Click here to read the full article.
Taylor Swift has broken two Spotify records for 2026, including most-streamed female artist in a day.
Swift broke the records following the midnight release of “The Life of a Showgirl: Encore,” which featured four new
songs, including lead single “Patient Zero.” That song broke the record for the most-streamed song by a female artist in a day so far this year, while Swift herself had the most streams out of any female artist in a day in 2026.
Swift dropped “The Life of a Showgirl: Encore” after gradually rolling out the promise of new music, beginning with some Easter eggs in a “Law & Order: SVU” skit during the Emmys telecast. In character as a detective, she said, “I think what we’re going to be looking for is hiding in plain sight.” She then broke the fourth wall, looking directly at the camera and saying, “Saccharide. Aries. From the vineyard. North or south.” Swifties, of course, solved the puzzle relatively fast, noticing that the third letter of each word spelled out “encore.”
Then, this past Tuesday, she announced that she would be releasing her new single “Patient Zero” this week, rolling out three limited edition CDs of the single on her website. Just a day later, she revealed that she was actually dropping “The Life of a Showgirl: Encore” on Friday, offering fans four new songs including “Patient Zero,” “Cleveland!,” “Pink Clouding” and “Babylon.”
On social media, Swift explained why she wanted to add more to her 2025 album. “About a year ago, you guys did a truly unfathomable thing. Something that completely blew my mind… You gave ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ the biggest first week for an album in history,” she wrote. “I took a trip to Sweden to celebrate with Max and Shellback, my two collaborators on this album. Really we just wanted to reflect and take in how grateful we were for the moment we were in, but there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs. I hope you love them, because they were born out of pure gratitude for your exuberance for and celebration of the album we made. ‘The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore’ including four new songs is out on Friday and available to pre-order and save now.”
Up next, Swift is set to debut the video for “Patient Zero” at this Sunday’s MTV VMAs, where she is also being honored with the inaugural Artist-Director Award. She previewed the clip on “CBS Mornings” on Thursday before sharing it on her social media accounts. The video, featuring cinematography by Oscar winner Emmanuel Lubezki, will star Swift alongside Dakota Johnson and Colin Farrell.
