Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” doesn’t shy away from confronting ghosts of her past, specifically on track 4 likely about her embattled history with music executive Scott Borchetta.

On “Father Figure,” she interpolates George Michael’s 1987 hit of the same name. That means Swift incorporated a portion of the pop classic’s composition into her version, in this case the melody and beginning chorus lyrics.

Michael released “Father Figure” as the fourth single from his landmark album “Faith” behind tracks “I Want Your Sex,” “Faith” and “Hard Day.” The upbeat hit became one of his signature songs and topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988. The iconic singer died in 2016 from heart failure.

The team on X that runs George Michael’s account tweeted a message thanking Swift: “We were delighted when Taylor Swift and her team approached us earlier this year about incorporating an interpolation of George Michael’s classic song ‘Father Figure’ into a brand new song of the same title to be featured on her forthcoming album. When we heard the track we had no hesitation in agreeing to this association between two great artists and we know George would have felt the same. George Michael Entertainment wishes Taylor every success with ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ and ‘Father Figure.'”

Michael’s version offers intimacy and protection, whereas Swift’s version turns the phrase on its head in a story of betrayal. Hers is a banger about fractured trust and power struggles with a man who once steered her career.

“I’ll be your father figure / I drink that brown liquor / I can make deals with the devil / Because my d***’s bigger,” she sings.

In 2004, Borchetta spotted Swift as a young teen performing at the Bluebird Café in Nashville. He signed her to his fledgling label Big Machine Records. The two worked together on her first six albums. Under that partnership, Swift grew from a precocious country songwriter into a global pop star.

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The “Showgirl” sings about the beginning days: “When I found you, you were young, wayward lost in the cold / Pulled up to you in the Jag / Turned your rags into gold / The winding road leads to the chateau / ‘You remind me of a younger me’ / I saw potential.”

But when Swift tried to buy her master recordings, negotiations broke down. She left Big Machine in 2018, signing a new deal with Universal Music Group that guaranteed ownership of her future masters starting with her seventh album, “Lover.”

“Owning your master recordings means that you have complete control and power over distribution, licensing, and essentially the way your legacy is shaped,” Swift said on the Aug. 13 episode of “New Heights.” “It’s a huge thing. It’s always been a huge thing for me. Since I was a teenager, I’ve been actively saving up money to buy my music.”

Fighting back tears, Swift detailed how each sale of her music felt like a gut punch.

“The first time that it was sold, it really ripped my heart out of my chest and I told everybody exactly how that felt for me and what I was going through,” she said. “And I started basically defiantly rerecording my music because I wanted to own it.”

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Borchetta offered his own version of events in a June 30, 2019, digital letter titled “So, it’s time for some truth…”: “Taylor had every chance in the world to own not just her master recordings, but every video, photograph, everything associated to her career. She chose to leave.” He maintained that his offer was “extraordinary” and that Swift was fully briefed on shareholder calls about the pending sale to Braun.

In the years since, Borchetta has continued to be a major player in Nashville. He marked the 20th anniversary of Big Machine on Broadway with performances by Brett Young, Carly Pearce, Riley Green, Rascal Flatts and Sheryl Crow. Coincidentally, Swift was on Broadway the same night to celebrate Brittany Mahomes’ birthday at the Twelve-Thirty Club.

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Borchetta also recently donated $15 million to Middle Tennessee State University, which renamed its College of Media and Entertainment after him. An hour after that news was released, Swift and Travis Kelce announced their engagement in the proposal heard round the world.

For Swift, the irony of “Father Figure” is sharp: A man who once acted as her industry protector now serves as her foil. By invoking Michael’s song, she adds layers of both reverence and rebellion, honoring a pop icon while exposing the volatility of her own “father figure” dynamic.

For an artist who now owns her entire catalog, the track lands like a victory lap disguised as a reckoning. Where George Michael once sang of devotion, Swift sings of defiance. And in doing so, rewrites the role of the “father figure” entirely.

‘And baby, that’s show business’

If Swift turned heartbreak into “The Tortured Poets Department,” she’s turning the spotlight on glamour, glitz and full-on showbiz for her 12th era, “The Life of a Showgirl.” The pop superstar dropped the album announcement on Aug. 13 while on Travis Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast, surprising fans as her website simultaneously updated with a sparkling cover image of her submerged in bathwater donning a bedazzled corset.

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“My day ends with me in a bathtub, not usually in a bedazzled dress,” Swift told Jason Kelce during the podcast on the inspiration behind her opulent and vivacious era. “I wanted to glamorize all the different aspects of how (the Eras Tour) felt.”

Blistered heels and sore joints from her three hour concert didn’t slow her down as she flew in and out of Sweden between European stops to collaborate with longtime producers Max Martin and Shellback on the 12 tracks. The trio worked together on her “1989” and “Reputation” albums along with some “Red” songs.

Travis couldn’t hide his excitement on the podcast.

“That’s a banger,” he said of “Cancelled!,” later adding that the entire album is filled with “banger after banger.”

The other 11 tracks are “The Fate of Ophelia,” “Elizabeth Taylor,” “Opalite,” “Father Figure,” “Eldest Daughter,” “Ruin the Friendship,” “Actually Romantic,” “Wi$h Li$T,” “Wood,” “Honey” and the title track.

“This album is going to make you dance,” Travis told Jason. Swift described her fiancé as a “human exclamation point.”

“The Life of a Showgirl” is Swift’s first chapter since she bought her masters. “All of the music I’ve ever made now belongs to me,” she said in a letter posted to her website after fully acquiring her catalog from Shamrock Capital in May.