“Opalite” is the a track on Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl that I always skip. The “Opalite” music video, however, is a different story. Which is surprising to me. Because I typically listen to Taylor Swift more than I watch her videos. I’ve watched “The Fate of Ophelia” video exactly once, and barely remember it. The “Opalite” video, on the other hand, is a pleasure, now my favourite TS video of all time.

Taylor made the video available on Apple Music and Spotify only until Sunday and since she is the queen of Easter eggs, it’s turned out to be a giant Easter egg from when she was on The Graham Norton Show last fall – every celebrity who was on the episode, including Graham himself, is part of the story. Domhnall Gleeson actually manifested this for himself…and everyone else who was on the stage with him, whether they wanted to be or not.

Oh please. Of course they all wanted to be. It’s Taylor Swift, they probably all did it for scale. Here’s the moment where Domhnall spoke this into existence.

And Domhnall is one of the reasons this video works so well – he is hilarious, he is adorable, he already has a dorky-sexy vibe happening and Taylor highlights it perfectly in her story. His expressions when he’s dancing with her in those sparkly tracksuits is killing me. And the other stars are cast perfectly in their roles. Jodie Turner-Smith as a fitness girlie? Yes. Greta Lee as the showgirl? F-CK YES. And Cillian Murphy not actually showing up in person but in a billboard at the mall? It actually tracks because, well, Cillian Murphy among them is the least likely to do this but also not too precious to not do it.

The whole thing is just a big smile – fun and breezy and cute and it’s one of those occasions where the visuals do enhance the music, turning something a bit mid into much more. Which actually speaks to Taylor’s growing confidence and ability as a director.

Naturally, Swifties are busy breaking down every frame of the video in search of Easter eggs. I get that this is just part of fandom now, but with videos like this, I wonder if it actually takes away from the enjoyment of the thing itself. “Opalite” is such a delight to watch, I was transported for those five minutes, just following the story, charmed by each moment leading to the next.

On the flipside, I guess I appreciate that there’s someone else doing the work of decoding whatever it is that she may or may not be teasing. If you’re into the Easter egging, Cosmopolitan has an early summary of what the fans have found so far.

The most interesting one to me are all the George Michael references. Taylor, of course, interpolated “Father Figure” and made her own version so the theory now is that her “Father Figure” will be the next video. Taylor released only two videos for The Tortured Poets Department, but she was on tour when that album came out and probably didn’t have the time or the inclination, really, since she says she’s over the sadness and rage that coloured that period in her life and appears to be operating right now on sparkles and sourdough bread. There’s only so much baking this girl can do, though, before she wants to put her creativity into something else. More videos are coming then, right?

Photo credits: Instagram/Taylor Swift

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