Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl‘ Shatters Streaming Records in First-Day Launch
Taylor Swift’s newly released album,“The Life of a Showgirl,” unveiled on Friday,October 3,has broken streaming records across multiple platforms in a single day. The album became the most listened-to album in one day in 2025 on both Spotify and Apple Music. Amazon Music saw an absolute record broken, surpassing streams of Swift’s previous album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” released in April 2024.
Swift was already named Spotify’s most-streamed artist last year thanks to “The Tortured poets Department.” “The Life of a Showgirl” marks a shift from the four folk and introspective albums she released since 2020, offering danceable tracks with 1980s influences, including the lead single “The Fate of Ophelia.”
The album prominently features Swift’s relationship with fiancé Travis Kelce, referencing their 2023 meeting (“And if you had never come to pick me up / I might have drowned in melancholy“) and future plans (“I only want you / have two or three children / that the whole neighborhood sets you like“).
Critical reception is mixed. Rolling Stone praised Swift for “exciting sound explorations” and “a keen sense of storytelling,” while The guardian found the album “little melodious and bubbling with resentment.” Variety described it as “stunning, funny, moving, a little ridiculous, haughty and touching, in equal parts,” and dubbed it “the summer album.”
Swift expressed relief at writing from a place of happiness and freedom, and stated she is “proud” of the album’s “mordant” tone. The album includes collaborations and touches of country music, the genre where Swift began her career in 2006, featuring a duet with Sabrina Carpenter. Billboard magazine characterized the album as containing “tubes for adults,” noting the absence of an immediate, universally catchy hit like 2014’s “Shake it Off.”
