It’s a cruel summer for Swifties no more: After her second-longest period without releasing new music, Taylor Swift just announced that her 12th album is on its way.
After a characteristic sprinkling of Easter eggs — some subtle and laid months ago; some as obvious as her official fan account yesterday posting a carousel of images of her wearing orange, this new album’s designated colour — Swift announced Tuesday that a new album, titled ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ is imminent.
Swift shared the news in a teaser clip for her appearance on her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast. Holding up a mint-green briefcase, with “TS” printed in orange on the front, she told his co-host and brother Jason Kelce that she had something to show him. She then pulled out a vinyl record, its cover blurred out in post-production, and said, “This is my brand new album.”
A link on Swift’s social media accounts took fans to a pre-pre-order site, where they were told that while items would ship before Oct. 13, that is not the actual album release date.
Swifties are always looking for signs that Swift — who has surprise-dropped two albums, and has a long history of leaving clues for her fans that point to her next release — is about to put out new music.
In the case of TS12, as fans refer to the new album, the signs have been there for a while, as documented by eagle-eyed Swiftie detectives on social media.
The number 12 has been referred to by Swift for a while, from the number of jewels in the earrings she wore to the Grammy Awards this year to the string of 12 O’s used to add emphasis to her statement announcing she’d bought back the master recordings of six of her albums. This tussle for artistic ownership had inspired her wildly successful Taylor’s Version re-recording project, which she undertook while performing her record-smashing Eras tour.
In the past few days, however, the hints began to be dropped in earnest, starting with word that the Kelce brothers were coming back early from their podcast break to drop an episode on Wednesday with a mystery guest. The artwork for this news included a cut-out where that guest would be, with fans quickly guessing that it would be Swift based on the outline. For some bonus 12s, fans traced the image to Swift’s appearance on Variety’s Directors On Directors, which came out on Dec. 12, 2022.
Twelve minutes later, fans saw that post from her official fan account that captioned a carousel of pictures of Swift on the Eras tour wearing exclusively orange outfits, “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era…’”
The next developments came thick and fast, with Swifties on red (or should we say orange?) alert.
On Monday evening, a countdown began on Swift’s website, “expiring’“on Aug. 12 at 12:12 a.m. That’s when the New Heights teaser clip, featuring the announcement, went live.
Shortly afterward, billboards went up in Nashville and New York, two cities Swift has deep ties to and which represent her country and pop personas, linking to a Spotify playlist titled “And, baby, that’s show business for you.” Fans quickly spotted that all of the songs on this playlist were tracks Swift had made with producers Max Martin and Shelback, most leaning toward pop rather than the more melancholy ballads that dominated her last album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”
This is only the beginning, with the podcast interview, album release date, lead single, album cover and track list all still to come.
The game is afoot! Swifties are ready for it.
