5 min readTaylor Swift’s twelfth album, The Life of a Showgirl, drops on Friday, Oct. 3.Her official fan account, Taylor Nation, shared a release day schedule featuring her upcoming press appearances—and a mysterious “stand by” message on Saturday, Oct. 4.Swifties are already spiraling with theories surrounding the sudden message, and we’ve gathered the best ones.
Happy Taylor Swift release week to all who celebrate! The lead-up to her twelfth album, The Life of a Showgirl, is met with excitement by her devoted Swifties. But what’s a Taylor release week without a little spiraling?
New York-based fans are already on an Easter egg hunt thanks to her pop-up with Spotify and mysterious billboards featuring the Eras Tour stage. On a larger scale, Taylor Nation’s official release schedule for TLOAS truly has fans losing their cool:
And it’s not because of her multiple late-night appearances on The Graham Norton Show, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and Late Night With Seth Meyers, but rather the cryptic message scheduled on Saturday, October 4: “Standby.”
“Unfortunately, I’m always on standby for Taylor Swift,” one fan wrote on social media, while another added, “Excuse me what do you mean standby how could I possibly standby MORE.”
Of course, they’re already dreaming up theories for what we’re standing by for. Nothing has been confirmed yet, so take this with a grain of salt (or, glitter, in true showgirl fashion). Ahead, we’ve gathered up the best “stand by” theories and ranked them from least to most likely to happen.
Least likely: A tour announcement
Remember when we mentioned those cryptic billboards of Taylor’s Eras Tour stage? Well, they were posted in collaboration with Spotify across England, Brazil, and Mexico, which led fans to believe that another tour announcement could be up this mastermind’s sequined sleeve.
Considering Taylor just wrapped the Eras Tour last year after a nearly two-year run—and had been laying low up until her album announcement on Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast on August 13—it’s unlikely she’ll head on the road again so soon.
Likely: A Saturday Night Live cameo
While Taylor isn’t yet scheduled to appear on SNL for its 51st season, there could be a chance she makes a quick cameo—especially because she’ll already be bouncing between shows at 30 Rock during TLOAS’s release week. She’s appearing on The Tonight Show and Late Night with Seth Meyers, which are both filmed in the same building as SNL.
October 4 is the season premiere, which could be a good window for a celeb cameo. But, Taylor doesn’t have very public relationships with the episode’s host, Bad Bunny, or musical guest Doja Cat. While Doja’s latest album, Vie, was produced by Taylor’s longtime collaborator and bestie, Jack Antonoff, he sadly wasn’t involved in TLOAS. So…we don’t know if Tay makes sense in this scenario.
Likely: Surprise appearance with Sabrina Carpenter at Austin City Limits 
Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter at the Eras Tour in New Orleans on October 26, 2024.
Hear us out…Taylor has country beginnings, so a trip to Austin, Texas could be cute! Especially because the small blondie to her tall blondie, Sabrina Carpenter, is headlining the fest that Saturday.
Not only has Sabrina performed live with Taylor before, but she’s also featured on the title track, “The Life of a Showgirl.” The only thing that has us skeptical about this theory is that it’s Sabrina’s first live show where she’s performing tracks from her new album, Man’s Best Friend. Perhaps Taylor wouldn’t want to intrude on the milestone moment…but it’s not completely off the table.
Likely: A live Eras Tour album
While the Eras Tour is over over, that doesn’t mean there aren’t recordings of the mashups and moments from the iconic live show. Remember when Tay dropped “Cruel Summer” live from the Eras Tour on streaming services? We’ve been side-eyeing her ever since, because we know she’s got more where that came from, though she’s been keeping them in her notorious Vault. We also got the Eras Tour film and book…the only thing missing is an album.
There’s also a chance that this is what Spotify’s mysterious billboards lead to, though the streaming giant hasn’t confirmed any details. Spotify also posted the graphic on their Instagram profile, captioned “🗝️❤️🔥.” What could the Eras Tour key be unlocking but a live album?
Most likely: Reputation Vault tracks
Hear us out… Max Martin and Shellback are the main producers on TLOAS, and the last time they collaborated with Taylor was on Reputation in 2017. They also had a hand in producing songs on Red and 1989, but fans think Reputation Vault tracks might drop in tandem with Showgirl for a plethora of reasons. The first one is a recent social media post using the “Gorgeous” instrumental. (And, before you clock us, Max did produce “Gorgeous.”)
While the use of this instrumental is particularly suspicious, Taylor revealed that she didn’t even re-record Reputation when she announced the ownership of her masters.
“The Reputation album was so specific to that time in my life, and I kept hitting a stopping point when I tried to remake it. All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief,” she wrote, in part.
Taylor’s letter also revealed that there’s a possibility her Reputation Vault tracks will be unleashed: “There will be a time (if you’re into the idea) for the unreleased Vault tracks from that album to hatch.”
And, speaking of hatching…there’s this (literal) Easter egg from her “Anti-Hero” music video, which features purple glitter emerging from the yolk. On September 30, Taylor’s image on Apple Music started HATCHING, with black and purple glitter peeking behind her face.
The lyrics to most of Tay’s Reputation songs on Apple Music also feature capital letters, revealing a secret message: “They don’t make loyalty like they used to.” This calls back to the ancient texts of Taylor Swift Easter eggs, as she used to have hidden messages in the lyric booklets of her physical CDs, from her debut album to 1989. Important to note that she stopped doing this with Reputation when it originally dropped in 2017.
If there wasn’t enough of a case for the Reputation vault tracks theory, Taylor Nation literally posted this on social media, so…spiral as you will:
We are simply too seated to see what goes down on October 4.