Taylor Swift announces new album, The Life Of A Showgirl

NEW YORK – American singer Taylor Swift relishes announcing her albums in dramatic fashion.

On Aug 12, she did it again, revealing the name of her 12th original studio album, The Life Of A Showgirl, when a countdown clock on her website ticked down to 12.12am Eastern time (12.12pm Singapore time).

The 35-year-old did not disclose the release date of the album or any other information about its tracks.

Known for meticulously placing Easter eggs before announcements, Swift’s team set off speculation from her hyper-attentive fan base by posting a carousel of photos on Instagram on Aug 11.

Could the 12 photos, taken at stops on her The Eras Tour, correspond with the singer-songwriter’s 12th studio album? Did the pattern of orange outfits align with Swift’s practice of colour-coding her catalogue?

“Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era...,’” the post’s caption teased.

The announcement coincided with the news that Swift would be making a rare media appearance on the podcast New Heights, which is hosted by her boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce. The episode is slated to be posted on Aug 13.

The fan theorising began to build on Aug 11, when the podcast posted to social media a teaser advertising a “very special” mystery guest in silhouette. Her appearance was confirmed on Aug 11, when the podcast’s social feeds posted a short snippet revealing Swift sitting alongside Travis Kelce.

The decision to appear on New Heights may be more than just favouritism. The Kelce brothers’ show has its own huge fan base. In August, it was ranked 10th in audience reach in the United States.

Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs’ star tight end, has mentioned Swift sparingly on the podcast, which features a crossover of sports and pop culture topics. But every public appearance from the couple has been closely dissected since their relationship became public in 2023.

Swift has been largely quiet since her mammoth world tour ended in December 2024 after traversing five continents over nearly 150 shows.

But she announced in late May that she had

bought back the master recordings of her first six albums

from the investment firm Shamrock Capital, giving her ownership of all of her music videos, concert films, album art and photography and unreleased songs.

It was a momentous deal – worth a reported US$360 million (S$463 million), according to Billboard magazine – that ended a saga over the recordings that began in 2019, when music manager Scooter Braun acquired the catalogue.

Mr Braun sold it to Shamrock the following year, prompting Swift to begin the process of re-recording those works and releasing them as Taylor’s Version.

“All I’ve ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy,” Swift wrote in a letter that announced her purchase.

Her most recent original studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, was released in April 2024 after she announced it while accepting a Grammy.

Though she has kept a low profile, Swift has been a frequent target of US President Donald Trump. She endorsed former US vice-president Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, despite Mr Trump’s posting of artificial intelligence-generated images that falsely suggested that Swift had endorsed him.

Mr Trump later said he preferred the wife of one of Kelce’s teammates, who reportedly liked a social media post supporting the US President. Last week, he took further aim at Swift in a post on Truth Social in which he claimed that her popularity had declined since he disavowed her. NYTIMES