Taylor Swift is in her showgirl era.
The pop superstar just announced her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl — and if you want to know more, you’re gonna have to stay tuned to the New Heights podcast on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET. Swift made the big announcement on her social media accounts at exactly 12:12 a.m. on August 12, naturally.
In the announcement, a clip from the podcast, which is hosted by her boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother, Jason, shows Swift revealing the cover for the album — which is conveniently blurred out — as the brothers freak out. It was revealed earlier in the day that Swift would be on the latest episode of the podcast, which is set to drop Wednesday.
“Posted at 12:12 on the 12th. ❤️🔥 Tay’s 12th album is called………pre pre-order now at TaylorSwift.com,” the caption of the post reads.
A countdown on her official website beforehand now leads to preorder pages for a vinyl, a CD with a poster, and a cassette, and a note on each page tells fans the items ship “before Oct. 13” — but, the real release date will be revealed at a later date.
Seemingly to celebrate the announcement, Spotify billboards seen in Nashville and New York on Monday night pointed fans to a playlist by Swift titled “And, baby, that’s show business for you.” This is notable for two reasons — that title could refer to lyrics on the new album, and the songs on the playlist all were produced or co-produced by Max Martin and Shellback, the duo who previously worked on Swift’s Red, 1989, and Reputation albums, possibly hinting at Showgirl‘s sound.
The Life of a Showgirl marks the first new record for Swift since she revealed in May 2025 that she’d successfully bought back the full rights and masters to her first six albums, therefore making her the owner of her entire discography.
It’s also the first since her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, released in April 2024, and since her massive, world-spanning Eras Tour ended in December of that year.
Since the tour ended, Swifties everywhere have done what they do best — looking into every caption, every outfit, and every word out of the Grammy winner’s mouth to glean some clues about what could be coming next. To that end, when Swift announced the masters deal, a letter on her website explaining the news used 12 of the letter “i” in one line that read, “All the times I was thiiiiiiiiiiiis close.”
And, in an Instagram Stories caption celebrating friend Selena Gomez’s album I Said I Love You First, Swift similarly used 12 of the letter “d,” writing, “OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDD.” All of this led Swifties to believe a 12th studio album was imminent.
Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty
Taylor Swift performing on stage in Milan, Italy on July 13, 2024.
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Speculation kicked into overdrive on Monday when the Swift-affiliated social media account Taylor Nation shared an Instagram post with 12 photos, using the caption, “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era…’ ❤️🔥 .”
Around the same time, the New Heights Instagram account shared news of an unexpected special episode with a “a VERY special guest” set for Aug. 13 (13, of course, being Swift’s favorite number). The picture included in the post featured a very Swiftian outline of said guest, and both Kelce brothers appeared to be wearing Swift merch in the snap. Later in the day, Swift’s official website updated its style with a countdown for 12:12 a.m. In other words, those were all the invisible strings pointing us to the new era.
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