![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/436c5d8de79f2f0da2b6ef1bce8ae6ad05-taylor-standby.rhorizontal.w700.jpg\")
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\n So, girl \u2026
\n Photo: Ashok Kumar\/TAS24\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n
Taylor Swift has her release-week run of shows all set to go. For The Life of a Showgirl, Swift has it all scheduled<\/a> in a handy itinerary to help everyone keep track: The Release Party of a Showgirl in theaters, a few late-night-show cameos, and \u2026 wait \u2026 what is \u201cStandby,\u201d written around the 7 p.m. slot on Saturday, October 4? Below, all the theories about Swift\u2019s surprise release, in order of least to most likely.<\/p>\n Fellow showgirl Sabrina Carpenter, who\u2019s featured on the album, is headlining the Austin City Limits festival on Saturday, but a surprise performance at a musical festival sounds like a safety risk for Swift given the huge crowds and the highly anticipated album. The signed CDs were already a fiasco, and that was just on the internet. Swift\u2019s first live performance for the album will probably be in a more controlled and secured environment, like 30 Rock.<\/p>\n Swift isn\u2019t scheduled for SNL, but that doesn\u2019t mean she can\u2019t show up. She did a surprise introduction of Ice Spice\u2019s performance in 2023; who says a girl can\u2019t have a starring role in a Bad Bunny sketch<\/a>? Swift could play Marcelo\u2019s new girlfriend as he introduces<\/a> her to his mother (Pedro Pascal) and aunt (Bad Bunny). She is a huge fan of his, after all, and she\u2019ll be in town anyway for her late-night spot on Seth Meyers.<\/p>\n \u201cStandby\u201d might be another pool-floatie<\/a> situation. At the Spotify pop-up in New York, fans got a preview<\/a> of what looks like merch fit for a pop star after her performance. PJs, a robe, slippers, a duffel bag, an ornament, and a vinyl case were spotted with the new Showgirl logo. Swift hasn\u2019t dropped anything on her web store besides physical music for the new album, and waiting until after everyone has listened to the album seems like the perfect time to drop.<\/p>\n Throughout the Showgirl era, there have been hints that we\u2019re not totally done with the Eras tour. What about the added Tortured Poets set? Or all the filming that was going on during the final shows? Taylor Nation did say<\/a> it lost a key in Vancouver. Maybe the surprise could be a live album or an update to the Eras Tour movie on Disney+. In the Spotify experience, there are two photos<\/a> of Swift during the final leg in Vancouver and several references to the Eras tour stage \u2014 written in order, the track list is even in the shape<\/a> of the stage.<\/p>\n When Swift bought all of her masters, did she think we would just forget about those \u201cfire<\/a>\u201d Rep vault tracks? As we get closer to the Showgirl release, Taylor Nation has been teasing that there\u2019s a snake loose backstage. There is a hidden message in the Reputation lyrics on Apple Music that read<\/a>s, \u201cThey don\u2019t make loyalty like they used to.\u201d Is it just another lyric for the new album or a vault track for Rep? When you search the lyric on the iTunes Store, the song \u201cFather Figure\u201d pops up. But there are other possibilities for a\u00a0Rep\u00a0vault-track release in the future.<\/p>\n For Showgirl, Swift worked exclusively with Shellback and Max Martin, who produced nine tracks on Rep, so it wouldn\u2019t be too crazy to think that they could\u2019ve recorded a few more songs together. In the\u00a0letter<\/a> she published\u00a0when she bought her masters, she said she kept \u201chitting a stopping point\u201d when trying to rerecord her sixth album, but she still recorded the vault tracks. Maybe that was during the Eras tour. Swift also said that there will eventually be a time for the vault tracks to \u201chatch,\u201d making the dark glittery cracks<\/a> in the Apple Music Showgirl cover suspicious. Similar cracks that look like Swift\u2019s lightning bolts<\/a> appeared during \u201cDelicate\u201d on the Eras tour.<\/p>\n During Swift release week, it\u2019s really hard not to get carried away by Easter eggs. She\u2019s trained us to be this way! What if the standby note is just that? A placeholder for Saturday because she isn\u2019t doing anything that day, and the calendar looked weird without anything else in that spot? Swift wants everyone to be ready for the week ahead \u2014 when she inevitably will drop a bunch of merch.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n