Taylor Swift confirms 12th studio album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’

After an Instagram post of 12 orange-coded Eras Tour outfits and a mysterious countdown on her website, Swift dropped the news in a teaser for boyfriend Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast.

Swifties are already calling Taylor Swift’s new album “TS12” or The Life of a Showgirl, a glittery, old Hollywood kind of name that has fans guessing what it will sound like. The teaser blurred out the cover art, but the full reveal is set to drop when the episode airs on August 13, 7 pm EST, a nod to her lucky number 13.

A new era. But first, a listening assignment 

While the album’s release date is still under wraps, pre-orders on her website are now open and vinyl orders will ship before October 13. That leaves fans just under two months to prep, and she’s already given them homework.

Shortly after the reveal, Swift shared a playlist titled “And, baby, that’s showbiz for you ❤️‍🔥.” The 22-track set pulls from her Red, 1989, and Reputation eras, stacked with Max Martin and Shellback-produced bangers like Shake It Off, Style, Blank Space, and Delicate.

Taylor Swift | YouTube

The “showgirl” vibe isn’t coming out of nowhere. She’s played with it before in her Bejeweled music video, where she performed Dita Von Teese’s iconic martini glass dance alongside the burlesque star herself. On the Eras Tour, she brought a similar vibe in the showgirl-inspired segment for I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, complete with orange feathered fans. And in June 2024, Kelce made headlines when he joined her onstage for that number, adding an unscripted, crowd-pleasing moment to the tour.

Taylor Swift | YouTube

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Travis Kelce appeared onstage and performed with Swift in one of the segments during The Eras Tour | Photo from Getty Images

Swifties, we won “The Great War”

Yes, that’s the title of one of her tracks from her album Midnights.

Photos from @taylornation on Instagram

This next chapter comes just months after Swift achieved one of the hardest-fought victories of her career: reclaiming the master recordings of her first six albums. Back in May, Swift shared that she now owns the master recordings, ending a long and public fight that started in 2019 when Scooter Braun bought her old label.

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The deal means she now has complete control over her work from her 2006 debut “Taylor Swift” up to “Reputation” in 2017, plus all the music videos, concert films, and unreleased songs from those years. In her letter to fans, she called it “the best thing that has ever been ours” and thanked the Eras Tour for making it possible. With over $2 billion in ticket sales, the tour gave her the power and resources to take her music back.

Now, with The Life of a Showgirl confirmed, all that’s left is to wait for the big reveal. In the meantime, the playlist is on loop, the fan theories are getting wilder, and October can’t come soon enough.

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The new lifestyle.