Taylor Swift has released the highly anticipated music video for “Opalite,” the second single from her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, pairing a 90s rom-com aesthetic with a quirky origin story that started on a British talk show sofa. The video is now streaming on Apple Music and Spotify Premium, with a YouTube release to follow.

A 90s-style love story with pet rock and pet cactus

Unlike her first single “The Fate of Ophelia,” which leaned into showgirl imagery and the price of fame, “Opalite” centers on the search for love and connection through a retro, 90s-filtered lens. The video opens as a tongue-in-cheek infomercial for an “Opalite” spray that promises to fix your life and bring you companionship.​

From there, it shifts into a narrative about two lonely people: Swift plays a “lonely woman” emotionally attached to her pet rock, while actor Domhnall Gleeson portrays a “lonely man” fixated on his pet cactus. After the magical Opalite spray enters the picture, the pair are brought together and fall in love, embarking on a montage of classic 90s date tropes—mall outings, dance competitions, and other era-specific set pieces.

Swift wrote and directed the video, reuniting with celebrated cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and shooting on film to heighten the nostalgic feel. She described making “new friends, metaphors, and fashion choices,” calling the shoot “an absolute thrill.”​

The Graham Norton origin: one joke, one idea, one script

In a post on X, Swift revealed that the idea for the “Opalite” video “crash landed” into her imagination while she was doing promotion for The Life of a Showgirl on The Graham Norton Show. Seated alongside Domhnall Gleeson, Cillian Murphy, Lewis Capaldi, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith and host Graham Norton, she was struck by a throwaway joke that Gleeson made on-air.

“He’s Irish! He was joking! Except that in that moment during the interview, I was instantly struck with an idea,” Swift wrote, explaining that within a week she emailed Gleeson a full script for the “Opalite” video with him in the starring role. She then had “the thought that it would be wild” if all of the other guests from that night — including Norton himself — appeared in the video as well, turning it into what she called “a school group project but for adults and it isn’t mandatory.”

To her delight, every guest signed on, and the finished video features Swift, Gleeson, Murphy, Capaldi, Lee, Turner-Smith and Norton all “time traveling back to the 90s” to help bring the concept to life. Swift also teased that “friendly faces” from The Eras Tour can be spotted in the supporting cast.

What “Opalite” is about – and its Travis Kelce connection

“Opalite” is the third track and second single from The Life of a Showgirl, released as a single in January 2026 after the album’s October 2025 debut. Sonically a shimmering love song, it focuses on the idea of creating your own happiness rather than waiting for it to arrive.

The title refers to opalite, a man-made version of opal, and the metaphor runs deep. Swift has explained that she associates onyx with “onyx night” — sadness and sorrow — and an “opalite sky” with an iridescent, pastel blue happiness, evoking a transition from dark to light. In one interview, she said she liked the idea that “opalite is a man-made opal, and happiness can also be man-made too,” framing the song as a juxtaposition between pain and the decision to build joy.

The track also carries a personal Easter egg: Travis Kelce’s birthstone is opal, as he was born in October, and Swift has said she has “always loved that stone” and used it as inspiration. Kelce, for his part, has called “Opalite” his favorite song on the album, telling listeners on his New Heights podcast that “every time it comes on I always… I’ve been dancing throughout the house,” praising how fun it is.

Rollout strategy: platform-first release and vinyl tie-in

Swift announced the “Opalite” video on February 4 through Taylor Nation and her official site, setting a February 6 premiere at 8 a.m. ET exclusively on Spotify Premium and Apple Music, with a YouTube drop scheduled for February 8. The staggered rollout mirrors a broader shift in how streaming data is counted: YouTube recently stopped providing some of its metrics for Billboard chart calculations, a change many fans believe influenced Swift’s decision to debut the visual on audio platforms first.

Alongside the announcement, Swift offered a seven-inch “Opalite” vinyl single in a blue pearlescent finish, priced at $10.99 and featuring an acoustic version of the track. The song has already been a commercial force, having reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and surpassed 500 million streams on Spotify, one of the fastest Swift tracks to hit that milestone.

Her album The Life of a Showgirl previously debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, while its lead single “The Fate of Ophelia” entered at No. 1 on the Hot 100, underscoring the commercial expectations surrounding “Opalite” and its visual. Many fans hope the video will give the song the final push needed to reach the top of the singles chart.

Swift’s evolving visual universe

With “Opalite,” Swift continues the progression of her self-directed visual universe, adding another short-film-like narrative to a catalog that includes “All Too Well: The Short Film” and multiple Midnights and Showgirl clips. Working again with cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, she leaned into saturated colors, film grain and period-specific styling to anchor the video in a specific time and emotional mood.

Swift described the process as equal parts collaborative and nostalgic: “I had more fun than I ever imagined… It was an absolute thrill to create this story and these characters. Shot on film. The ‘Opalite’ video is out now on Spotify and Apple Music.” Early reactions from fans and music press highlight the video’s romantic comedy energy, playful infomercial framing and the novelty of seeing a full late-night guest panel reunite in a scripted music video.

Between its Graham Norton–born concept, 90s rom-com visuals, gemstone metaphor and subtle nods to her relationship with Travis Kelce, “Opalite” extends Swift’s run of densely layered rollouts that reward close watching — and prove she’s not done finding new ways to turn a three-minute song into a fully realized cinematic world.