Look what you made her do — Taylor Swift has revealed a brand new era with the announcement of her upcoming 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift announced the album with the help of her boyfriend Travis Kelce, 35, and his brother Jason Kelce, 37, on their podcast, New Heights.
In a clip shared on Instagram at 12:12 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Swift said, “I wanted to show you something.”
“OK, what do we got?” Jason asked. “A briefcase, mint green with T.S. on it. What’s in it?”
“This is my brand-new album, The Life of a Showgirl,” Swift said as she held up the blurred-out vinyl.
“T.S. 12,” Travis cheered.
The 35-year-old singer also announced the album on her website shortly after a countdown timer expired at 12:12 a.m. Tuesday. No release date was announced, but her website said vinyl editions of the album would ship before Oct. 13.
Fans have long theorized that Swift’s 12th album would soon arrive. On Monday, Taylor Nation — an official branch of the pop superstar’s marketing team — posted a TikTok slide show of 12 images with the caption “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era…’” Swift is seen wearing orange in every image.
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A special limited vinyl edition of the album will be released in “Portofino orange glitter,” according to a pre-order page on her site. A special cassette edition is also available for pre-order.
The album announcement came after it was confirmed that Swift would appear as a guest on her boyfriend’s podcast on the episode released on Wednesday, Aug. 13.
In a teaser for the episode, Swift sat opposite Travis and looked at his shirt and said, “That’s such a nice colour on you.”
“Yes, I know. It’s the colour of your eyes, sweetie. It’s why we match so well,” he replied.
“We’re about to do a f—ing podcast,” Swift said, smiling.
The Life of a Showgirl follows last year’s The Tortured Poets Department, announced during the 2024 Grammys and released during her record-breaking tour, which raked in more than US$2.2 billion across two years and five continents, making it the highest-grossing tour of all time.
The album is also her first release since Swift regained control over her entire body of work. In May, the pop star said she purchased her catalogue of recordings — originally released through Big Machine Records — from their most recent owner, the private equity firm Shamrock Capital. She did not disclose the amount.
In recent years, Swift has been re-recording and releasing her albums in an attempt to regain control of her music. The project was instigated by Hybe America CEO Scooter Braun’s purchase and sale of her early catalogue and represents Swift’s effort to control her own songs and how they’re used. Previous Taylor’s Version releases have been more than conventional re-recordings, arriving with new “from the vault” music, Easter eggs and visuals that deepen understanding of her work.
So far, there have been four re-recorded albums, beginning with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) in 2021. All four have been massive commercially, each one debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Swift’s last re-recording, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), arrived in October 2023, just four months after the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). That was the same year Swift claimed the record for the woman with the most No. 1 albums in history.
— with files from The Associated Press
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