The rumors are terrible and cruel, but honey, most of them are true — although not at all in the way Taylor Swift fans expected.
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Swift announced at the 2024 GRAMMYs that her 11th studio album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ will be released on April 19th.
Swift made the announcement after accepting her 13th Grammy award for Best Pop Vocal Album, for her 2022 hit Midnights. The number 13 is sacrosanct in Swift folklore, as the 34-year-old singer was born Dec. 13, 1989 and considers it her lucky number.
The announcement dominated trending topics on X, formerly known as Twitter, with “NEW ALBUM,” “TWO YEARS,” “#THETORTUREDPOETSDEPARTMENT,” and “TAYLOR.”
Swifties Feeling the Whiplash
Just hours earlier, Swift had her entire fandom convinced that a “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” announcement was imminent.
The “Eras Tour” megastar’s profile pictures turned black and white across social media Sunday morning. Fans associate black and white with Swift’s 2017 album, which the singer has described as “a goth-punk moment of female rage at being gaslit by an entire social structure.”
That same day, Swift’s official website crashed, throwing gasoline on an already-rampant wildfire.
“I’m not surprised,” one fan wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Everything is intentional with Taylor.”
Another user was more blunt: “Yeah, we getting that Rep TV announcement TONIGHT.”
It Was All Just a Red Herring
The artist’s official website displayed a custom “321” error code, along with an inexplicable message: “hneriergrd.” Although the site is now functional, fans flocked to social media to trade conspiracy theories and scour the web for any Easter eggs.
Many fans pointed out that “hneriergrd,” when unscrambled, spells “red herring.”
“no red herring has ever red herring-ed as hard as taylor swift changing her profile picture to black and white and then announcing a brand new album instead of reputation tv ????” one user wrote on X.
[RELATED: Revisiting Every Time Taylor Swift Has Won Album of the Year at the Grammys]
She’s Only Cryptic and Machiavellian Because She Cares
Swift began re-recording her first six albums in 2021, two years after the sale and acquisition of the artist’s masters by Scooter Braun. Braun later sold them to Shamrock Holdings.
As of 2024, only two re-releases remain: Swift’s 2006 self-titled debut and “Reputation.”
Swift also received an Album of the Year nod for Midnights. The album’s lead single, “Anti-Hero,” also scored a trio of nominations for Best Pop Solo Performance (losing out to Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers), Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Swift is also nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for her “Karma” remix with Ice Spice.
Featured image by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
