“Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it,” Taylor Swift said of her latest album. The Tortured Poets Department may have marked the end of a “sensational and sorrowful” chapter in the pop star’s life. But for Swifties, the ‘Tortured Poets’ era is just beginning. Swift’s 11th studio album of original material eclipsed a billion streams on Spotify in its first week.
Videos by American Songwriter
Taylor Swift Is Breaking Records Again
The Tortured Poets Department dropped at midnight Friday (April 19.) Swifties were still processing the first 16 tracks two hours later, when the “Fortnight” singer released 15 more as part of the album’s extended Anthology edition.
[RELATED: Taylor Swift Dissects the Meanings Behind 5 Songs on ‘The Tortured Poets Department’]
Users listened to the album more than 300 million times during its first 24 hours available on Spotify — the platform’s most streams ever in a single day. TTPD tops Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, which accumulated more than 300 million streams during its first full week.
Since then, Tortured Poets has shattered another record, amassing more than 1 billion streams on Spotify in its first five days.
Additionally, the album sold 1.5 million copies in the US in just three days. This gives Swift the largest first-week sales of any album since Adele’s “25” sold over 3 million copies in a week in 2015.
The ‘TTPD’ Easter Eggs Hidden In Taylor’s Outfits
When it comes to her new albums, the “Karma” singer is notorious for slipping Easter eggs just about anywhere. Style commentator Sarah Chappelle, who runs the Instagram account @taylorswiftstyled, has sifted through the archives to find the TTPD clues hiding in plain sight all along.
On Oct. 19, 2023 — exactly six months before the album’s release — the “Cruel Summer” singer sported a clip from Anthropolgie’s ‘Aimee’ hair clip set during an LA outing with Selena Gomez. At the time, Chappelle attributed the look to “to the new beachified 1989 (Taylor’s Version),” which dropped the next week. Of course, we’ve now heard the song “thanK you aIMee,” which many believe references Swift’s long-standing feud with Kim Kardashian.
There’s also Swift’s “Cassandra” tote bag from Saint Laurent, which she carried during a November hangout with Gracie Abrams. At the time, Chappelle mistook this for a reputation (Taylor’s Version) hint. In Greek mythology, Cassandra was a Trojan princess doomed to utter true prophecies no one would ever believe.
“The poetry of that possibility really strikes me as it feels almost assured that the next (Taylor’s Version) re-record release will be reputation – an album that of course has roots in a famed phone call gone wrong where Taylor told the truth and no one believed her,” Chapelle wrote.
Turns out, “Cassandra” is the title of another track on TTPD’s extended anthology edition. Don’t feel bad, Sarah — we all thought reputation was next.
(Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)
