Beautiful Ghosts

"Beautiful Ghosts" is a song featured in the Cats Movie 2019, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Taylor Swift.

In the movie, Francesca Hayward's Victoria will sing this song in response to hearing Jennifer Hudson's Grizabella sing "Memory" (presumably the Memory Act 1 version). Lloyd Webber says this about the song: "What she's saying is, 'Ok, It's all very well for you. But you're looking back on a life where you did something wonderful in your life. You were glamorous. You had beautiful ghosts. I've nothing at all. I've been abandoned.' Victoria is saying, 'Maybe one day I'll dance like you did with beautiful ghosts.' "

A 30-second reprise will also be sung by Judi Dench's Old Deuteronomy, while a version by Taylor Swift will play over the end credits. Swift's rendition of the song was released as a single by Polydor Records on 15 November 2019.



Lyrics
[Verse 1]

Follow me home if you dare to

I wouldn't know where to lead you

Should I take chances when no one took chances on me?

So I watch from the dark, wait for my life to start

With no beauty in my memory

[Chorus]

All that I wanted was to be wanted

Too young to wander London streets, alone and haunted

Born into nothing

At least you have something, something to cling to

Visions of dazzling rooms I'll never get let into

And the memories were lost long ago

But at least you have beautiful ghosts

[Verse 2]

Perilous night, their voices calling

A flicker of light before the dawning

Out here, the wild ones are taming the fear within me

Scared to call them my friends and be broken again

Is this hope just a mystical dream?

[Chorus]

All that I wanted was to be wanted

Too young to wander London streets, alone and haunted

Born into nothing

At least you have something, something to cling to

Visions of dazzling rooms I'll never get let into

And the memories were lost long ago

But at least you have beautiful ghosts

[Bridge]

And so maybe my home isn't what I had known

What I thought it would be

But I feel so alive with these phantoms of night

And I know that this life isn't safe, but it's wild and it's free

[Chorus]

All that I wanted was to be wanted

I'll never wander London streets, alone and haunted

Born into nothing

With them, I have something, something to cling to

I never knew I'd love this world they've let me into

And the memories were lost long ago

So I'll dance with these beautiful ghosts

And the memories were lost long ago

So I'll dance with these beautiful ghosts