Everything to Know About Taylor Swift’s New Album, <i>The Life of a Showgirl</i>
Taylor Swift has a long history of leaving Easter eggs for her fans, and the past several months have been no exception. From color-coded moments on stage to cryptic social media activity, Swifties have long suspected that the singer’s 12th studio album, nicknamed “TS12” online, was on the way. Now that the announcement is official, here’s what we know so far.
Drumroll, please... Swift revealed that the new album is called The Life of a Showgirl. The news broke in a clip shared by Travis and Jason Kelce’s New Heights podcast. She reveals the cover art to them, but it’s blurred in the footage. The full episode aired at 7 P.M. ET on August 13, her well-known favorite number.
The singer has historically favored one-word names (Lover, folklore, Midnights), but her most recent project, The Tortured Poets Department, broke that pattern.
Swift revealed the cover art the night of her podcast appearance on New Heights. The collage-inspired image, shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, features her in a silver beaded bra top and bracelets while partially submerged in water. The artwork contains hues of turquoise and orange, which the singer used to tease this era of her music.
On the podcast, Swift explained, “This represents the end of my night. So when I’m on tour, I have the same day every single day. ... And my day ends with me in a bathtub, not usually in a bedazzled dress.”
She continued, “I wanted to sort of like glamorize all the different aspects of how that tour felt. And that’s how that felt to like be at the end of the night when all this has gone down. You won’t be able to get to bed till four in the morning after this. But you had to jump through 50 million hoops in this obstacle course that is your show. And you did it. You got two more in a row. But you did it tonight.
“And the reason I wanted to have sort of like an offstage moment as the main album cover is because this album isn’t really about what happened to me on stage. It’s about what I was going through offstage. So I didn’t want to have like the lights are bright, I’m on the stage is the main album cover. It’s just this. This, to me, tells more of what the actual content, lyrically, of the album are.”
The album drops on October 3. Notably, that’s two days before Kelce’s birthday on October 5. Pre-orders are now available on Swift’s website.
In the lead up to this month’s news, eagle-eyed fans have spotted some hints that new music was coming. In May, Swift shared a letter on her official site celebrating that she now owns the masters to her entire discography, a milestone she described as “the best thing that has ever been ours.” Notably, the letter contained the phrase “I was thiiiiiiiiiiiis close” with 12 “i”s, prompting fans to see a link to her 12th studio album.
Adding to the intrigue, Taylor Nation, the singer’s official fan engagement account, has been hosting listening parties for each of her past albums in chronological order; some hypothesized the rollout was counting down to a major announcement.
On August 11, Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce, teased a “VERY special guest” for his New Heights podcast; hours later, the podcast confirmed (with a very flirty clip) that the guest is indeed Miss Taylor Alison Swift, which meant some big news was definitely on the way.
Swift revealed the 12 songs on The Life of a Showgirl on Instagram:
- “The Fate of Ophelia”
- “Elizabeth Taylor”
- “Opalite”
- “Father Figure”
- “Eldest Daughter”
- “Ruin the Friendship”
- “Actually Romantic”
- “Wi$h Li$t”
- “Wood”
- “CANCELLED!”
- “Honey”
- “The Life of a Showgirl” feat. Sabrina Carpenter
Swift also noted that “there’s no other songs coming.”
With a dozen tracks, Showgirl is Swift’s shortest album. Her past projects have ranged from 1989’s 13 tracks to Tortured Poets’ 31.
The Life of a Showgirl took shape while Swift was on the Eras Tour in Europe, which ran in the spring and summer of 2024, she revealed on New Heights.
“I’d do like three shows in a row. I’d have three days off. I’d fly to Sweden, go back to the tour and actually like working on this, I was physically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating,” Swift explained.
Kelce added she was “literally living the life of a showgirl.”
While we wait to hear new songs, Swift revealed that the producers on the album are Max Martin, Shellback, and herself. “The three of us have made some of my favorite songs that I've ever done before,” she said on her New Heights podcast appearance. She named “We Are Never Getting Back Together,” “I Knew You Were Trouble,” “22,” “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” “Style,” and “Wildest Dreams” as a few of the standouts.
She added, “And so basically, we’ve never actually made an album before where it's just the three of us. There's no other collaborators. It’s just the three of us making a focused album... It felt like catching lightning in a bottle, honestly. We hadn’t worked together in like seven or eight years.” She continued, “they’re just geniuses in different avenues, in different ways.” She recalled telling Martin, “I essentially said to him, ‘I want to be as proud of an album as I am of the Eras Tour and for the same reasons,’ you know?”
Swift later said that the album “just comes from like the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life. And so that effervescence has come through on this record.”
Kelce even jumped in to say the new music “a lot more upbeat and it’s a lot more like fun, pop, like excitement. I think it’s a complete 180 from a lot of the songs on Torture Poets for sure.” Swift agreed with a nod to her boyfriend: “Life is more upbeat.”
As for the theme of The Life of a Showgirl, Swift explained, “I would say it’s everything that was going on behind the curtain.” Her main goal for the album was to create “melodies that were so infectious that you're almost angry at it. And lyrics that are just as vivid, but crisp and focused and completely intentional.”
Shortly after she announced the LP on August 12, Swift shared a playlist called “And, baby, that’s showbiz for you ❤️🔥,” hinting at the vibe of The Life of a Showgirl. It comprises of 22 songs from her past albums Red, 1989, and Reputation. Tracks include, “22,” “Bad Blood,” “Blank Space,” “Delicate,” “I Knew You Were Trouble,” “Shake It Off,” “Style,” “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” and more. Notably, they are all original recordings of the songs, not re-recordings, except for “Message in a Bottle (Taylor’s Version)” from Red (Taylor’s Version).
Fans noted that the songs are all produced by pop hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback, foreshadowing that Swift worked with them again for the upcoming record. Check out all the songs below:
Swift said that there are many photos—and even a poem—in her vinyl. The luxurious, showgirl-inspired imagery was photographed by Mert & Marcus, “two of my favorite photographers,” the singer said, who also captured the cover art for Reputation.
“I'm so happy with the way that the photos came out for this one,” she said on New Heights. Later, she gushed about the images, “I was so proud of the music and so excited about this project from a creative standpoint that I was just like, all hands on deck, we’re going all out. This is a full send. Like, I care about this record more than I can even overstate.”
She has—multiple times. In the singer’s Easter egg-filled “Bejeweled” music video, from her Midnights era, Swift performs Dita Von Teese’s famous martini glass dance alongside the burlesque star. In a different scene, she dresses up as a showgirl in a glittery two-piece set with, notably, an orange light shining on her:
After releasing her last album, The Tortured Poets Department, Swift also added a showgirl-inspired performance to the Eras Tour, set to her song “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” In behind-the-scenes footage from rehearsals, Swift’s background dancers can be seen holding orange fans:
And, most importantly, back in June 2024, Travis Kelce joined Swift onstage for this very number:
This new era has been defined by the citrusy hue. During select Eras Tour performances, Swift swapped in orange confetti and outfits, a shade not tied to any of her existing eras, leading fans to believe it could be connected to the theme or visual identity of her next album. That theory only grew after a Taylor Nation Instagram post on August 11 showed 12 photos of Swift in orange outfits, captioned, “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era…’ ❤️🔥” The intial teaser for her New Heights podcast appearance was also set against an orange backdrop.
Swift explained the color choice on New Heights, saying, “It feels like kind of energetically how my life has felt. And this album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during this tour, which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant.”
This story will be updated.
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