Taylor Swift recruits Graham Norton and more for ‘Opalite’ music video
Graham Norton joins Taylor Swift in the “Opalite” music video. (TAS Rights Management)
Taylor Swift‘s “Opalite” music video is here and she’s recruited not only Graham Norton but the other guests from the last time she appeared on his popular chat show.
The music video for “Opalite” dropped on Spotify Premium and Apple Music today (Friday 6 February) and sees Swift travel back to the 90s. Swift portrays a lonely woman stuck in a relationship with her best friend, a rock. Similarly, Domhnall Gleeson is lonely and struggling with his relationship with a cactus.
Both use Opalite spray, which turns “crappiness into happiness”, and brings them together allowing them to fill out their fantasy of mall trips, dance competitions, and falling in love, the latter being more of a timeless thing than a nineties.
Along the way Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith, Lewis Capaldi, and Cillian Murphy all make an appearance as does Graham Norton. The thing they all have in common is appearing at the same time on the red sofa of The Graham Norton Show last October.
Lee appears as a singer on a TV, Turner-Smith as a workout instructor, Capaldi as a photographer, Murphy as a billboard advert, and Norton as an Opalite salesman.
Swift explained the origins of the music video, which the end of “Opalite” hints at.
“My favorite part about writing is that first spark of an idea,” Swift began. “It can happen at any time, for any reason. The idea for the Opalite music video crash landed into my imagination when I was doing promo for The Life of a Showgirl,” she said.
Describing The Graham Norton Show as “one of my favorite shows” and Norton as “insanely charismatic and lovable” the “Style” singer explained the idea came from a throwaway comment from Gleeson.
“When we were all talking during the broadcast, Domhnall made a light hearted joke about wanting to be in one of my music videos. He’s Irish! He was joking! Except that in that moment during the interview, I was instantly struck with an *idea*,” Swift continued.
The closing montage of the “Opalite” video features Swift appearing to have an inspired realisation.
“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,” Swift went on to say.
Swift likened the video to “a school group project but for adults”, adding that she loved how everyone on the show got a chance to appear. As well as collaborating with other friends, Swift said she “had more fun than I ever imagined”.
Bringing her explanation to a close she said: “It was an absolute thrill to create this story and these characters.”
Also writing on Instagram, Norton said starring in the “Opalite” video was “the thrill of a lifetime and the hardest secret I’ve ever had to keep”.
“Opalite” is the second single from Swift’s 12th studio album, The Life Of A Showgirl. The record was the biggest-selling record in the UK last year.
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