with Us Weekly, she shared a touching reminiscence: “My favourite stone is an opal as a result of once I was bullied in class, my mother used to take me to T.J. Maxx after college to take a look at the opal jewellery. I assumed opals have been so stunning, and by some means it made me really feel higher. We by no means purchased them, simply seemed.”
That element provides extra depth when you think about the track’s central thesis. Generally simply taking a look at one thing stunning is sufficient to change your day.
Reuniting with Swedish manufacturing duo Max Martin and Shellback, “Opalite” is an upbeat pop rock track with Europop influences. It’s the primary time the trio labored collectively since Swift’s Fame period in 2017, and you may hear why she needed them again.
Swift informed TIME in 2014 that she selected Martin as a result of he may assist create “sonically cohesive” albums, and “Opalite” proves that chemistry hasn’t pale.
The manufacturing with the drums, guitars, omnichord tones, and people infectious hooks that Martin and Shellback have constructed total careers on sparkle, paying homage to their work on Swift’s 1989 period.
The monitor is cheerful and hooky, with Swift’s vocals completely capturing the stress between previous heartbreak and cautious optimism. It’s not revolutionary; nevertheless, it makes you need to dance in your kitchen.
The track opens with Swift admitting to a foul behavior of dwelling on previous relationships. Her brother apparently known as this “consuming out of the trash,” which is each hilarious and brutally correct.
She sings about dwelling with ghosts and listening to excellent {couples} spout platitudes like “when you understand, you understand.”
Then comes the shift. Her mum’s reassurance that issues will get higher, that she was “dancing by way of the lightning strikes, sleepless within the onyx evening, however now the sky is opalite.”
The imagery is inescapable. Onyx is darkish and stable, while opalite catches gentle, shifts color, gleams with chance.
The second verse seems to reference Kelce’s previous relationships, referring to feeling alone even if you’re with somebody who’s extra occupied with their telephone than you.
The road “you have been in it for actual, she was in her telephone” has sparked fan hypothesis about Kelce’s ex-girlfriend, sports activities journalist Kayla Nicole, whom he dated on and off for 5 years earlier than their ultimate break up in Could 2022.
Whether or not intentional or not, Swift contains references to former relationships of each herself and Kelce all through the track, portray an image of two individuals who needed to be taught what they didn’t need earlier than discovering what they did.
The bridge affords what is perhaps the track’s thesis assertion: “That is only a storm inside a teacup, however shelter right here with me, my love. Thunder like a drum, this life will beat you up. That is only a short-term pace bump, however failure brings you freedom, and I can carry you like.”
It’s reassurance with out attending to soppy, hanging on to hope whereas acknowledging that issues might be tough. The form of sentiment that solely works if you’ve been by way of sufficient relationship turbulence to know the distinction between real connection and simply going by way of the motions.
“Opalite” has been famous as certainly one of Swift’s first songs to explain an actual, present relationship relatively than an summary one.
That grounding in actuality offers the monitor an anchor that a few of her extra conceptual love songs lack. Kelce himself known as it his favorite monitor from the album, saying “He loves that one” when Swift talked about it throughout an interview.
There’s additionally one thing refreshing about Swift writing from a spot of contentment relatively than chaos. The track offers with forgiving your self for relationships that didn’t work out and giving your self permission to not have the whole lot found out. After the emotional marathon of The Tortured Poets Division, “Opalite” seems like arising for air.
Regardless of not being launched as a single, “Opalite” has carried out remarkably nicely. The track ranked #2 on Reddit’s PopHeads Weekly Scorching 50 chart for October 20, 2025, with 258 factors and 1,283 listeners.
It reached the highest ten in a number of international locations together with Australia, Vietnam, Switzerland, the Philippines, Denmark, the UK, Malaysia, Norway, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Singapore.
Within the UK, “Opalite” took the second spot on the Official Charts throughout the album’s launch week, while “The Destiny of Ophelia” topped the chart and “Elizabeth Taylor” got here third. This marked the primary time Swift occupied the highest three positions concurrently.
“Opalite” works as a result of it understands one thing important about trendy relationships and happiness. Generally essentially the most genuine factor is what you consciously select to construct.
The artificial stone turns into extra significant than a pure one exactly as a result of it represents intention and energy.
Swift described the metaphor as exploring how happiness might be created voluntarily, which feels significantly resonant in an period the place we’re continually informed to “discover ourselves” or look forward to the universe to ship what we’d like.
“Opalite” means that possibly you may simply determine to make your personal gentle, craft your personal pleasure, select to be glad even when the world’s telling you it needs to be extra sophisticated than that.
It’s a pop track, positive, however it’s additionally a philosophy wrapped in a three-minute-fifty-five-second bundle. The truth that it’s a few man-made stone celebrating a really actual relationship is simply the form of paradox that makes nice songwriting.
