Taylor Swift had a sweet encouraging message for all the athletes participating in the 2026 Olympics.
“Hi, it’s Taylor. I just wanted to send a message to all the athletes that are competing in the Olympics,” the pop star, 36, said in a video message shared during the opening ceremony on Friday, February 6. “I just wanted to say thank you.”
Swift continued, “Getting to learn your stories and see everything that you’ve sacrificed and all your determination and hard work and passion, everything that’s gotten you to this point where you’re so excellent at something, it’s just really inspiring.”
The singer also expressed her gratitude for everything the athletes have done to reach this milestone.
“I am very grateful for everything you’ve done to get to this point in your life and grateful that you’ve brought us all along with you on this journey so we get to watch you do this,” she said. “And I just hope that you have a wonderful Olympic Games, wishing you all the best of luck and a safe journey and I hope that this is an experience that you will cherish for the rest of your life. Bye!”
The Olympics, which are being held in Italy, kicked off on Friday with a star-studded opening ceremony at the Milano San Siro Olympic Stadium in Milan. Mariah Carey kicked off the festivities with a mash up performance of “Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu,” better known as “Volare,” in Italian and her new song “Nothing Is Impossible” from her 2025 album, Here For It All.
Swift’s words of encouragement also came the same day she dropped the music video the second single off her The Life of a Showgirl album, “Opalite.”
“My favorite part about writing is that first spark of an idea. It can happen at any time, for any reason. The idea for the ‘Opalite’ music video crash landed into my imagination when I was doing promo for The Life of a Showgirl,” she wrote via Instagram on Friday, February 6. “I was a guest on one of my favorite shows, @TheGrahamNortonShowOfficial.”
During an October 2025 appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Swift was a guest alongside Cillian Murphy, Domhnall Gleeson, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner Smith and Lewis Capaldi. At one point during the group’s interview, Gleeson joked about his hopes of starring in one of Swift’s music videos — and Swift made that dream come true with “Opalite.”
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“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*,” she continued. “And so a week later he received an email script I’d written for the ‘Opalite’ video, where he was playing the starring role.”
In addition to Gleeson, several others made cameos in the video including Capaldi and Norton himself.
“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,” Swift shared. “To my delight, everyone from the show made the effort to time travel back to the 90’s with us and help with this video. You might even recognize some friendly faces from The Eras Tour.”
