Taylor Swift Releases ‘Opalite’ Video Featuring Graham Norton

Taylor Swift has brought Graham Norton into the spotlight for the second video of her ‘Showgirl’ era, and you can find details on how to watch it below.

Released today Friday February 6, the second single from the ‘Life of a Showgirl’ album arrives with a new visual directed and written by Swift herself. The clip features a high profile cast that includes TV presenter Norton, Domhnall Gleeson, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner Smith, Lewis Capaldi and Cillian Murphy.

Swift shared the news on Instagram, revealing that the idea for the video was sparked by her appearance on The Graham Norton Show last year alongside the same group of guests. She explained that the concept took shape while she was promoting her latest album, and took time to describe the format of Norton’s show for fans outside the UK.

“For those of you who aren’t familiar, it’s a UK late night show where Graham Norton, the insanely charismatic and lovable host, invites a random group of actors, entertainers, musicians, etc to be on his show and we all sit there and chat like it’s a dinner party,” she wrote.

After noting that she felt “ridiculously lucky with the group I was paired with”, Swift recalled Gleeson, star of The Paper, joking during the interview about appearing in one of her videos. “In that moment during the interview, I was instantly struck with an idea,” she added.

“And so a week later he received an email script I’d written for the ‘Opalite’ video, where he was playing the starring role. I had this thought that it would be wild if all of our fellow guests on The Graham Norton Show that night, including Graham himself, could be a part of it too.”

“Like a school group project but for adults and it isn’t mandatory. To my delight, everyone from the show made the effort to time travel back to the 90’s with us and help with this video. You might even recognise some friendly faces from ‘The Eras Tour’.

“I had more fun than I ever imagined. Made new friends, metaphors, and fashion choices. It was an absolute thrill to create this story and these characters.”

Filmed on analogue and clearly drawing from the aesthetic of 1990s infomercials, Swift and Gleeson play characters named Lonely Woman and Lonely Man. Both have chosen objects over real relationships, with her devoted to a rock and him attached to a cactus, which they awkwardly take out on dates.

After stumbling across an advert for Opalite spray, a fictional solution to loneliness, they each place an order. Following a spritz, Swift’s character unexpectedly ends up in Lonely Man’s living room, setting the stage for an uneasy friendship and a series of cameo appearances.

Capaldi briefly appears as a mall photographer during their staged photoshoot, while Norton pops up tending to a shop display for Nope alite, a product designed to reverse the effects of the spray.

Murphy lends both his face and voice to Opalite itself, narrating the opening commercial and appearing on oversized promotional posters. The video is available to watch now on Spotify and Apple Music.

The release follows earlier comments from Norton, who previously praised Swift for managing to remain “so close to normal” despite her global level of fame.

The ‘Bejeweled’ singer has made four appearances on The Graham Norton Show over the course of her career. Speaking on the Kyle and Jackie O radio Show, the host and comedian expanded on that view, commenting on Swift’s grounded nature even as one of the most famous people in the world.

“Someone like Taylor Swift, who is arguably the most famous woman in the world, it’s remarkable how she appears to be so close to normal,” he said to the radio hosts, via her.ie.