American singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift, has revealed details of her highly anticipated 12th album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl’, which is set for release on 3 October and features a collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter on the title track.
Swift shared the album cover and tracklist on Wednesday night, coinciding with her appearance on her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s podcast New Heights, hosted alongside his brother, former NFL player Jason Kelce.
The album, which includes a cover of George Michael’s 1987 hit Father Figure, consists of 12 tracks, a nod to this being Swift’s 12th studio release.
She told the Kelce brothers that the record was created in Europe during her global Eras tour, reflecting her experiences and life while on the road for two years.
The Eras tour, which became the first billion-dollar tour in history, earned more than US$2 billion over 21 months.
“This album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during this tour, which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant,” Swift said. “I’m so proud of it. And it comes from the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life, so that effervescence has come through on this record. So as you said, bangers.”
Unlike her previous album, The Tortured Poets Department, Swift confirmed she would not be releasing a second surprise album immediately afterwards.
“There are no other songs coming … with Tortured Poets Department, I was like, ‘Here is a data dump of everything I have thought, felt, experienced in two or three years. Here’s 31 songs.’ This is 12. There’s not a 13th, there’s not other ones coming. This is the record I’ve been wanting to make for a very long time,” she stated.
The track listing is:
1. The Fate of Ophelia
2. Elizabeth Taylor
3. Opalite
4. Father Figure
5. Eldest Daughter
6. Ruin the Friendship
7. Actually Romantic
8. Wi$h Li$t
9. Wood
10. Cancelled!
11. Honey
12. The Life of a Showgirl featuring Sabrina Carpenter
The album also marks the return of Swedish producers Max Martin and Shellback, who previously worked on Swift’s Red, 1989, and Reputation.
Swift described them as “geniuses” and credited them for producing some of her favorite songs, including Shake It Off and Blank Space.
Fans have long speculated that Swift’s next songs might reflect her relationship with Kelce, publicly confirmed in 2023. She explained the careful curation behind the album, “Every single song is on this album for hundreds of reasons. You couldn’t take one out and it be the same album, you couldn’t add one. It is just right. That focus and that kind of discipline with creating an album and keeping the bar really high is something I have wanted to do for a very long time.”
“I tend to love to write lots and lots of music, so it’s a temptation to release lots of music,” she added. “But I wanted to do an album that was so focused on quality and the theme and everything fitting together like a perfect puzzle that these 12 songs for my 12th album – I feel we achieved that.”
Her main aims for The Life of a Showgirl were “melodies that were so infectious that you’re almost angry at it” and lyrics that were “just as vivid but crisp and focused and completely intentional.”
Swift, known for dropping subtle hints before album announcements, followed suit with her latest release.
On Monday, Taylor Nation, part of her official marketing team, shared a carousel of 12 images from the Eras tour on Instagram, captioned, “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era …’” A countdown then appeared on her website to 12.12am eastern time on 12 August, transforming the site into a glittering orange before briefly crashing.
The 35-year-old singer is among the world’s bestselling musicians, with an estimated 200 million records sold globally, and holds the record for most No. 1 albums in the US by a female artist.
Her previous album, The Tortured Poets Department, set a Spotify streaming record – 300 million streams in one day and one billion in five, while making her the first artist in history to secure the top 14 spots on the Billboard Hot 100.
