Taylor Swift dropped her original song “Beautiful Ghosts” from the musical “Cats,” a collaboration she wrote with the original composer of the Broadway musical Andrew Lloyd Webber, on Friday.
A snippet of “Beautiful Ghosts” made an appearance in the first, internet-breaking trailer for “Cats” a few months back. But Swift has now released the full lyric video for the song.
The track is a ghostly, graceful piano ballad about longing for a better life and a desire to belong somewhere while clinging to lost memories and feelings. It’s all very pristine before building to a grand, Broadway-sized crescendo.
“All that I wanted was to be wanted. Too young to be wander London streets alone and haunted,” Swift sings. “Born into nothing. At least you have something, something to cling to. Visions of dazzling rooms I’ll never get let into. And then the memories were lost long ago. But at least you have beautiful ghosts.”
This song thrusts Swift head first into the Oscar race for Best Original song, where she could be up against Beyoncé for her original song “Spirit” for “The Lion King” or even the trio of Lana Del Rey, Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande for their track for “Charlie’s Angels.” And that’s just the mega pop stars of today in a race that also includes Elton John, Pharrell Williams, Cynthia Erivo, Jackson Browne, Diane Warren, Thom Yorke and an original song from “Frozen II.”
Swift stars in “Cats” alongside Idris Elba, Rebel Wilson, Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson, James Corden, Ray Winstone and newcomer Francesca Hayward, all of whom have been made up as CGI cats with fur, tails and pointy ears. Tom Hooper directs the movie adaptation of the long running stage musical that opens in theaters Dec. 20.
Check out the new song above.