The wait is over a Taylor Swift announced her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, will be released on 3 October this year.
The news broke at midnight in the UK during her appearance on boyfriend Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast, which she co-hosted with Travis and his brother Jason. The reveal coincided with a coordinated social media campaign and a countdown on her website.
The two-hour podcast episode became an event in itself, with Swift not only confirming the release date but unveiling the full 12-song track list.
It includes a title track collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter, who opened for Swift during The Eras Tour.
The album was produced solely with Max Martin and Shellback, Swedish hitmakers behind several of Swift’s Reputation and 1989 singles, marking the first time the trio have made a complete record together.
“We’ve never actually made an album before where it’s just the three of us,” Swift told the Kelce brothers. “There’s no other collaborators. It’s just the three of us making a focused album where… it felt like catching lightning in a bottle.”
Swift confirmed that The Life of a Showgirl will not follow her recent trend of extended editions. “There’s no other songs coming,” she said. “It’s not like with Tortured Poets Department when I was like, ‘Here’s a data dump… 31 songs.’ This is 12. There’s not a 13th. This is the record I’ve been wanting to make for a very long time.”
Much of the album was written while on her European tour earlier this year, with Swift describing herself as “physically exhausted” but “mentally stimulated” by the process, saying she was “literally living the life of a show girl.”
While fans eagerly dissected the track list, the podcast episode also touched on lighter moments, including the story of how Swift and Kelce first met, and playful hints about Easter eggs hidden in her upcoming work.
Within hours, both the album title and the New Heights episode were trending worldwide, cementing the podcast as a key part of the announcement’s impact.
