On April 1, Taylor Swift dropped a surprise music video for her song “Elizabeth Taylor,” the second track on her twelfth album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”
Swift does not appear in the music video, which instead features a supercut of footage of the late actress, Elizabeth Taylor, who died in 2011 at the age of 73.
According to the BBC, Swift received permission from Taylor’s estate to both release the song and use her likeness in the music video. Additionally, royalties earned on streams of the video will go to the Taylor estate, which oversees her archive and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.
The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation was established in 1991 when the actress became the first globally recognized celebrity activist for HIV and AIDS. She established the foundation to support direct-service initiatives for people living with HIV, and after 30 years, the nonprofit continues this work to honor Taylor’s legacy.
Along with highlighting access to HIV and AIDS treatment, the organization specifically works in the fight for social justice and human rights for people living with HIV and AIDS, especially advocating to end the criminalization of HIV.
Taylor visits HIV patients in a hospital. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation
Swift has been vocal about her admiration for Taylor, and the lyrics in the song paint parallels between the high level of fame both women have experienced.
“She was under a microscope so, so intense, and she handled it with humor, and she got along with her life,” Swift said in an interview with Amazon Music.
“She continued to make incredible art, and so this is a love song kind of through the lens of the motif of what she had to go through in her life and sort of the parallels that I feel in my own life.”
Taylor’s family seems to be supportive of the song and subsequent music video.
“My family loves the song, and grandma would have loved it, too,” said Taylor’s grandson, Quinn Tivey, when the song came out last year. “I wish she could have heard it.”
“Taylor Swift not only made a beautiful homage to Elizabeth Taylor,” Tivey continued, “but it feels like she is addressing her directly while invoking her legacy in a way that is dimensional, confessional, honest, and fun.”
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Header images courtesy of Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation & Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott for TAS Management
