“Opalite” is the third track on Taylor Swift’s 2025 album ‘The Life of a Showgirl.’ The song associates Taylor’s current relationship and feelings to the color of opal–an assortment of bright colors–signifying how vibrant her life has become of recent.
Taylor Swift released her twelfth studio album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ on October 3, 2025. She calls this album a culmination of a lifetime of experiences and it’s “beautiful,” “rapturous” and “frightening.” The album was produced by Max Martin, Shellback, and Taylor Swift herself.
Opal is a naturally forming gemstone known for its splashes of colors. Opalite, on the other hand, is human-made using a variety of glasses. It is interesting that Taylor references Opalite over Opal to describe her feelings. However, Opalite tends to have a much more calmer tone than Opal which might tell us that she is in a vibrant yet peaceful place.
In Amazon track-by-track review, Taylor Swift described the meaning behind this song further; “‘Opalite’ is actually a man-made opal and I kinda took that metaphor of a man-made gemstone and applied it to, well, you know, what if you make your own happiness and like, I really love that sort of comparison between the two and that analogy and it turned into one of the fairer songs on the album.”
Listen to “Opalite” by Taylor Swift
Download ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ Album on Apple Music
Taylor Swift “Opalite” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review
In the first verse of the song, Taylor describes a bad habit that she is trying to get rid of. She says that she tends to miss her past lovers. This is a recipe for disaster. Her brother appropriately phrases it as ‘eating out of the trash.’ For one, past lovers are discarded memories from the past–no longer useful. Second, they are just in the trash for a reason. Nothing good can come out of digging through the trash.
I thought my house was haunted
I used to live with ghosts
Memories of her past lovers used to live in her head rent-free, doing no good, causing chaos, and stopping her from facing the reality.
You had to make your own sunshine
But now, thе sky is opalite
Much like how Opalite is man-made, Taylor says they made their own happiness with their current partner. Admittedly, Taylor and Travis Kelce come from very different backgrounds. Travis Kelce is the type of guy Taylor used to dream about from the bleachers and would not get a second look from a football player. But now their worlds have collided and the sky has mushed into a beautiful mix of pinks, blues, yellows, and oranges.
In the second verse of the song, Taylor Swift seems to be taking subtle shots at Travis Kelce’s ex-girlfriend Kayla Nicole. In an old video that has surfaced, Travis Kelce is seen telling his then girlfriend Kayla to get off of her phone while they were on a date and she was filming them.
You were in it for real
She was in her phone
Kayla Nicole is an influencer and hence probably had a lot to share with her fans about dating Travis Kelce. Taylor says that Travis was in that relationship for real but Kayla was probably in it for the Internet clout.
Taylor continues to sing that Travis ‘left the table’ because he was left hungry–a jab that this video shows them just recording themselves rather than enjoying food, and also the fact that he was left unfulfilled in that relationship. So he went out looking for greener pastures.
Don’t you sweat it, baby, it’s alright
You were dancing through the lightning strikes
Taylor Swift compares her life prior to Travis to his life prior to her–she believes they were quite similar. They were both dancing through the lightning strikes just to get through life. But a storm brings a rainbow and a vivid sky–an Opalite sky!
Let us hear what you think about this song in the comments below. Read the complete lyrics of the song on Genius.