Taylor Swift‘s 12th studio album is officially coming, with the artist announcing the news today on Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce’s podcast, New Heights. “So, I need to show you something,” she says to the Kelce brothers before pulling a blurred out vinyl out of her new album, The Life of a Showgirl.

Taylor Swift’s surprise appearance on New Heights, which will air on Wednesday US time, comes after days of meticulously crafted clues that have sent Swifties into sleuthing overdrive. On August 12 2025, Taylor Nation (the Instagram account run by Swift’s marketing team) dropped a 12‑image Instagram carousel featuring the singer in various orange looks, captioned: “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era…’”.

Almost immediately, the podcast teased a “VERY special guest,” showing a silhouetted figure against a glittery orange backdrop, while simultaneously, Swift’s website went live with a shimmering orange countdown, set to expire at 12:12 am ET (or 2:12pm AEST).

As the timer ran down, fans around the world (and in the ELLE Australia office) all refreshed furiously to find out what the big news is. And after a few crashes, the website reloaded to reveal pre-order information for the new album. So far, you can pre-order The Life of a Showgirl on vinyl, cassette, and a CD with poster, to complete the nostalgic set.

There’s no word yet on when exactly it will be released.

To give you some background, fans have long dubbed themselves the best online sleuths, and that’s for very good reason. Taylor Swift does nothing by accident, with every post, ourfit, date, and colour palette beinga potential clue in her meticulously crafted mythology. The sudden infusion of orange across her official channels — Instagram and website, specifically — has been interpreted as a clear announcement of a new “orange era,” which we now know is the colour of her next studio album.

The numerology hasn’t gone unnoticed: 12 photos, a countdown, and an episode scheduled for August 13 (the most significant number in the Swift-verse) all fuelled speculation that the formal announcement could land during the New Heights episode on Wednesday. Of course, she always keeps us guessing and dropped it early.

What’s extra interesting is that she’s made the big announcement one day before her auspicious 13th date, prompting some (us) to wonder, is there more to this announcement or will the album drop tomorrow?


angela law journalist


Angela Law

Digital Editor

Ange is a journalist and editor with over nine years of digital media experience in both Sydney and London. She has written for publications like Vogue, Refinery29, Allure, and Harper’s Bazaar, and has spent most of her career reporting on the latest beauty and lifestyle trends, and diving deep into the sweet spot where pop culture meets social commentary. Ange is a firm believer in the transformative power of a strong-hold brow gel and she’ll never stop defending the cultural relevance of contemporary romance novels.

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