Taylor Swift has more new music on the way as she revealed the title of her upcoming 12th studio album.
The singer dropped the news that the new record will be titled The Life of a Showgirl via a sneak peek of boyfriend Travis Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast on Tuesday, August 12, and showed off a glimpse of the new cover art.
“So I wanted to show you something,” Swift, 35, told her boyfriend Travis and his brother and podcast cohost, Jason Kelce. She then picked up a case with her initials emblazoned on the front in orange font. Opening the case, she took out her new record, which had been blurred in the clip, and told the brothers, “This is my brand new album, The Life of a Showgirl.”
The podcast episode will drop on Wednesday, August 13 where it appears Swift will shed more light on her upcoming release.
Taylor Swift started writing songs about love and breakups in the early 2000s, but her talent was soon recognized by music executives who knew she was the real deal. From releasing her first record in 2006 to gracing stages all over the world this star has earned her place in the Hollywood A-list music scene. […]
Swift also updated her official website at 12:12am, replacing the countdown that dominated the page for several hours prior to her big announcement. In its place are graphics that indicate a vinyl, cassette and CD with poster — all of which are covered by a sparkling orange lock. Swift also updated her social media profile pictures to the same orange lock on a green background.
The website also confirms that a release date has not yet been confirmed, however anyone pre-orders will ship before October 13.
Shortly after Swift dropped The Tortured Poets Department in April 2024, fans began dissecting what they believed to be clues about TS12. She added her 11th album to her Eras Tour setlist in May 2024, but that was not the only change concertgoers noticed. The tour’s updated logo, which previously featured Midnights in three squares while every other album occupied one, showed The Tortured Poets Department taking up two squares and Midnights shifted to just one square. Swifties speculated that by the time the tour ended, each album would be placed in a single square, meaning TS12 would complete the picture.
The theory was supported by a repeated “3, 2, 1” countdown from Swift. Her website intentionally glitched with the message ahead of her announcement about The Tortured Poets Department’s release date, and she continually flashed two fingers throughout its promotion. While some believed the signal pointed to The Tortured Poets Department being a secret double album, Swift started holding up two fingers again when her tour resumed after the record’s release.
Swift also introduced a slew of new orange costumes to her tour wardrobe starting in May 2024. In addition to her standout orange Lover bodysuit and blazer and acoustic section dress, she wore mismatched 1989 bustiers and skirts in a range of colors, including orange. During the 12th show since the new 1989 design’s debut, she matched her top and bottom for the first time, rocking an entirely orange ensemble. The hints led Swifties to speculate that orange would be the color scheme for her 12th album.
This theory intensified when Swift’s inhouse marketing team, Taylor Nation, shared a carousel of photos via Instagram on Monday, August, 11 which featured the singer rocking the orange bodysuits and captioned the post, “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era…’ ❤️🔥.”
The photos were posted exactly 12 minutes after the “New Heights” podcast, hosted by Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother, Jason, teased a mystery guest would appear alongside them on Wednesday, August 13 episode. The mystery guest was later confirmed to be Swift.
Hours after the Taylor Nation post, a countdown to 12:12am ET on August 12 appeared on Swift’s official website, seemingly confirming a new era was set to arrive imminently. The background to the countdown was a sparkling orange color.
Taylor Swift Kevin Mazur/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Swift has been on a music-releasing spree for a while, dropping Lover in 2019, Folklore and Evermore in 2020, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) in 2021, Midnights in 2022, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) in 2023 and The Tortured Poets Department in 2024. When she announced in 2022 that she would tour for the first time in nearly five years, she teased her plan to combine all of her albums into her setlist, and she did just that when she kicked off the Eras Tour in March 2023.
Although some fans hoped Swift would extend the tour’s run past December 2024, she confirmed during her 100th show in June 2024 that the venture would indeed end then.
“People have been like, ‘How are you going to celebrate the 100th show?’” she told the audience in Liverpool. “The celebration of the 100th show for me means this is the very first time I’ve acknowledged to myself and admitted that this tour is going to end in December. Like, that’s it.”
Swift described the experience as “the most exhausting, all-encompassing, but most joyful, most rewarding, most wonderful thing that has ever happened in my life.”
“I think that this tour has really become my entire life,” she added. “It’s taken over everything. I think I once had hobbies, but I don’t know what they were anymore. All I do when I’m not on stage is sit at home and try to think of clever acoustic song mash-ups and think about what you might want to hear.”
