Taylor Swift never let herself believe “I’ve made it” until the Eras Tour . That spectacle of commanding, wild femininity conquered pop culture and the world, and all by revisiting the many girls she used to be. It also forced her to accept she was not a girl anymore, but the most powerful woman in the world. The only way to follow it and hold on to her trademark authenticity was with music that is honest about that rarefied position.

On The Life of a Showgirl , a confident, infectious, succinct 12th record, Swift does away with the pretence that she is still the outcast underdog writing lyrics in her bedroom, and casts herself instead as the star of her own movie. It is tightly produced, melody-driven pop about “everything that was going on behind the curtain” during the 21 months sh

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