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2026 Winter Olympics: Taylor Swift Has a Special Message for Team USA

On the same day she dropped the music video for "Opalite," Taylor Swift has a special message for Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

As far as weekends go, this one is a pretty big one on the pop culture landscape. We've got the 2026 Winter Olympics kicking off, Super Bowl LX on Sunday, alongside Puppy Bowl XXII, and more. That "more" included global phenomenon Taylor Swift releasing a music video for the single "Opalite" from her The Life of a Showgirl album on Spotify and Apple Music (YouTube set for this weekend). Ahead of today's Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, Swift shared a message for Team USA heading into the games.

"I just wanted to send a message to all of the athletes who are competing in the Olympics. I just wanted to say thank you. Getting to learn new stories and see everything you've sacrificed and all your determination, hard work, and passion. Everything that has got you to this point where you're so excellent at something is just really inspiring," Swift said in the video message to the athletes. "I'm very grateful for everything you've done to get to this point in your life and grateful that you've all brought us along with you on this journey, so we get to watch you do this. I just hope you have a wonderful Olympic Games. Wishing you all the best of luck and a safe journey, and I hope this is an experience that you will cherish for the rest of your life."

And here's a look at Swift's Instagram post from earlier today, followed by the complete text where she offers some personal insights into how the music video came together:

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. I was a guest on one of my favorite shows, @TheGrahamNortonShowOfficial.

For those of you who aren't familiar, it's a UK late night show where Graham Norton (the insanely charismatic and lovable host) invites a random group of actors, entertainers, musicians, etc to be on his show and we all sit there and chat like it's a dinner party. They even serve wine. Anyway. I remember thinking I got ridiculously lucky with the group I was paired with. Cillian Murphy, Domhnall Gleeson, Greta Lee, @JodieSmith, and @LewisCapaldi.

All people whose work I've admired from afar. 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*. And so a week later he received an email script I'd written for the Opalite video, where he was playing the starring role. 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. 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. I got to work with one of my favorite people in the world, @rpstam, again! I had more fun than I ever imagined – Made new friends, metaphors, and fashion choices. It was an absolute thrill to create this story and these characters. Shot on film. The Opalite video is out now on Spotify & Apple Music.

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