Taylor Swift is back, and live from…Travis Kelce’s podcast studio in Kansas City?
It’s true! After an announcement on Monday night that Swift would soon appear on New Heights, Kelce’s show with his brother, Jason, a clip shared on Swift’s and New Heights’ social feeds showed Swift with both Kelces, wielding a special surprise: her next album, titled The Life of a Showgirl. Though both the cover and official release were, for the moment, under wraps, the record was made available to preorder.
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The news was preceded, in typical TAS fashion, by a few big hints: First came a post from Taylor Nation, the official Instagram account of Swift’s management team, with a 12-image carousel of the singer in orange ensembles, to the sweet strains of 2020’s “August.” The caption? “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era…’”
Next, the New Heights Instagram account teased an episode with a “VERY” special guest—capitalization pulled directly from the caption. (The post’s comments were quickly filled with fans fairly confident about who that guest would be.) Then came a video featuring Travis Kelce and Swift herself, who exclaimed: “We’re about to do a f***ing podcast!” The reveal of the album’s title followed on August 12 at 12:12 a.m. ET.
So, what’s the story behind The Life of a Showgirl? And what’s with all the orange, for that matter?
Here’s what Swift’s revealed so far: A cover that features the singer bejeweled (of course!) in a bathtub, which feels like an homage to iconic music video scenes from both Reputation and Midnights. And then there’s the 12-song tracklist, which includes one called “The Life of a Showgirl” featuring Sabrina Carpenter, and others titled “Elizabeth Taylor,” “CANCELLED!” and “Father Figure.” More to come—but I do have to say, there are a lot of 12s going on here.
