If you woke up this morning as a Taylor Swift fan, you likely chose joy as your theme of the day. We all knew that the pop queen would have no need to create a Taylor's Version of Reputation because before she started re-recording the songs, she had purchased back the masters for those songs.
We might have thought that Swift would take a needed break. After more than a year of being on the road, her Era tour came to an end. She had released an album, The Tortured Poets Department, earlier in 2024, and maybe she would enjoy life.
But very likely part of what makes life enjoyable for Taylor Swift is making music. She doesn't do it only to make money. She is an artist, and she has tunes aching to be made and heard. That is good for the rest of us.
What we know so far about Taylor Swift's upcoming The Life of a Showgirl
The best news we will probably get this week is that Swift announced she will be releasing a new album soon. The record will be called The Life of a Showgirl, and pre-orders on her official website say items will ship ahead of October 13. As the record is her 12th studio album, and Swift likes to play with numbers, there is a decent chance the new album comes out on October 12.
To be sure, that is just a guess. We might get an actual release date when Swift appears on her boyfriend's podcast. The latest New Heights podcast episode, which is hosted by Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (Swift's beau) and his brother, Jason, will be available on Wednesday, August 13, at 7 pm ET.
In the teaser clip for the episode, Swift officially announces the new record and shows an album cover, but it is blurred out. One could expect that in the episode, the album artwork will be unveiled. We don't know whether the release date will be, but why not?
Interestingly, after the official Instagram accounts of Taylor Swift and New Heights showed the clip teasing her appearance and the new record, Swift shared a playlist on Spotify of some of her past songs. All of the songs were from original records, and all were produced by Max Martin and Shellback.
This would seemingly imply that Max Martin and Shellback will also produce The Life of a Showgirl. This means Taylor Swift could be taking a break from long-term collaborator Jack Antonoff.
One thing we can be sure of: The new album's color theme will be orange. As part of the countdown on her website for the announcement of the new record, there were loads of photos of Swift dressed in the color. The pre-order of the album also shows it to be orange. It's a new era. Or Taylor Swift is about to announce she is a huge fan of the University of Tennessee.