Taylor Swift Plays “The Fate of Ophelia” Live for the First Time, at the Academy Museum Gala

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The longest-running No. 1 of Taylor Swift’s career had never been played for a crowd until Saturday night. At the sixth annual Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles on Oct. 17, she gave “The Fate of Ophelia” its live debut in a four-song set, Billboard reports.

Conan O’Brien, who voiced Smarty Pants in Toy Story 5, introduced her with a Beatles comparison. “It’s an insane, unprecedented honor to introduce a cherished member of our little Toy Story 5 family,” he said, per Pitchfork. “She’s John, Paul, George and Ringo all in one. Taylor Swift.”

Read moreTaylor Swift’s Showgirl Rules the Billboard 200 for a 15th Week as Olivia Rodrigo Climbs to No. 2

Swift opened with “Blank Space,” then told the room what was coming next, Rolling Stone reports:

This song, which we are playing for the very first time for you beautiful people, this is called ‘The Fate of Ophelia.’

Taylor Swift, onstage at the Academy Museum Gala, Rolling Stone

From there she played “I Knew It, I Knew You,” the original song she wrote for Toy Story 5, and finished with “Love Story.” “The Fate of Ophelia” is the Life of a Showgirl single that held the Hot 100’s top spot for 10 weeks beginning in October 2025. Watch its official video below.

She skipped “Patient Zero,” the Encore single that’s No. 1 on the Hot 100. Stereogum noted that alternate versions of it had arrived on streaming Friday, yet the set leaned on bigger hits.

It was her first public performance since August, when she appeared at the Grammy Museum, Billboard notes. The timing is pointed, too. Rolling Stone says the gala falls just before Oscar voting season, and “I Knew It, I Knew You” is in the best original song race. Since the Eras Tour ended in December 2024, Swift has played live only a handful of times, usually at similarly celebrity-filled events.

The room was full of musicians. Stereogum counted Teyana Taylor, A$AP Rocky, Tinashe, ROSÉ, Camila Cabello and Sabrina Carpenter, who posed for photos with Swift, among the guests. The night honored Charlize Theron, Colman Domingo and filmmaker-composer John Carpenter. Swift arrived in a strapless pale blue Dior gown and performed in a shimmery dark blue one.

The Life of a Showgirl is also back at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a 15th week, with 87,000 units in the tracking week that ended Oct. 15, two days before the gala.