Taylor Swift: What do we know about the singer's new album?

Taylor Swift has announced her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl , after an intense 24 hours of speculation from fans (known as "swifties").

The rumors began Monday morning (August 11), when the singer's marketing team posted a gallery of 12 photos with the caption: "thinking about when she said 'See you next era…'" (in reference to the name of the singer's previous tour, The Eras Tour).

In the following hours, the singer's boyfriend, American football player Travis Kelce, confirmed that she would participate in his podcast, New Heights , at 7:00 pm in the American East Coast time zone (8:00 pm in Brasília).

Swift's 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department , released in 2024, broke Spotify's record for most streamed album in a single day.

The title of the new album , "The Life of a Showgirl," was announced on social media with a clip from Kelce's podcast. The album was also made available for pre-order on Swift's official website.

Fans who pre-ordered the new album received a message saying it would ship before October 13th, but there was a warning that this is "not the release date."

The official release date of the new work has not yet been confirmed.

Taylor Swift has accumulated a series of awards in her career: she was named Artist of the Decade by American Music Awards, is the most awarded artist of all time at the MTV Video Music Awards and has won 14 Grammys, including an unprecedented four Album of the Year awards.

After years of making headlines during her record-breaking Eras tour, Swift appeared to have had a relatively quiet start to 2025.

In May of this year, it was announced that she had reacquired the rights to her first six albums, ending a long and celebrated dispute over ownership of her music.

The saga began in June 2019, when music manager Scooter Braun purchased Swift's former record label, Big Machine, and with it, all of Taylor Swift's music, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation.

Swift had personal objections to the deal, blaming Braun for complicity in what she called "incessant and manipulative bullying" against her by singer Kanye West, one of the businessman's clients.

In the music industry, the owner of the recording rights controls how it is distributed and licensed.

The artist still receives royalties (amounts paid for the use of the songs), but controlling the original recordings offers protection over how the work is used in the future. This includes distributing it to streaming services, pressing new physical CDs and vinyl, creating a special collection, or licensing music for films or video games.

After selling her recording rights, Swift promised fans she would regain control of her work and re-record all six albums, which became known as Taylor's Versions. To date, she has re-released four of the six original albums.

Swift announced the purchase of her master recordings in an emotional letter to fans, in which she wrote that her last two albums would be re-released "when the time is right."

It's unknown how much it cost Swift to acquire her music rights, but the catalog was previously sold for $300 million in 2020.

The singer ended the Eras tour in December 2024, after bringing together around 10 million people in 149 shows in 53 cities, including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (a tour marked by the death of a Brazilian fan at a show in November 2023).

In the UK, she performed to nearly 1.2 million people, including eight nights at Wembley Stadium. The tour generated an estimated £1 billion (approximately R$7 billion) in revenue for the British economy and was the impetus for Swift's official billionaire status.

In 2023, Forbes magazine reported that Swift became the first female musician to earn $1 billion (approximately R$5.4 billion) solely from songwriting and performing.

Half of his fortune came from music royalties and touring, while the rest came from the growing value of his music catalog, including his re-recordings.

Revisiting old material also inspired Swift's career-spanning Eras tour, which grossed more than $2 billion in ticket sales between 2023 and 2024.

Change in 'media approach'?

Announcing her new album on her current boyfriend's podcast is an interesting move for Swift, as much of her songwriting and back catalog deals with her past relationships.

It was widely reported—though never confirmed—that her latest album detailed her breakup with The 1975 singer Matty Healy. Other exes, including Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal, and John Mayer, have also been mentioned by fans as song subjects in the past.

The Guardian's deputy music editor, Laura Snapes, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday (12/08) that the topic of "relationships" may have returned to the agenda.

"There's a leaked photo, supposedly, of the inside of the vinyl going around, where you can see some blurry, out-of-focus lyrics," Snapes noted. "And there seems to be some stuff about love."

"There might be something about the situation with her old record label... it seems she hasn't stopped singing about it yet."

The star, she emphasized, "is famous for not giving interviews." So everything her fans hear from her "is direct," whether through social media or comments made onstage between songs at her shows.

A new album is therefore like "an update on her life — what she's been thinking, what she's been feeling," Snapes said, adding that it's "very interesting" that Swift has done the update in this way.

She says revealing details about the new release on her boyfriend's podcast "feels pretty loose — a way we don't get to see her in public."

"And I wonder if this will signal a shift in her media approach, or if it's just her boyfriend's podcast?"