Taylor Swift has dropped her highly anticipated Opalite music video, and it’s packed with some unexpected British and Irish stars.
The clip landed on Spotify Premium and Apple Music this morning, featuring an incredible ensemble cast that includes Graham Norton, Cillian Murphy, Domhnall Gleeson, Lewis Capaldi, Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith.
Ms Swift herself took the director’s chair for the nearly six-minute visual, which has a 90s aesthetic running throughout.
The video won’t hit YouTube until Sunday morning, Super Bowl Sunday, meaning fans need a streaming subscription to catch it for now.
Taylor Swift starred in the music video with Domhnall Gleeson
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Apple Music
Opalite is the second single from Swift’s record-breaking twelfth album, The Life of a Showgirl, which dominated UK sales last year.
The whole thing came together thanks to a chance moment on The Graham Norton Show back in October.
Ms Swift appeared on the BBC chat show alongside Mr Murphy, Mr Gleeson, Ms Lee, Ms Turner-Smith and Mr Capaldi.
When the popstar praised Mr Gleeson’s performance in the sitcom The Paper, Mr Murphy quipped that it was “worth watching for Mr Domhnall’s dancing alone.”
Ms Swift directed the music video
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Apple Music
Mr Gleeson then replied: “I’m hoping to get into a Taylor Swift music video.”
Mr Swift’s reaction at the time appeared to be pure astonishment.
Just a week later, Mr Gleeson received an email containing a script Ms Swift had written specifically for him, casting the Irish actor in the starring role.
The original exchange even plays out over the video’s end credits.
The music video is set in the 90s
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Apple Music
The video itself features Ms Swift and Mr Gleeson playing characters dubbed ‘lonely woman’ and ‘lonely man.’
Both have formed rather unusual friendships, she’s attached to a rock, while he’s devoted to a cactus.
The plot kicks off when Mr Gleeson’s character sprays a magic potion on his beloved plant, somehow summoning Ms Swift into his life.
Mr Norton pops up as a salesman claiming he can reverse the spell, while Mr Capaldi takes on the role of a mall photographer who becomes rather taken with the couple.
Opalite is the second single from Swift’s record-breaking twelfth album, The Life of a Showgirl
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GETTY IMAGESMr Murphy’s involvement is slightly different. The Oscar winner appears on billboards and advertisements throughout the video, also providing the voiceover.
Ms Turner-Smith plays a workout instructor, and Ms Lee plays a singer performing on MTV.
The Love Story singer took to Instagram today to share her excitement about how the project came together.
She described Mr Norton as an “insanely charismatic and lovable host” and said she felt “ridiculously lucky” with the group she’d been paired with that evening.
“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,” she wrote.
“Like a school group project but for adults and it isn’t mandatory.”
The singer added: “To my delight, everyone from the show made the effort to time travel back to the 90s with us and help with this video.”
Mr Norton himself called the experience “the thrill of a lifetime and the hardest secret I’ve ever had to keep!”
Ms Swift said that her appearance on the Graham Norton show sparked her idea for the music video
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The Graham Norton Show
Fans of the singer were quick to share their reactions to the video on social media.
“I bet this was one thing the lovely Graham Norton didn’t have on his bingo card for 2025!” one wrote on X. Another said: “The whole graham norton show being Part of the performance is really funny.”
A third fan posted: “so confused by the people asking how she convinced cillian murphy to be in the opalite music video because like that’s THE TAYLOR SWIFT honey.”
“So many worlds colliding!” added another.
