In “Opalite” Taylor Swift turns an artificial gemstone into an irresistible sincere love tune.
There’s one thing splendidly becoming about Taylor Swift naming a tune after a faux stone. Not faux in a derogatory sense, thoughts you, however manufactured: intentionally created somewhat than found.
On “Opalite,” the third observe from her October 2025 album The Lifetime of a Showgirl, Swift makes use of the man-made opal simulant as a metaphor for the sort of happiness you need to construct your self.
It’s a intelligent little bit of songwriting, the form of factor that makes you assume Swift’s been jotting down phrases and phrases each time inspiration strikes. Which, because it seems, is precisely what she does.
Swift revealed on Capital FM that she’d been stockpiling the phrase “opalite” in her countless lyric information after studying it was artificial, similar to diamonds might be.
The connection to her fiancé Travis Kelce was fast. 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 beloved that stone, and I believed it was a cool metaphor, that it’s a man-made opal and happiness can be man-made, too. In order that’s what the tune is about, that juxtaposition of these two,” Swift defined through 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 at school, my mother used to take me to T.J. Maxx after faculty to take a look at the opal jewellery. I believed opals had been so stunning, and someway it made me really feel higher. We by no means purchased them, simply seemed.”
That element provides extra depth when you think about the tune’s central thesis. Generally simply one thing stunning is sufficient to change your day.
Reuniting with Swedish manufacturing duo Max Martin and Shellback, “Opalite” is an upbeat pop rock tune with Europop influences. It’s the primary time the trio labored collectively since Swift’s Popularity period in 2017, and you’ll hear why she needed them again.
Swift advised TIME in 2014 that she selected Martin as a result of he might assist create “sonically cohesive” albums, and “Opalite” proves that chemistry hasn’t light.
The manufacturing with the drums, guitars, omnichord tones, and people infectious hooks that Martin and Shellback have constructed complete careers on sparkle, paying homage to their work on Swift’s 1989 period.
The observe is cheerful and hooky, with Swift’s vocals completely capturing the strain between previous heartbreak and cautious optimism. It’s not revolutionary; nevertheless, it makes you wish to dance in your kitchen.
The tune opens with Swift admitting to a nasty behavior of dwelling on previous relationships. Her brother apparently referred to 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 already know, you already know.”
Then comes the shift. Her mum’s reassurance that issues will get higher, that she was “dancing via 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 mild, shifts color, gleams with chance.
The second verse seems to reference Kelce’s previous relationships, pertaining to feeling alone even once you’re with somebody who’s extra fascinated by their telephone than you.
The road “you had 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 last break up in Might 2022.
Whether or not intentional or not, Swift contains references to former relationships of each herself and Kelce all through the tune, portray an image of two individuals who needed to study what they didn’t need earlier than discovering what they did.
The bridge provides what is perhaps the tune’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 once you’ve been via sufficient relationship turbulence to know the distinction between real connection and simply going via the motions.
“Opalite” has been famous as one among Swift’s first songs to explain an actual, present relationship somewhat than an summary one.
That grounding in actuality offers the observe an anchor that a few of her extra conceptual love songs lack. Kelce himself referred to as it his favorite observe 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 somewhat than chaos. The tune offers with forgiving your self for relationships that didn’t work out and giving your self permission to not have all the things discovered. After the emotional marathon of The Tortured Poets Division, “Opalite” looks like arising for air.
Regardless of not being launched as a single, “Opalite” has carried out remarkably nicely. The tune 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 through 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 probably 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 continuously advised to “discover ourselves” or await the universe to ship what we want.
“Opalite” means that perhaps you possibly can simply determine to make your individual mild, craft your individual pleasure, select to be joyful even when the world’s telling you it needs to be extra sophisticated than that.
It’s a pop tune, certain, but it surely’s additionally a philosophy wrapped in a three-minute-fifty-five-second bundle. The truth that it’s a couple of man-made stone celebrating a really actual relationship is simply the form of paradox that makes nice songwriting.