Welcome to Music Friday, when we spotlight popular songs that sparkle with references to jewelry, gemstones or precious metals. Today’s pick is “Opalite,” one of Taylor Swift’s most luminous recent tracks — a song that uses the language of stones to chart an emotional journey from darkness to self-made joy.
At its core, “Opalite” is about transformation. Swift frames that arc through two contrasting materials: onyx and opalite.
In the chorus, she sings, “Sleepless in the onyx night / But now the sky is opalite.” The imagery is instant and evocative.
Onyx — a deep black gemstone long used in fine jewelry, amulets and carvings — represents her sleepless, sorrowful past. In Swift’s lyric shorthand, it functions perfectly as a stand-in for despair: heavy, opaque and light-absorbing. Opalite, glowing and translucent, becomes the symbol of a brighter emotional horizon.
Opalite is a man-made, opalescent glass designed to mimic the glow of natural opal, shifting between milky blues, pinks and purples as it catches the light. While opalite occasionally appears in fashion jewelry or crystal collections, it lacks the rarity and geological pedigree of fine gems — a distinction Swift leans into deliberately.
In an interview with Capital Official Radio, Swift explained that she had been collecting favorite words and phrases in what she calls her “endless file of lyrics” when opalite caught her attention. She was intrigued to learn that it’s a synthetic material, and that discovery sparked the song’s central metaphor. Because opalite is created rather than unearthed, Swift saw it as a symbol of happiness that can be intentionally initiated and cultivated.
That idea carries personal significance. Natural opal is the birthstone of her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, and Swift has long been drawn to the stone’s play-of-color and symbolism. Choosing opalite instead of opal, she said, allowed her to explore the notion that joy, love and emotional clarity are things we actively construct after hardship.
Musically and commercially, the song has resonated just as powerfully. “Opalite” debuted at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and quickly landed in the Top 10 in markets including the UK, Germany, Australia and the Philippines. It’s one of the standout tracks from Swift’s album The Life of a Showgirl, which delivered a historic debut: 4 million units in its first week, the largest opening in modern chart history. All 12 tracks from the album charted simultaneously in the Hot 100’s Top 12, a first-ever feat.
Lyrically, “Opalite” fits neatly into Swift’s long tradition of using color and material as emotional shorthand. Where red symbolized passion and chaos, blue conveyed sadness and safety, and lavender haze bathed love in a purple dreamscape, “Opalite” feels like her prism era — refracting pain into something bright and luminous.
Please check out the lyric video for “Opalite.” The words are below if you’d like to follow along…
"Opalite"
Written by Shellback, Max Martin and Taylor Alison Swift. Performed by Taylor Swift.
I had a bad habit
Of missing lovers past
My brother used to call it
"Eating out of the trash," it's never gonna last
I thought my house was haunted
I used to live with ghosts
And all the perfect couples
Said, "When you know you know and when you don't you don't"
And all of the foes and all of the friends
Have seen it before, they'll see it again
Life is a song, it ends when it ends
I was wrong
But my Mama told me, "It's alright
You were dancing through the lightning strikes
Sleepless in the onyx night
But now the sky is opalite
Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh my Lord
Never made no one like you before
You had to make your own sunshine
But now the sky is opalite"
Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh
You couldn't understand it
Why you felt alone
You were in it for real
She was in her phone, and you were just a pose
And don't we try to love love? (Love love)
We give it all we got (Give it all we got)
You finally left the table
And what a simple thought, you're starving till you're not
And all of the foes and all of the friends
Have messed up before, they'll mess up again
Life is a song, it ends when it ends
You move on
And that's when I told you, "It's alright
You were dancing through the lightning strikes
Sleepless in the onyx night
But now the sky is opalite
Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh my Lord
Never met no one like you before
You had to make your own sunshine
But now the sky is opalite"
Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh
This is just a storm inside a teacup
But shelter here with me, my love
Thunder like a drum
This life will beat you up, up, up, up
This is just a temporary speed bump
But failure brings you freedom
And I can bring you love (Love, love, love, love)
Don't you sweat it, baby
"It's alright
You were dancing through the lightning strikes
Oh, so sleepless in the onyx night
But now the sky is opalite
Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh my Lord
Never met no one like you before, no
You had to make your own sunshine
But now the sky is opalite"
Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh
Credit: Taylor Swift image (cropped) by iHeartRadioCA, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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