Taylor Swift's new album 'The Life of a Showgirl' has fans already sleuthing
Taylor Swift announced her upcoming 12th studio album on Tuesday and the vigilante sh*t has already begun among sleuthing fans.
The pop icon appeared in a clip from her partner Travis Kelce's New Heights podcast, revealing her latest era, The Life of a Showgirl, by pulling a blurred-out vinyl from a personalised suitcase. The post was scheduled for 12:12 a.m. on Aug. 12 for Swift's 12th album, to follow The Tortured Poets Department released in April 2024.
"So, I wanted to show you something," she says in the clip to Kelce and his co-host brother Jason Kelce. "This is my brand new album, The Life of a Showgirl."
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On Monday, Swift had posted an album tease on Instagram with a carousel of images from the artist's history-making Eras Tour with the caption, "Thinking about when she said 'See you next era…' ❤️🔥" In each image, Swift is wearing an orange-hued costume, now the brand palette for The Life of a Showgirl.
Essentially, you're about to see a lot of orange in your feed. The Empire State Building, Swift's social media pages, and Swift's website have pivoted to the album's branding of sparkling orange and greenish cyan, and fans can now preorder the vinyl, cassette, or CD versions.
Preorders ship before Oct. 13, but the website states this is not the release date for The Life of a Showgirl, which is yet to be announced.
Spotted by Billboard, Swift also launched a Spotify playlist named And, baby, that’s show business for you to accompany Tuesday's announcement. There's 22 songs on the playlist from Swift's previous albums like Red, 1989, and reputation, and the publisher notes they're all tracks produced by Max Martin and Shellback, possibly hinting at their involvement in The Life of a Showgirl.
As is the custom for Swifties with a new album release, the fans are in full sleuth mode. Some are drawing lines between what Swift said during the Eras Tour to invite Sabrina Carpenter onstage, and what Carpenter has posted on Instagram, to suggest she may feature on the album.
It's time to red yarn wall it, people. No one Poirots like a Taylor Swift fan. A good starting point will likely be the full New Heights episode, which lands on Wednesday at 7pm ET.
UPDATE: Aug. 12, 2025, 12:48 p.m. UTC Added Billboard's keen-eyed spot of Taylor Swift's new Spotify playlist.
Topics Music
Shannon Connellan is Mashable's UK Editor based in London, formerly Mashable's Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives in the Creel House. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror.
