"Eldest Daughter" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl (2025). Written and produced by Swift, Max Martin and Shellback, "Eldest Daughter" is a soft, melancholic soft rockpiano ballad. Lyrically, it details Swift's narrator pretending to be tough upon facing others' comments on her on the internet, before opening up herself to love and devotion.
Upon release, some critics took the issue with the lyrics as badly written, pointing to the use of internet slangs, while some others upheld the vulnerable songwriting and complimented the production. The track peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Global 200 and reached the top 10 in Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Sweden, and the US.
Background and release
The American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift created her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, to reflect her triumphant state of mind amidst the success of the Eras Tour and her relationship with the American football player Travis Kelce throughout 2024.[1] She announced the album during the August 13, 2025, episode of Travis and Jason Kelce's podcast New Heights; "Eldest Daughter" was revealed as the album's fifth track.[2]
Swift recorded The Life of a Showgirl in Sweden with the producers Max Martin and Shellback, in-between stops of the Eras Tour.[3] "Honey", along with the album, was released on October 3, 2025, via Republic Records.[4][5] Less than 24 hours of the album's release, an acoustic version subtitled "Now You're Home" was made available as part of a deluxe CD album for 24 hours on October 4, 2025, via Swift's webstore.[6] Five days later, an "Original Songwriting Voice Memo" of "Eldest Daughter" was released as part of an exclusive digital-download album edition subtitled So Punk on the Internet, available via Swift's webstore for 6.5 hours.[7] On November 7, an Acoustic Collection edition of the album was released, featuring both the original and acoustic versions of "Eldest Daughter".[8]
Music and lyrics
"Eldest Daughter" is a soft rock[9]piano ballad,[10] set over a piano and simple acoustic guitars.[11] As described by Swift in the Track by Track Version of The Life of a Showgirl (2025), the track is a "love song about personal roles in life".[12] The title is a subtle nod to the "eldest daughter syndrome".[13][14] Lyrically, "Eldest Daughter" chronicles the progress of Swift's narrator, from struggling to become a perfect individual affected by others' criticisms of her on the internet, to opening herself up to receive love and devotion in a happy relationship.[15][16][17][18] She admits that she was not always truthful to herself ("When I said I don't believe in marriage/ That was a lie").[19] The lyrics use various internet slangs ("trolls", "memes", "comments", "I'm not a bad bitch, this isn't savage", "we looked fire").[20][21][22]
Music critics associated "Eldest Daughter" to Swift's previous songs such as "The Archer" (2019) and "Mirrorball" (2020), respectively from her albums, Lover and Folklore having recurring themes of perseverance, desperation and perfectionism.[19][23] Alyssa Bailey of Elle interpreted the track as a vow to Swift's fiancé, Travis Kelce,[24] an idea agreed by Time's Megan McClusky, who pointed out the lyric mentioning the "youngest child" as a reference to Kelce.[13]
Reception
Upon release, fans and critics took issue with the lyrics using internet slangs as being "cringe"-inducing, and opined that the lyrical content surrounding pressures of fame and perceptions did not live up to its premise as a vulnerable track.[20][25]News.com.au's Nick Bond praised the "pretty" piano sound but criticized the lyrics as "cringeworthy",[26] while Paste's Casey Epstein-Gross wrote that the song "is so clogged with dated slang [...] it collapses into secondhand embarrassment".[22] In The New Yorker, Amanda Petrusich and Tyler Foggatt both picked it as one of the worst tracks on The Life of a Showgirl.[27] Petrusich opined that the track's theme of tying one's self-worth to how the internet views their perception made it lacking of the relatability and emotional connection that Swift had been known for through her songwriting.[28] Mary Kate Carr of The A.V. Club regarded "Eldest Daughter" as the album's low point; she opined that its references to internet slangs refuted Swift's proclamation that what was written on the internet about her was "none of [her] business".[29]
A positive comment was from Rolling Stone's Maya Georgi, who upheld the vulnerability showcased through "brutal admissions" that balanced out the more cheerful sentiments of the album.[30] Similarly, Atwood Magazine's Bárbara Martínez Campuzano and Danielle Holian deemed "Eldest Daughter" one of the album's most emotionally resonant songs with vulnerable lyricism.[31]Alan Light of Esquire contended that the track, alongside fellow album track "Ruin the Friendship", as one of the "rich, moving examples of a category we'll call Taylor's Origin Story songs".[18]RTÉ's Sarah McIntyre described the track as "gorgeously vulnerable".[11] Maria Sherman of the Associated Press opined that by using "colloquial" language, the track "immediately [dates] itself", but contended that the melody was "thoughtful" and the overall message was a "deep dedication to a loved one".[21]
As part of a smear campaign against Swift, social-media posts attacking the word choice of "savage" in the track interpreted it as racist.[32] "Eldest Daughter" peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Global 200.[33] The track reached in the top 10 in Sweden (peaking at number 7),[34] Germany and the Philippines (number 8),[35][36] Canada, Denmark, and Singapore (number 9),[37][38][39] and Australia and New Zealand (number 10).[40][41] In the United States, all 12 tracks from The Life of the Showgirl debuted in the top 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, with "Eldest Daughter" debuting and peaking at number nine.[42][43]
Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of The Life of a Showgirl[44]
Studios
Produced at MXM Studios and Shellback Studios, Stockholm
↑"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 41. týden 2025 in the date selector. Retrieved November 25, 2025.
↑"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 41. týden 2025 in the date selector. Retrieved November 27, 2025.
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