03/10/2025

LYFE FRIDAY | OCT 3, 2025

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W ITH the meticulously planned release of Taylor Swift’s 12th album today, the country singer-turned-pop star demonstrates again that she is as business savvy as she is musically adept. From hints dropped during her last tour in 2024 to movie screenings this coming weekend to accompany the new album’s release, “Swift has perfected marketing as narrative art,” said Robin Landa, a professor who studies advertising and branding at Kean University. “She doesn’t simply release an album – she orchestrates a cultural phenomenon.” The Life of a Showgirl album was inspired by Swift’s experiences during her record-breaking Eras concert tour, which coincided with the singer’s romance with her now-fiance Travis Kelce, a three-time Super Bowl champion football star. The 12-track record “comes from the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life – and so that effervescence has come through,” Swift herself promised. That appears to signal a return to pop after her darker 11th album The Tortured Poets Department last year. Swift, 35, has said to expect “bangers” – high-energy, dance-friendly songs – in the ilk of her fan-favourite 22 and Shake It Off , and created with the same Swedish production duo Max Martin and Shellback. To call The Life of a Showgirl , which features a duet with rising pop star Sabrina Carpenter, eagerly anticipated is an understatement. The album is the most pre-saved album ever on the Spotify streaming platform, breaking the record set last year by Swift’s last album. Ownership Accompanying the album, cinemas in dozens of countries will host special screenings from Friday through Sunday of a music video, a making-of featurette, personal commentary by

The Life of a Showgirl: The Tiny Bubbles in Champagne Vinyl Collection artwork.

projects scattered through her album booklets, music videos, concerts and social media posts. Easter eggs Swifties noticed, in a letter to her fans in May, Swift spelt the words “thiiiiiiiiiiiis” with 12 “i”s – taken by some to indicate her 12th album was imminent. Once the first album images of The Life of a Showgirl were released, featuring cabaret-inspired outfits in orange and green tones, thrilled devotees rushed to social media to point out clues supposedly buried in Swift’s 2022 music videos, as well as certain costumes from her latest tour. “Taylor’s Easter eggs are one of the most brilliant fan engagement tools in modern music. “This strategy creates free marketing through fan theories and social media speculation – essentially turning her audience into her promotional team,” said Landa. Musician or businesswoman? “Sometimes people talk about

Showgirl all set to conquer showbiz

her business acumen, which is really remarkable... but at the core of what she does is her songwriting,” said Koenigsberg. Swift is “able to consistently write good songs, year after year, album after album, in a way that almost nobody else can.” – AFP

o Taylor Swift drops 12th album to sweeping anticipation Swift about her songs and a karaoke-style singalong. The one-off movie event is estimated to gross between US$30 million (RM126.29 million) and US$50 million, according to film

One

element

industry website Deadline. Swift, who first announced the album on Kelce’s popular podcast last month, is “really taking ownership of the whole process, in every aspect of her music and her presentation to the public,” said Toby Koenigsberg, a music professor at the University of Oregon. Swift’s Eras tour also spawned its own cinema event and underlined “the importance of having fan communities that interact in real life, not just on social media,” he added.

that

has

long connected “Swifties” – the nickname for her die-hard fans – online is

Swift is admired

the frantic s e a r c h for “Easter eggs”, or clues about Swift’s upcoming

for her business acumen.

– PICS FROM INSTAGRAM @TAYLORSWIFT

J.K. Rowling attacks ‘ignorant’ Emma Watson HARRY POTTER author J.K. Rowling recently condemned Emma Watson as “ignorant” over the actress’s

gender identity activism, leading to accusations of prejudice. She has defended herself saying her concern was the impact it has on women’s rights and single-sex spaces for women. Pour petrol on flames Rowling, 60, also revealed her annoyance at receiving a one-line note from Watson in 2022. Following an awards ceremony at which Watson publicly made a dig at Rowling she sent her a message saying: “I’m so sorry for what you’re going through”. “This was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family’s safety,” the author said. “Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one-line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness,” she said. Rowling also hinted she had only decided to be “this honest” about the Beauty and the Beast and Little Women actress now because of comments last week in which Watson announced she still loved and treasured the author. This was “a change of tack I suspect

left-leaning sociopolitical views, in a stinging riposte to the former child star. In a long post on X, the writer expressed her irritation that Watson, 35, and Daniel Radcliffe, 36 – who starred in the film adaptations of Rowling’s best-selling books – “continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created”. Radcliffe, who played boy wizard Potter, and Watson, who played his friend Hermione Granger, have both taken issue with Rowling’s stance on gender issues. But Rowling, who has not previously been so outspoken about Watson, suggested the star’s privilege meant she was unable to properly grasp the issues at stake. “I wasn’t a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. “I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women’s rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges,” she said. Rowling has long been at the forefront of the debate about gender identity and has previously denounced

Rowling’s comments comes after Watson’s recent remarks on their relationship in a podcast. – PIC FROM INSTAGRAM @EMMAWATSON she’s adopted because she’s noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was. “Adults can’t expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend’s assassination, then assert their right to the former friend’s love. “Emma is rightly free to disagree with me and indeed to discuss her feelings about me in public – but I have the same right and I’ve finally decided to exercise it,“ Rowling said. – AFP

Rowling poses on the red carpet after arriving to attend the world premiere of the film Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore in London. – AFPPIC