Grammy night was filled with buzz, excitement, and announcements. One of the biggest moments of the night was the announcement of Taylor Swift’s newest album, The Tortured Poets Department. This album had been highly anticipated by fans, yet was speculated to be another re-recording of a past album – most likely Reputation (Taylor’s Version). Fans were surprised when Taylor announced TS11 while receiving her 13th Grammy Award. With 13 being Taylor’s lucky number, it was no surprise that something big was coming. Post announcement, fans had picked apart Taylor’s socials and reverted to past events to find any possible hints of TS11. Reflecting back on it, there had been a plethora of easter eggs to the album that had been missed or overlooked before the announcement.
Coffee Picture
Debuting at an East Rutherford Eras Tour performance, the last music video that was released for Midnights was ‘Karma’ ft. Ice Spice. During the closing scene for the music video, Taylor is seen carrying a latte with her thumbs on either side of the mug. Her left thumb painted a 1989 blue, indicating it would be the next re-record and her right thumb being painted a Reputation black. With the amount of space between the 1989 nail and Reputation nail, another album could fit in between – TS11.
The Lover House
In 2019, the Lover era was introduced and the concept of the Lover house was born – a house in which each room was designed to represent a past or future musical era of hers. The Midnights era concluded the addition of eras into the Lover house, by becoming the night sky in the background of the actual house. In March of 2023, when the highly anticipated Eras Tour began in Arizona, the eyes of many fans were caught during a specific background visual during the 1989 era – specifically during the song ‘Bad Blood.’ During this specific scene, a version of Taylor is seen setting fire to a house that closely resembles the Lover house. This indicated that following the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version), a new era of Taylor’s music would be born, The Tortured Poets Department.
Instagram Post with jack
Taylor posted on her Instagram on October 23rd, 2023 after her 2019 song from her album Lover, ‘Cruel Summer,’ hit number one on the Billboard Top 100. In this post were a series of photos and videos of her and her friend, and collaborator, Jack Antonoff. The pictures were of her holding up 1 finger and Jack holding up 10 fingers. Little did we know, this was to hint at Taylor’s 11th album being in the works. This was posted before the release of 1989 (Taylor’s version).
TreNDS
Though most fans believed on the night of the 2024 Grammys Taylor would announce the re-recording of her sixth studio album Reputation, there were some who believed there would be a TS11 announcement. Some fans theorized that Taylor would be following a pattern of releasing two re-recordings and then a studio album, since that had happened previously. Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) were both released before Midnights was released. Then both Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) was released in 2023 following Midnights.
National Cat Lady Day
For years now, Taylor has been notorious for her love for cats. After her tenth studio album, Midnights, was released, the music video for the lead single, ‘Anti-Hero’ was also released. The music video featured a scene that took place at her funeral, and it highlighted a painting of an older version of Taylor alongside a large amount of cats, 11 to be exact! National Cat Lady Day is the 19th of April, which is the same day Taylor will release The Tortured Poets Department.