The Swifties’ Guide to Elizabeth Taylor
Taylor Swift has revealed that her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, will feature a song titled “Elizabeth Taylor” — named for the Hollywood legend herself. The track’s name naturally draws comparison between the two women, who have both experienced their fair share of the scrutiny that comes with fame of this magnitude. Read on to learn more about how Elizabeth and Taylor’s lives have mirrored each other, personally and professionally.
Both Elizabeth and Taylor lived life under the scrutiny of the public eye since childhood. Elizabeth began acting at age 9, and landed the title role in National Velvet at age 12. Released in 1944, the film was a box-office smash, and catapulted her into instant movie star status , prompting Life Magazine to call her "Hollywood's most accomplished junior actress." Similarly, Taylor Swift signed a music publishing contract with Sony at age 14, becoming the youngest signee in the publishing company's history. Her self-titled debut album, which came out when she was only 16 years old, went platinum and spent weeks on top of the charts, quickly rocketing her to fame and setting her on the path to worldwide stardom.
Taylor has related to and referenced Elizabeth in her work as far back as 2017. On “Ready For It?” from her album Reputation, Taylor invokes Elizabeth and her romance with Richard Burton, singing “He can be my jailer / Burton to this Taylor / every love I’ve known in comparison was a failure.” This lyric hints at another connection between the two women, having both experienced intense criticism and hostility from the public over their romantic relationships. In Elizabeth’s case, her love life was followed as closely as her career, counting seven husbands, eight marriages, and a whole lot of Hollywood drama. As for Taylor, her incredible achievements have also many times been overshadowed by unrelenting attention on her relationships, a theme she has both commented on publicly and explored in her music.
In 1961, after more than a decade as one of MGM’s biggest stars, Elizabeth controversially left the studio she had been associated with since childhood, frustrated by their rigidity and control. Her departure marked a turning point in Hollywood’s transition away from the old studio contract era, and allowed her to pursue more lucrative projects, like her then-record $1 million salary for Cleopatra in 1963. Likewise, Taylor Swift understands the importance of reclaiming creative independence and the right to own your work. In 2019, Taylor Swift’s former label sold the master recordings of her first six albums without her consent, prompting her to do the unexpected: re-record those albums to regain creative and financial control, which she did until she was able to buy back all of her masters earlier this year. Both women were unafraid to take bold stances in their respective battles, and have reshaped conversations about power dynamics in their industries, affecting artists for years to come.
Though they come from different eras and industries, Elizabeth Taylor and Taylor Swift share a legacy of resilience, reinvention, and fearless self-determination. Elizabeth bravely defied expectations about how a woman should live and love, and in turn Swift has rewritten the rules of the music industry. Both of their lives show us how, in so many areas of life, success comes not from following the script, but from daring to write your own.
