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Pop star Taylor Swift is set to release her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, tomorrow, October 3.
The announcement came during an appearance on the New Heights podcast, hosted by her fiancé Travis Kelce and his brother Jason.
The album has already surpassed five million pre-saves on Spotify, eclipsing Taylor’s own record for The Tortured Poets Department.
The Life of a Showgirl draws inspiration from Taylor’s own life as an entertainer, with the writing and recording process unfolding during her travels around the world for The Eras Tour.
The tour, which began on March 17, 2023, in Arizona, US, concluded on December 8, 2024, in Vancouver, Canada.
“It was something I was working on while I was in Europe on The Eras Tour,” Taylor recalled.
“I’d do like three shows in a row, I’d have three days off, I’d fly to Sweden, go back to the tour. I was physically exhausted at this point in the tour but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating,” she added.
Taylor explained that the album’s aesthetic – right down to its colour scheme and physical production – was designed to reflect the emotions conveyed in the songs.
“It feels like kind of energetically how my life has felt,” she said, explaining the album’s orange and teal colour theme.
“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.”
To further emphasise the energy of the album, she chose a high-gloss finish for the cover – a first for her.
“We wanted this album to feel really luxurious and kind of as a nod to the luxury that a showgirl puts on when she’s on stage,” she added.
The body of work also marks the creative talent’s return to the studio with producers Max Martin and Shellback, who helped create some of her biggest hits including Bad Blood, Blank Space and Style.
The 35-year-old American singer is known for experimenting with many genres throughout her career.
She debuted in 2006, at the age of 14, as a country singer with her self-titled album, and later blended in pop elements for her album Fearless in 2008, followed by Speak Now (2010) which had rock influences.
In 2014, she made a complete departure from the country genre with her fifth album 1989, marking her artistic rebrand as a pop singer. However, she continued to make the hip-hop infused project Reputation in 2017 and critically-acclaimed folk albums Folklore and Evermore in 2020.
