Taylor Swift announces much awaited album, 'The Life of a Showgirl'

Following an unexpected countdown on Swift's website, the fans instantly started speculating that something would be revealed on the 12th day of the month at 12:12 a.m. ET, when the countdown ran out.

In classic Swift form, the singer revealed the album title on her boyfriend Travis Kelce's podcast 'New Height Show' on Tuesday (India Time).

The announcement of comes just after Travis Kelce revealed on Instagram that Swift would be appearing as a guest on his "New Heights" podcast, hosted alongside his brother Jason, reported Variety.

According to the outlet, the Spotify billboards started popping up in New York City and Nashville shortly after the album announcement, with a code leading to a playlist entitled "And, baby, that's show business for you."

Taylor Swift shared a brief video from the podcast on her Instagram handle, featuring her announcement of the 12th studio album.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNPbaYMuypd/?

Swift last released her studio album 'The Tortured Poets Department' in April 2024, and followed up two hours later by expanding it into a double album titled 'The Anthology.'

'The Life of a Showgirl', Taylor Swift's 12th album, comes after a milestone in Swift's career.

In May, the singer announced that she had purchased her catalogue of recordings initially released through Big Machine Records. She retained ownership from Shamrock Capital for a rumoured nine-figure sum, revealing that she will be reissuing her old albums that were first sold by Big Machine against her wishes in 2019, reported Variety.

"To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually being pretty reserved about it. All I've ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy. I will be forever grateful to everyone at Shamrock Capital for being the first people to ever offer this to me. My first tattoo just might be a huge shamrock in the middle of my forehead," said Taylor Swift after the huge deal with Shamrock Capital, as quoted by Variety.

Swift attempted to reclaim ownership of her narrative by re-recording her past records. She released the first of her re-recordings, 'Fearless (Taylor's Version) in April 2021 with more than a dozen bonus tracks. She did the same for three other albums in the years that followed.

Fans had been eagerly anticipating the release of the remaining two 'Taylor's Versions' re-recordings: "Reputation" and her self-titled debut.

After the announcement that she'd acquired her catalogue, sales of 'Reputation' surged on the charts as it landed at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 with 42,000 album-equivalent units.

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift has become a part of the history created by the global entertainment brand Madame Tussauds after it unveiled its biggest figure launch to date, creating not one, but 13 brand new Taylor Swift wax figures.

The figures, launching in 13 cities across four continents, have been inspired by Taylor Swift's outfit from her record-breaking 'The Eras Tour' 2023-24. (ANI)