It’s finally official: Taylor Swift’s 12th album is coming.
Now, Swifties everywhere are frantically looking back on all the hints we’ve missed in the leadup to the announcement.
Turns out we weren’t clowning; Swift has been dropping very real Easter eggs this entire time, hinting at her upcoming album, The Life of a Showgirl.
But how far back do these crumbs go? We went down the rabbit hole so you don’t have to.
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A ‘showgirl’ clue two albums ago
The first Easter egg for The Life of a Showgirl seems to date as far back as Swift’s Midnights album, released almost three years ago.
In the October 2022 music video for the single Bejewelled, the singer appears with burlesque legend Dita Von Teese.
Swift is dressed up in a bedazzled showgirl-esque outfit and is seen posing like a pin-up girl next to Von Teese.
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There’s also a second hint in the music video.
A shot of an elevator goes up to level 13, with the arrow passing the number 12 before the video cuts to Swift sitting on top of a clock, decked out in a showgirl outfit.
The scene then pans out to a stage, with showgirls surrounding Swift, dancing for a solid amount of time.
Duh – she was LITERALLY a showgirl IN the music video.
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Swift also showed up to the 2022 Video Music Awards in a bejewelled dress, which was very showgirl-inspired.Bejewelled music video, which came out in October.
It’s so obvious looking back on it, but how were we to know all the way back then!?
The singer even hinted on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in 2021 that she was going to try and drop Easter eggs years before the project.
“All I started thinking of was how do I hint at things, how far is too far in advance?” she told the talk show host.
“Can I hint at something three years in advance? Can I even plan things out that far? I think I’m going to try to do it.”
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The release date hints
More recently, Swift posted a video of herself inside Hard Rock Stadium, standing in front of a sign that read A12.
The post, shared on October 18, 2024, immediately sent off alarms for some eagle-eyed Swifties, who figured out A12 meant either August 12 or Album 12.
With the recent announcement, fans now suspect Swift already had the August 12 announcement date lined up at that point.
The video was filmed as part of the final leg of the Eras Tour.
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The other obvious Easter egg of the August announcement date is her song August, which features on her 2020 album Folklore.
This might be a stretch, but she said herself that she wanted to plan easter eggs three years in advance.
Eras Tour Easter eggs
The Eras tour contained plenty of hints at the theme and colour scheme of Swift’s next album, particularly when she added a new set after the release of her last album The Tortured Poets Department in April 2024.
Swift wore a showgirl outfit during the on-stage performance of I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, with the choreography and her backup dancers’ costumes and props echoing the theme.
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The music video for the single, posted to YouTube on August 21, 2024, shows Swift standing in the middle of the rehearsal space with her backup dancers holding orange feather plumes, the same type showgirls use.
It’s now confirmed orange is the colour theme of TS12. Fans have been picking up colour clues for months, including the inclusion of several orange costumes in the Eras Tour shows.
In September 2024, Swift was pictured wearing a TS necklace upside down, which appeared to read as “12,” again hinting at her 12th album.
Most memorable moments from the Eras Tour as it ends
Teasers from 2025
On January 13, we got the first confirmation Swift had been working on new music.
Her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, told The Pat McAfee Show there “might be a few” new Swift songs in production, but said he couldn’t comment any further.
In hindsight, this was also the first hint of Kelce being involved in the announcement.
In February 2025, Swift attended the Grammy Awards in a high-cut sparkly red dress, with matching earrings – they had exactly 12 rubies on them, hinting once again at TS12 being on the horizon.
At the start of August, Taylor Nation, Swift’s official fan account, posted a video in homage to the 2020 song August and to mark the arrival of its namesake month.
However, eagle-eyed fans spotted orange sparkles flying across the screen for a few seconds towards the end of the video.
It now seems obvious they were teasing the 12th album’s colour theme – plus, it was announced in August too.
Taylor Nation also started posting pictures of every Swift album leading up to this one on Instagram three weeks ago, in a sort of countdown.
Yesterday, the same account posted 12 pictures of Swift, who was wearing orange in every one, with the caption: “Thinking about when she said “See you next era…”
Then of course, today, a mysterious countdown appeared on the singer’s website with an orange sparkly background.
There are probably dozens more that will come to light as the Swifties keep digging.
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