Taylor Swift set the internet ablaze with the debut of her latest album, The Life Of A Showgirl, on Friday, marking a definitive shift into her unfiltered era.

The 35-year-old artist has adopted a noticeably bolder image for this release, showcasing herself on the cover in a Las Vegas showgirl-inspired ensemble, complete with a beaded bra, fishnet stockings, and a feathered shawl.

This represents a departure from the more subdued approach of her previous record, The Tortured Poets Department, where she was portrayed in a black top and matching underwear, modestly covering herself with her arms.

While Taylor has always been known for writing about her personal life in her songs, most notably her romantic relationships, the singer has gone for a snarkier appraoch on her new album.

Fans believe they have spotted numerous takedowns and cutting references to other stars including Charli XCX, the Kardashian family and Scooter Braun. 

Swifties hoping for insight into her relationship with her fiancé Travis Kelce won’t be disappointed either as she makes numerous references to him on the album, including some of her raunchiest lyrics ever on the track Wood. 

Fans are convinced the pop star has taken a brutal dig at Charli XCX in the song Actually Romantic. 

The track shares a strikingly similar title to Charli’s 2018 track Everything is Romantic, and there’s one particularly scathing line that seemed to allude to her former tour mate.  

‘I heard you call me ‘Boring Barbie’ when the coke’s got you brave,’ she sings in a lyric that many listeners interpreted as a pointed jab at Charli, who has openly referenced drug use in her own music. 

On her Brat single, 365, Charli sings: ‘Should we do a little key? Should we have a little line?’

The speculation has reignited long-simmering talk of a rift between the two pop stars, who were once close friends. 

Per Page Six, one Reddit user declared: ‘That line is 100% about Charli. No one else has called her ‘Boring Barbie.”

Another wrote on X: ‘Taylor is DONE being nice — this is shade with a capital S.’

‘What happens if I’m a Charli and Taylor fan?’ a third asked.

Others pointed out that it was presumptuous to assume the song or lyric was about Charli.

‘Why are we ruling out the fact it could be about Matty [Healy]? Or literally anyone else? You heard coke and assumed Charli,’ one argued.

During Taylor’s 2018 Reputation stadium tour, Charli opened for the 14-time Grammy Award winner on over 50 nights.

But in the years since, their friendship has cooled and Charli has grown closer to The 1975 frontman Matty Healy, who briefly dated Swift in 2023, after marrying Healy’s bandmate George Daniel.

The fourth song on the album, Father Figure, has also got fans talking as it appears to be told from the perspective of one of Taylor’s former mentors. 

There has been speculation she is singing about Scott Borchetta, the CEO of her former record label Big Machine Label Group, and how he sold her masters to Scooter Braun. 

She sings: ‘I’ll be your father figure / I drink that brown liquor / I can make deals with the devil / because my d**k’s bigger / This love is pure profit / Just step into my office / I dry your tears with my sleeve / Leave it with me / I protect the family.’ 

Taylor famously feuded with Scooter after he got the master rights to her first six albums through Ithica Holdings, which aquired Big Machine.

The singer said at the time she was not given a fair chance to buy the rights herself, although she has since got ownership of them. 

Father Figure is a reinterpretation of George Michael’s song of the same name and he also receives a writing credit on the track. 

The eighth song on the album, Wi$h Li$t, has got fans talking about possible references to the Kardashian family.

The song contrasts what Taylor wants: ‘Got me drеaming about a driveway with a basketball hoop / Boss up, settle down’, with what other famous people want.

She sings: ‘They want that yacht life, under chopper blades / They want those bright lights and Balenci’ shades / And a fat a*s with a baby face / They want it all’

‘And then that video taken off the internet They want it all.’ 

A fan shared the lyrics on Reddit and theorised it could be a ‘Kardashian diss track’, writing: ‘I mean….. lowkey this could be very much about them…’

The line ‘a fat a*s with a baby face’ has been interpreted as a reference to Kim Kardashian in particular and her public image.

The feud between Taylor and former power couple Kim and Kanye West appears to trace back to the 2016 release of West’s The Life Of Pablo.

In that album’s song Famous, Kim’s ex-husband raps: ‘I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b**** famous.’

The line, which alludes to when the rapper interrupted Taylor’s win at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, was supposedly passed on to the songstress for approval, but she denies ever giving it the OK.

Taylor said she had been contact about the song, but she was ‘never made aware of the actual lyric, ‘I made that b**** famous.”

In an effort to prove Kanye’s version, Kim shared an edited clip from the studio of him calling up Taylor and seemingly getting her approval.

However, the clip shows him conveying the idea, more than the specific lyrics, and when the complete call later leaked it made it clear that the use of ‘b****,’ which seemed to be a major issue for Taylor, was left out completely.

The song Cancelled has got fans talking about Taylor’s former friendship with Blake Lively who some believe is referenced on the track.

Taylor and Blake were once close friends but they have reportedly had a falling out during Blake’s legal battle with her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni.

However, Cancelled is not believed to be a diss track because it was recorded during the Eras tour when Blake and Taylor were still close.

Instead, fans believe the song is defending Blake and the public scruting she was under when her feud with Justin first became public. 

On Cancelled, she sings: ‘At least you know exactly who your friends are / They’re the ones with matching scars.’

She later sings: ‘They stood by me / Before my exoneration / So I’m not here for judgement.’ 

This suggests a bond Taylor has with someone, likely in the spotlight who has also had to endure public criticism. 

Later however, Taylor does appear to acknowledge Blake’s PR blunders as she sings: ‘If you can’t be good then just be better at it / Everyone’s got bodies in the attic / Or took somebody’s man.’ 

But the song ultimately ends positively with the line: ‘I’ll take you by the hand / And soon you’ll learn the art of never getting caught.’ 

There has also been some speculation that a line on Cancelled may even refer to Katy Perry.

The pair famously feuded for years – with Taylor writing the song Bad Blood about her – before making up in 2019 when Katy appeared in the music video for You Need To Calm Down. 

On Cancelled, Taylor sings: ‘Did you girl boss too close to the sun?’ which some have speculated could be a nod to the heavy criticism Katy came under for her flight to space with Lauren Bezos and Gayle King.

Daily Mail has contacted representatives of Charli XCX, Kim Kardashian and Blake Lively for comment.  

Meanwhile, fans were quick to notice multiple references to Taylor’s love story with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis. 

Possibly the most glaring reference to the three-time Super Bowl winner and the A-List couple’s engagement came in the ninth track of the album, titled ‘Wood’.

‘Girls, I don’t need to catch the bouquet, mm / To know a hard rock is on the way,’ Swift croons in the second verse of the tune. 

The hitmaker penned the lyrics to the song, in collaboration with music producers Max Martin and Shellback, before her NFL beau got down on one knee. But she correctly predicted that a ‘hard rock’ would be coming her way – in the form of an elongated Old Mine diamond to be precise. 

Then in the pre-chorus for the song, the 14-time Grammy Award winner sings: ‘Seems to be that you and me, we make our own luck / New heights (New heights), manhood (Manhood) / I ain’t got to knock on wood.’

It’s a clear nod to the ‘New Heights’ podcast, which is run by Travis and his older brother, Philadelphia Eagles legend Jason Kelce.

Travis famously used the award-winning podcast to catch the singer’s attention after he attended her Eras Tour concert in Kansas City in the hope of meeting her. 

The podcast itself posted a promotional tweet for the album – with Jason and Travis’ faces being photoshopped onto a scene from the movie ‘Mean Girls’.

Taylor also showed a bit of a raunchy side on that track, singing, ‘His lovе was the key that opened my thighs’ in the chorus.

‘The curse on me was broken by your magic wand,’ reads another line.  

The first track on the album, ‘The Fate of Ophelia’, also appears to reference the moment where Kelce shouted Swift out on a podcast in 2023.

‘I heard you calling on the megaphone/ You wanna see me all alone,’ Swift trills in the opening line, seemingly referencing Kelce’s public revelation that he attempted to meet her at her concert at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Chiefs.

‘All that time, I sat alone in my tower / You were just honing your powers / Now I can see it all (See it all) / Late one night, you dug me out of my grave and / Saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia (Ophelia) / Keep it one hundrеd on the land, the sea, thе sky,’ the singer croons.

There also appears to be a reference to Kelce in the song ‘Opalite.’ Kelce was born on October 5, 1989, meaning his astrological sign is Libra and his birthstones are opal and tourmaline.

Kelce mentioned on an August 27 episode of ‘New Heights’ that this was his favorite track. ‘I think ‘Opalite’ might be my favorite,’ he told his brother. ‘At least right now, every time it comes on, I always catch myself.’

Finally, Swift appears to hint at what she may want in the future with Kelce on the track ‘Wi$h Li$t’: ‘I just want you, huh / Have a couple kids, got the whole block looking like you / We tell the world to leave us thе f*** alone, and they do, wow / Got me drеaming about a driveway with a basketball hoop / Boss up, settle down, got a wish list (Wish list) / I just want you.’

‘The Life of a Showgirl’ is Swift’s highly-anticipated 12th studio album and the first one that she’s released since the conclusion of her worldwide record-breaking ‘Eras Tour’.