Taylor Swift has released her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. Since it dropped, fans have been combing the lyrics to interpret every song’s meaning. Prior to the release, Swift also confirmed that singer Sabrina Carpenter (who toured with Swift on a leg of her record-breaking Eras Tour) features on the title track, “The Life of a Showgirl.”
So what is a showgirl in the eyes of T. Swift? Traditionally, the term refers to a chorus girl at a performance venue or nightclub, à la 2024’s The Last Showgirl starring Pamela Anderson — which reclaimed the word after the 1995 film Showgirls (in which Elizabeth Berkley starred as an aspiring showgirl turned stripper) gave it a more divisive edge. The word evokes stage presence, bedazzled outfits, and bright lights in a backstage dressing room. While her fans sift through Miss Americana’s new album, here are some Netflix films and series that feature our slant on top-tier showgirls.
Before Sabrina Carpenter became pop star Sabrina Carpenter — with hit albums and a Netflix Christmas special — she starred in the movie Work It. The 2020 dance flick follows Quinn (Carpenter), a senior who works as the technical director for her high school’s elite dance team. When a work mishap gets her fired from the position, she’s desperate for a new extracurricular to get her into her dream school, Duke University. After Quinn lies to the school’s admissions counselor about her background, she must learn how to dance and build a team of dancers in time to compete at Work It, a high-stakes local competition. If her team does well, she just might have a shot at Duke.
Beyoncé Bowl was a live NFL halftime show that aired on Netflix on Christmas Day, and is available to revisit any and every hour of the day. In true form for the former Destiny’s Child singer — who’s documentary HOMECOMING: A film by Beyoncé shows her making history as the first Black woman headliner at Coachella — the halftime performance was massive in scale and impeccably choreographed. Fans were, frankly, freaking out. The show featured the first live performance of songs from her first country album, Cowboy Carter, and earned the singer a Primetime Emmy.
This 2018 docuseries follows drag queen Alyssa Edwards, aka performer Justin Dwayne Lee Johnson, as he teaches dance at his studio Beyond Belief Dance Company during the day and performs drag at night. Johnson’s star rose after he appeared on multiple seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, eventually winning RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars Season 1 in 2024.
The 2019 biopic about legendary actor Judy Garland gives a glimpse at the golden years of one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors. Renée Zellweger (Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy) earned an Oscar for her role as The Wizard of Oz star. The film delves into the last year of Garland’s tumultuous life when she was living in London, where she’d moved after her addiction issues had affected her reputation in the United States.
Based on a webtoon, the K-drama series Mask Girl follows Kim Mo-mi (Lee Han-byeol) who, as a young girl, wants to become a pop star. Unfortunately for Mo-mi, because her appearance fails to meet the high beauty standards of her culture, she watches her dreams wash away. While she works at a boring office job during the day, however, Mo-mi tries to capture her aspirations by performing as a masked camgirl at night. But when a series of horrific events happen, her life dramatically changes. Three actors play Mo-mi (Lee, Nana, and Go Hyun-jung) throughout the decades-spanning series — a sly nod to the ideas of performance and identity at the center of the show.
When Olivia Rodrigo’s song “drivers license” came out in 2021, it launched the former Disney Channel star into stardom. Since then, Rodrigo has released two hit albums, 2021’s Sour and 2023’s Guts. The latter tour spanned two years — from February 2023 to July 2025 — and made stops across the globe. Didn’t make it to a stadium to watch? Check out Rodrigo’s GUTS World Tour Concert Special.
In 2018, Lady Gaga tried her hand at acting in Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut, a remake of A Star Is Born. (The original, starring Judy Garland, appeared in 1954, and Barbra Streisand appeared in the second version, which came out in 1976.). This most recent adaptation follows Jackson Maine (Cooper), a musician living with alcoholism who falls for up-and-coming singer Ally (Lady Gaga). As the pair fall in love, Jackson’s career wanes and Ally’s thrives. The film garnered the Abracadabra singer her first Oscar nomination for Best Actress, and her first Oscar win for the film’s hit ballad, “Shallow.”
