Taylor Swift announces 12th studio album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl’
By MARIA SHERMAN NEW YORK AP Look what you made her do Taylor Swift has reported her th studio album The Life of a Showgirl Swift broadcasted the album on her website shortly after a countdown timer expired at a m Tuesday No release date was disclosed but her site noted vinyl editions of the album would ship before Oct Fans have long theorized that Swift s th album would soon arrive On Monday Taylor Nation an official branch of the pop superstar s marketing association posted a TikTok slide show of images with the caption Thinking about when she reported See you next era Swift is seen wearing orange in every image A special limited vinyl edition of the album will be published in portofino orange glitter according to a pre-order page on her site Sensing a pattern eagle-eyed fans noticed that minutes earlier the popular New Heights podcast posted a tease for Wednesday The show hosted by Swift s boyfriend and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce alongside his brother former Eagles center Jason Kelce posted an orange image on social media with a mysterious silhouette countless believing to be Swift Swift also communicated early Tuesday that she would appear on the podcast and a teaser video posted about her appearance evidenced her pulling the album from a briefcase The actual album artwork just as it is on her website is blurred The Life of a Showgirl follows last year s The Tortured Poets Department revealed during the Grammys and distributed during her record-breaking tour which raked in over billion across two years and five continents making it the highest-grossing tour of all time The album is also her first release since Swift regained control over her entire body of work In May that pop star explained she purchased her catalog of recordings originally published through Big Machine Records from their greater part newest owner the private equity firm Shamrock Capital She did not disclose the amount In fresh years Swift has been rerecording and releasing her first six albums in an attempt to regain control of her music The project was instigated by Hybe America CEO Scooter Braun s purchase and sale of her early catalog and represents Swift s effort to control her own songs and how they re used Previous Taylor s Version releases have been more than conventional re-recordings arriving with new from the vault music Easter eggs and visuals that deepen understanding of her work So far there have been four rerecorded albums beginning with Fearless Taylor s Version and Red Taylor s Version in All four have been massive commercial and cultural successes each one debuting at No on the Billboard Swift s last rerecording Taylor s Version arrived in October just four months after the release of Speak Now Taylor s Version That was the same year Swift claimed the record for the woman with the largest part No albums in history
