Taylor Swift Releases Her ‘Opalite’ Music Video on YouTube and Explains Its Unexpected Origin Story

Alyssa BaileySun, February 8, 2026 at 1:23 PM UTC

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Taylor Swift released her “Opalite” music video on YouTube this morning after debuting it on Friday and revealing its origin story.

The project was initially only available to watch on Apple Music and Spotify Premium.

It co-stars all her co-panelists on The Graham Norton Show, Domhnall Gleeson, Cillian Murphy, Lewis Capaldi, Greta Lee, and Jodie Turner-Smith, along with host Graham Norton.

Taylor Swift added to her directing and writing credits thisweek with her “Opalite” music video, which she debuted on Apple Music and Spotify Premium on Friday. This morning, she finally added the video to YouTube:

Unlike her first single, “The Fate of Ophelia,” which explored showgirls and fame, “Opalite” focused on the search for love and connection—through a ’90s lens. It started with an infomercial for an “Opalite” spray, promising to solve your problems and bring companionship.

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It then shifted to Swift’s story as a “lonely woman” attached to her pet rock and her journey to a “lonely man,” portrayed by Domhnall Gleeson, who had that same co-dependent relationship with his pet cactus. The Opalite spray brings them together—and leads to them falling in love and doing quintessential ’90s dates like a mall trip, dance competition, and more.

Apple Music

Apple Music

Swift wrote on X about how she developed the idea for the music video, revealing it came together while she was doing promo for The Life of a Showgirl.

“My favorite part about writing is that first spark of an idea. It can happen at any time, for any reason,” she began. “The idea for the ‘Opalite’ music video crash landed into my imagination when I was doing promo for The Life of a Showgirl. I was a guest on one of my favorite shows, @TheGNShow [The Graham Norton Show]. For those of you who aren’t familiar, it’s a U.K. 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. They even serve wine. Anyway. I remember thinking I got ridiculously lucky with the group I was paired with. Cillian Murphy, Domhnall Gleeson, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Lewis Capaldi. All people whose work I’ve admired from afar. 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*. 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 ’90s with us and help with this video. You might even recognize some friendly faces from The Eras Tour. I got to work with one of my favorite people in the world, Rodrigo Prieto, again! 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. Shot on film. The ‘Opalite’ video is out now on Spotify and Apple Music.”

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”