Taylor Swift has announced her next album, The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is known for dropping hints and clues for her fans before announcements and this one was no different. On Monday night, a countdown to 12.12am eastern time on August 12th appeared on her website, transformed to a glittering orange.
On Instagram, Taylor Nation – a branch of Swift’s official marketing team – shared a carousel of 12 images from the Eras Tour, writing in the caption: “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era ... ’”
It was also announced that Swift will appear on her partner NFL player Travis Kelce’s podcast New Heights on Wednesday.
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At 12.12am Swift’s website briefly crashed, before reappearing with scant details about The Life of a Showgirl. The album has no confirmed release date. Swift’s website says it will be shipped before October 13th, with the caveat: “**THIS IS NOT THE RELEASE DATE, OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED**.”
The New Heights podcast later shared a clip of Swift’s appearance, in which she opens a briefcase and takes out a blurred vinyl. “This is my brand new album, The Life of a Showgirl,” she said, while Kelce’s brother and co-host Jason screamed.
The 35-year-old is among the world’s bestselling musicians, selling an estimated 200 million records globally and holds the record for most No 1 albums in the US by a female artist in history. Her global Eras tour became the first billion-dollar tour in history, selling 2.4 million tickets in a single day, and made more than $2 billion over 21 months. Forbes estimated Swift earned $10 million-$13 million (€8.6 million-€11.1 million) a night.
Her last album, 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department, set a streaming record on Spotify – 300 million in one day and 1 billion in five – and made her the first artist in history to secure the top 14 spots on the Billboard Hot 100.
In May, Swift bought back the master recordings to her first six albums, giving her control over her entire catalogue for the first time. The singer signed with her first label, Big Machine, in 2005, at the age of 15, giving them the rights to her master recordings. In 2019, label head Scott Borchetta sold those six albums to music executive Scooter Braun, who sold them to the private equity firm Shamrock Capital for a reported $300 million.
To regain control over her catalogue after the sale to Braun – and to devalue his investment – Swift embarked on a project to re-record all six albums, rebranding each one as “(Taylor’s Version)” and adding “From the Vault” tracks from the original songwriting sessions that had not made it on to the original albums.
“I almost stopped thinking it could ever happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled and then yanked away,” she wrote in a letter to fans in May, after buying her catalogue back from Shamrock Capital. “But that’s all in the past now. All of the music I’ve ever made ... now belongs ... to me.”
[ All of Taylor Swift’s albums ranked, from worst to bestOpens in new window ]
Reputation and Swift’s self-titled debut album, from 2006, are the only albums not to be re-recorded, with fans speculating as to their possible release dates for years. – Guardian
