Earlier this evening (Monday, August 11), Taylor Swift updated her website with a clock counting down to 12:12 a.m. on August 12. Now, she’s announced a new album. The Life of a Showgirl will mark Swift’s 12th studio album and follow-up to 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department and its extended edition, The Anthology. It’s currently available to pre-order on her website, though a formal release date has yet to be shared.
On Wednesday, Swift will appear on New Heights, the podcast hosted by her boyfriend—Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce—and his brother, Jason Kelce. In a clip from the episode now posted to her Instagram, she reveals a mint green briefcase with the letters “TS” in orange lettering. “I want to show you something,” Swift says. “This is my brand new album, The Life of a Showgirl.” However, the cover art is blurred out. Watch the clip below.
In May, a re-recorded version of “Look What You Made Me Do,” the lead single from Swift’s 2017 album Reputation, appeared in The Handmaid’s Tale’s final season. However, fans who anticipated the imminent announcement of Reputation (Taylor’s Version) were proven wrong when, later that month, Swift shared that she had bought back the master recordings for her first six studio albums, which had been acquired by Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings LLC in 2019 and sold to Los Angeles private equity firm Shamrock Capital the following year. According to Swift, a re-recorded version of her self-titled debut album is complete, but Reputation (Taylor’s Version) may remain unfinished.
The final show of Swift’s Eras Tour took place on December 8, 2025. The nearly two-year, 149-concert undertaking reportedly sold over $2 billion in tickets, making it the highest-grossing tour of all time. The Eras Tour spawned a companion book and a three-hour movie. At the 2025 Grammys, Swift was nominated in six categories; she took home no trophies, but did present Beyoncé with the award for Best Country Album.
Swift announced The Tortured Poets Department onstage at the 2024 Grammy Awards after winning Best Pop Vocal Album for Midnights. It debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart, marking her 14th No. 1 album, broke the record for most weekly vinyl LP sales (a record previously held by Swift herself), and became the first album to hit one billion streams on Spotify within a week of its release. Swift is currently tied with Jay-Z for the most No. 1 albums as a solo artist.
Read about Taylor Swift’s 2020 album Folklore at No. 67 on “The 100 Best Albums of the 2020s So Far.”
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