It’s been a real topsy-turvy day for Taylor Swift fans. Just hours after telling the world that her old music is being kept hostage, the Lover singer finished her day on a happier note by releasing a new song.
“Beautiful Ghosts” is Swift’s contribution to the upcoming film version of Cats, in which she also stars as the singing, dancing, catnip-sprinkling Bombalurina. She collaborated with lauded composer Andrew Lloyd Webber on the quietly devastating ballad, which will be sung by Francesca Hayward’s character, Victoria. “All that I wanted / Was to be wanted,” Swift yearns, dreaming of “dazzling rooms I’ll never get let into” and settling for “beautiful ghosts” instead of real memories. The Jellicle-approved song ends with a high note that’s more powerful than anyone we’ve heard from T. Swift in recent memory — prepare to be wowed.
Swift’s version of “Beautiful Ghosts,” it should be noted, will appear in the upcoming film’s end credits — which would make Swift and Cats eligible for an Oscar.
In a previously released behind-the-scenes featurette about the song, Swift said, “T.S. Eliot is such a specific type of writer and uses such specific language [and] imagery, and so reading through his work and everything, I just really wanted to reflect that. You can’t write a modern lyric for Cats. So if you can’t get T.S. Eliot, you get T.S.”
The Tom Hooper-directed Cats, of course, is the cinematic event of this holiday season. Along with Swift, the feline-filled flick stars Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Judi Dench, Rebel Wilson, James Corden, and Jason Derulo, among others.
Meanwhile, Swifties have started a Change.org petition to get Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta to let the embattled pop star play her pre-Lover songs at the American Music Awards and in her Netflix documentary. Hopefully this will all clear up by the time Cats hits the big screen on December 20.