Taylor Swift Announces ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ Details on ‘New Heights’ Podcast

Music|Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ Will Release on Oct. 3

Taylor Swift said on Wednesday that her newest album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” would be released on Oct. 3, sharing the details with her legion of fans in a rare podcast appearance. Swift spoke about the album, reclaiming her master recordings and her blockbuster Eras Tour on “New Heights,” which is co-hosted by Travis Kelce, her boyfriend and a three-time Super Bowl champion.

“The Life of a Showgirl” is her 12th studio album and her first since “The Tortured Poets Department,” released in April 2024. The album’s producers are Max Martin, Shellback and Swift, and the title track features Sabrina Carpenter.

On “New Heights,” Swift affirmed an observation by Kelce that the new album would be a “180” from many of the songs on “The Tortured Poets Department.”

“Oh yeah,” she said. “Life is more upbeat.”

Swift received some unusually blunt criticism after her previous album, when critics like Lindsay Zoladz of The New York Times, and even some fans, suggested that the 31-song album could have used editing.

Swift said that the new album would include only 12 songs and that she kept the bar really high.

“I tend to love to write lots and lots of music,” Swift said. “So it’s a temptation to release lots of music. I wanted to do an album that was so focused on quality and on the theme and everything fitting together like a perfect puzzle.”

Swift said she made “The Life of a Showgirl” during the Eras Tour, thus the name. Why an orange palette for the album cover? “It feels like kind of energetically how my life has felt,” she said. “And this album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during this tour.”