Look what you made her do! Global superstar Taylor Swift has announced her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, is coming, but has not given a release date. The album announcement came after a countdown timer on the artist’s website expired.
While the release date is to be confirmed, her site has said vinyl editions of the album would ship before October 13, hinting at an autumn drop.
Fans have long theorised about Swift’s 12th album. On Monday, Taylor Nation – an official branch of the musician’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.
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.
Sensing a pattern, eagle-eyed fans noticed that 12 minutes earlier, the podcast “New Heights” posted an orange image on social media with a mysterious silhouette that many believed to be Swift. The show is hosted by Travis Kelce – Swift’s boyfriend and American professional football tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL) – and his brother Jason Kelce.
The podcast later announced that Swift would appear on New Heights, posting a teaser video that showed the singer pulling the album from a briefcase. The actual album artwork, just as it is on her website, is blurred.
The Life of a Showgirl will follow last year’s The Tortured Poets Department, announced during the 2024 Grammys and released during Swift’s record-breaking The Eras Tour. The tour raked in billions across two years and five continents and has become the highest-grossing tour of all time.
The album is also Swift’s first release since regaining control over her entire body of work. In May, the artist said she bought 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 first six 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 are 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 commercial and cultural successes, 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 same year, Swift won the record for the woman with the most No 1 albums in history.
