Taylor Swift new album: The Life of a Showgirl release date, easter eggs, New Heights Podcast, and everything we know | Explainer
On Tuesday August 12, the world was shocked and delighted to hear the news Taylor Swift has been back in the studio (did she ever really leave?).
After spending hours teasing fans by scattering Easter eggs, the singer finally announced her new album The Life of a Showgirl.
We don’t have too many details at the moment, but we do know a few things.
Keep scrolling to find out everything we know so far about The Life of a Showgirl.
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What is Taylor’s new album?
Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album (TS12) will be The Life of a Showgirl.
She announced the album on August 12 at 12:12pm EST (2:12pm AEST).
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Is Taylor Swift going on the New Heights podcast?
Yes! Taylor Swift is going to be a guest on the New Heights podcast.
The podcast, hosted by Swift’s partner Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce, teased the popstar’s appearance in a social media post made early Tuesday morning.
“92%ers, we’re coming back early for a special episode with a VERY special guest,” read the caption along with a photo with a blacked-out silhouette in the middle.
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In the image Travis clearly looked like he was sitting next to someone and Jason wore an Eras tour shirt. The background was a sparkly orange (the colour of the new era) and it was posted at 9:12am (TS12!).
Just a few hours later another post confirmed Swift would be the guest when a clip of she and Travis recording the podcast was shared to socials.
“Taylor’s about to do a f*cking podcast!” the caption read.
We don’t yet know what Swift will chat to the brothers about or how long she will appear in the episode, but we do know we’ll be getting some more details on the new album!
Will there be features on the album?
Nothing has been confirmed – but something has been teased.
Fans are speculating Sabrina Carpenter will collaborate with Swift for a song on the new album after she featured in the Easter eggs shared in the lead-up.
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When Taylor Nation, Swift’s official fan account, shared a post teasing a new eras with 12 photos, all featuring Swift wearing orange, the last picture showed her on stage with Sabrina Carpenter during the Eras Tour.
In the picture Swift wore a bright orange dress, so it’s possible she’s been teasing this collab for longer than we think.
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What does the orange mean?
Fans have long suspected Swift would release an album with an orange theme (although it was expected to be called Karma), but if we’re right about the contents of the album, this colour could have a deeper meaning.
Plenty of Swifites are expecting an album full of glittery love songs dedicated to Travis Kelce.
Now stick with us here, but Kelce is an NFL star who plays for the Kansas City Chiefs, a team whose colours are red and yellow.
What do you get when you mix red and yellow together? Orange!
But there’s another theory that seems much more up Swift’s alley.
Along with orange, mint green seems to be the other colour set to be used in the album rollout.
Fans have speculated the colour combination could be symbolic of the oxidisation of a copper statue, comparing it to someone losing their shine after years of being subject to public scrutiny.
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Who is the producer on the album?
It hasn’t been confirmed, but we do have a pretty strong suspicion.
After working exclusively with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner for about eight years, it seems Swift is switching gears.
Following the album announcement, the singer released a playlist on Spotify titled And, baby, that’s show business for you, consisting of 22 songs.
Each of those 22 songs were produced by Max Martin and Shellback, suggesting to fans that the duo are the team behind The Life of a Showgirl.
When will The Life of a Showgirl be released?
Swift hasn’t yet announced a release date for this album.
All we know is pre-orders of the vinyls and CDs will ship before October 13.
What will the new album be about?
We don’t exactly know, but the running theory seems to be a glittery pop album full of love songs dedicated to Travis.
The use of orange, hearts and flames as an indicator it could be a Lover 2.0, but make it sexier.
We’re thinking a whole album full of bops similar to False God and Dress, and we’re definitely not complaining about it.
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What Easter eggs did she drop in the lead up?
So Swift has actually been teasing this album for years, but we only managed to catch on the day of the announcement.
The first major clue was when New Heights teased that Swift would be a guest on the podcast, with Taylor Nation sharing their own post exactly 12 minutes later, with 12 photos of Swift all wearing orange.
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“Thinking about when she said “See you next era…” ❤️🔥 ,” the caption read.
Throughout the day there were several hints uncovered, including the fact Taylor Nation used no audio on their post (they usually use a song of Swift’s corresponding to the era), Swift’s record label was liking and commenting on posts, and the sparkly orange theme seemed to be everywhere.
Some Swifties were even able to uncover the image used in the New Heights teaser as a picture from Swift’s Directors on Directors interview with Variety (potentially hinting at a music video or documentary announcement?).
But the real giveaway was when the Lover singer’s website was turned into a sparkling orange countdown leading to 12:12AM EST (2:12PM AEDT).
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