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

NEW YORK (AP) — Look what you made her do — Taylor Swift has announced her 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”

Swift announced the album on her website shortly after a countdown timer expired at 12:12 a.m. Tuesday. No release date was announced, but her site said vinyl editions of the album would ship before Oct. 13.

Fans have long theorized that Swift’s 12th album would soon arrive. On Monday, Taylor Nation — an official branch of the pop superstar’s marketing team — posted a TikTok slideshow of 12 images with the caption “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era…'” Swift is seen wearing orange in every image.

A special limited vinyl edition of the album will be released in “Portofino orange glitter,” according to a preorder page on her site. A special cassette edition is also available for preorder.

Sensing a pattern, eagle-eyed fans noticed that 12 minutes before Monday’s Taylor Nation post, the popular “New Heights” podcast posted a tease for Wednesday. The show, hosted by Swift’s boyfriend and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce alongside his brother, former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, posted an orange image on social media with a mysterious silhouette that many believed to be Swift.

“The Life of a Showgirl” follows last year’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” announced during the 2024 Grammys and released during her record-breaking tour, which raked in over $2.2 billion across two years and five continents, making it the highest-grossing tour of all time.

The album is also Swift’s first release since she regained control over her entire body of work. In May, the pop star said she purchased her catalog of recordings — originally released through Big Machine Records — from their most recent owner, the private equity firm Shamrock Capital. She did not disclose the amount paid.