Swifties may have correctly predicted a theory once again. At midnight on Sept. 21, Taylor Swift announced the title of just one of her 13 tracks on her new anticipated album Midnights.
As a Swiftie myself, I was refreshing my Instagram feed like a maniac at midnight, hoping for a new story from Taylor Nation (Swift’s management team) or Swift’s own Instagram account. After being puzzled for five minutes, I decided to check Swift’s TikTok before giving up completely, and lo and behold, she delivered.
Naturally, at the stroke of midnight, Swift posted a quirky TikTok introducing a new segment of content called “Midnights Mayhem with Me.” Swift looked dazzling in a burnt orange blazer behind a seemingly matching velvet backdrop and sporting her iconic bangs, giving a ‘70s game show vibe. Next to Swift was a gold lottery-ball cage with ping-pong balls labeled 1 to 13, signifying the 13 tracks on Midnights, which drops Oct. 21.
“I know I have a habit of dropping cryptic clues and easter eggs when giving you information about new music, and I’m not here to deny that, but I am here to defy that,” Swift said. Swift then carried on to introduce her new segment leading up to the arrival of Midnights, “Welcome to a new series I’m calling ‘Midnights Mayhem With Me.’ I am going to be using this technologically advanced device to help me allow fate to decide exactly what track titles I’m going to be announcing and in what order.”
The suspense had dwelled as the first ping-pong ball rolled out from the cage, with Swift coincidently getting the ball signifying track 13 (Tay’s fav number, duh) and beamed with a smile. “The first track I’m going to tell you about is Track 13, because of course,” she said. The singer/songwriter then picked up a red phone and revealed into the phone that track 13 is called “Mastermind.”
The clip ends a few seconds after that with a slight smirk on Swift’s face, probably because she knew this information would send Swifties into a spiral (which it did) but did not reveal any more details about the song.
Before Swift dropped this anticipated news on fans, there already had been numerous speculations surrounding the dates Sept. 20 and 21 on all social platforms, but TikTok theories from Swiftie creators have spread like wildfire.
On Sept. 20, TikTok’s account posted a clip to their 65.2 million followers of a clock striking at midnight, tagging Taylor Swift in the caption: “If u need me i’ll be 🏃♀️ to @Taylor Swift’s account at midnight ET 🕰️ #SwiftTok.”
Swifties began spiraling with theories about the remaining tracks on Midnights, mostly surrounding the significance around the letter “M.” TikTok creator Savannah Elizabeth believes she cracked the code, claiming in one video that all tracks on Midnights will start with the letter “M” due to the significance of the title “Mastermind.” She continues to say that the letter “M” is the 13th letter in the alphabet and the title “Midnights Mayhem with Me” is strategically created with only “M” words. Her video gained over 50,000 likes with overwhelming comments of belief.
Whether or not you believe the Swifties, the mayhem has only begun, and it leaves us wondering when Swift will tell us about the remaining 12 tracks. In the meantime, you can find me refreshing my social media feeds every night at midnight sharp.