Taylor Swift’s new era is on the horizon. Are you ready for it?
After teasing fans with a cryptic social media post, the pop star announced her twelfth studio album on her website early Tuesday. Swift’s website showed pre-orders for “The Life of A Showgirl” with no other information available.
Swift’s social media profile pictures also changed to a mint green rectangle with an orange lock emblazoned in the center. It’s the same image in place of an album cover on her site.
The pre-orders will ship before Oct. 13, but the website said that is “not a release date,” adding that the official date will be announced later.
A countdown to the announcement first appeared on Swift’s website three hours before the news landed. Fans, who are used to Swift’s penchant for teasing new albums, were encouraged to stay up until 12:12 a.m. ET.
The site appeared to crash for some users once the countdown expired.
Earlier in the day, Swift’s fans — known as Swifties — went into a frenzy after the Instagram account for “New Heights,” teased a major guest for its next episode. The podcast is hosted by Swift’s boyfriend Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, and his brother, retired NFL star Jason Kelce.
Jason Kelce wore a shirt with Swift’s face on it and the background of the post was a glitter orange that matched the countdown to her website. Some fans joked that they could recognize Swift’s silhouette anywhere.
The podcast’s social media page later confirmed Swift would be the guest by posting a video clip of her sitting with her boyfriend as he recorded the show.
“We’re about to do a f—— podcast,” Swift exclaimed.
Another clip was posted at 12:12 a.m. of Swift revealing the new album to the brothers.
“This is my new brand new album, ‘The Life of a Show Girl,” Swift said, as Jason Kelce screamed in excitement.
The “New Heights” Instagram post coincided with another teaser post from Taylor Nation, a social media account affiliated with Swift’s team.
Taylor Nation shared a carousel of 12 photos on Instagram featuring Swift during the Eras Tour performing in orange outfits. The caption read, “Thinking about when she said “See you next era…”
Tuesday is also Aug. 12, which added fuel to the rampant online speculation about the news. As one fan wrote on X, “the twelves are twelving.”
Swift’s twelfth album is the first to be released after the “Love Story” singer gained ownership of her entire catalog, a music career that spans nearly 20 years.
She announced in May that she was able to purchase the masters of her first six records from Shamrock Capital. Swift was unable to purchase the rights before her first label, Big Machine Records, was sold in 2019 to a holding company partially owned by music manager Scooter Braun.
Braun later sold Swift’s catalog to Shamrock Capital, after Swift publicly declared she would re-record those six albums to keep ownership of her life’s work. She released four of the six albums prior to being able to buy the masters back, each reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
The announcement also comes months after Swift concluded her Eras Tour in December 2024. The tour, which ran for nearly two years and hit 50 cities on five continents for 149 shows, grossed more than any other on record. The pop sensation took fans through a journey of all her albums during the three hour set, then re-did the entire show following the release of her eleventh album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”
Swift’s debut album in 2006 is the only one of her eleven studio albums to never reach No. 1 on the chart, though it did break the top five at its peak.
