The musical theatre composer and the pop star collaborated on “Beautiful Ghosts,” a song written specifically for the upcoming film adaptation of Cats. In the movie, the haunting melody is sung by Victoria the White Cat (played by Francesca Hayward), whose journey introduces audiences into the Jellicle cats' Jellicle world. Swift, who plays Bombalurina, provided her own rendition for a studio recording.
Taylor Swift
Universal Pictures
Check out the featurette above as the two music bigwigs discuss and preview the song.
“What I couldn’t believe was the extraordinary beauty of these lyrics that Taylor had written,” says director Tom Hooper. “It was as if someone had come into the film I was in the middle of making and read the script, met the actors, and seen the world, and reflected back to me a profound understanding of what we’re trying to do with the movie.”
Swift became a scholar of T. S. Eliot, whose poetry serves as the backbone of the libretto. She calls him “such a specific type of writer [who] uses such specific language and imagery.” She adds, “I really waned to reflect that. You can’t write a modern lyric for Cats.
“So if you can’t get T. S. Eliot, get T.S.”
Cats, also starring Jennifer Hudson, Jason Derulo, Judi Dench, James Corden, and Ian McKellen, arrives in movie theatre December 20.
Filmed in 2023, the one-night-only event featured Brian Stokes Mitchell, Audra McDonald, Peter Friedman, and more from the Ahrens and Flaherty musical's original cast.
