Vancouver’s Science World has a brief cameo in a new music video from Taylor Swift. In the video for The Fate of Ophelia , the lead single from Swift’s new album The Life of a Showgirl, the iconic dome of the west coast science centre can be seen briefly outside a window as Swift dashes by.
The blink-and-miss-it moment comes at about the three-minute-and-42-second mark, just before the end of the four-minute video.
It’s a busy four minutes full of scene and costume changes as Swift portrays a version of the character Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
At the start of the video she looks like a painting of the character by 19th-century artist John Everett Millais, before morphing into a burlesque performer in the style of Marilyn Monroe, then a go-go dancer, an Esther Williams look-alike in a musical number like those of choreographer Busby Berkeley, and more. The track ends with her in a party in a hotel room, outside of which Science World is seen.
The Science World connection is not the only shout-out to Vancouver in Swift’s latest release. The title track for the album The Life of a Showgirl ends with the sounds of a cheering crowd, which Swift has confirmed was lifted from the final show of her 20-month Eras Tour, which ended at BC Place in Vancouver.
For its part, Science World hosted Swiftie Days during the same time as the Vancouver concerts, featuring “Taylor-ed” activities that included a friendship bracelet station, sing-alongs, trivia, and sheet music to let people play Swift’s greatest hits on a giant piano.
Swift’s popularity has fans tweezering apart her lyrics and videos to uncover Easter eggs, and The Fate of Ophelia has many non-Vancouver references as well for fans to spot.
They include a picture of her fiancé, Travis Kelce, tucked into a mirror’s frame, a loaf of sourdough — she likes baking — and several other old paintings. Oh, and the number of the hotel room at the end of the video? It’s 87, the same number as Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs jersey.
National Post has reached out to Science World for comment.
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