Taylor Swift's fans surely missed a vocation by not becoming private detectives. Swifties would be able to solve a no-body (no) crime. They're some of the most dedicated supporters, poring over every detail and analyzing every lyric. And Swift herself loves that about them -- and she takes some credit for their disposition. "I've trained them to be that way," she told Entertainment Weekly. "I love that they like the cryptic hint-dropping. Because as long as they like it, I'll keep doing it. It's
fun. It feels mischievous and playful."
Of course, such dedication can sometimes cause Swifties to miss the forest for the trees. "Out of the Woods," they ain't. For every Alan Turing-level decoding of Swift's music videos or PhD-worthy analysis of her lyrics, there are rumors too ridiculous -- like her being a government psy-op -- to be believed. There's a fine line between genius and insanity, as they say.
Instead of reviewing the truly unbelievable conspiracies, lets a look at the fan theories that could be more fact than fiction.
Read more: 5 Rumors About Christina Haack We Can't Ignore
The Meaning Of The Life Of A Showgirl's Color Scheme
Another era, another color scheme. However, the dawn of a pop star's next era doesn't usually herald their fans becoming metallurgy experts. But that's exactly what Swifties did. Fans jumped into action after her promotional Instagram account, Taylor Nation, posted a carousel of photos of Taylor Swift in orange outfits with the caption, "Thinking about when she said 'see you next era...'" Cue excitement.
A countdown to 12:12 A.M. (get it? TS12) began on Swift's website. Her partner, Travis Kelce, then announced she would be appearing on his "New Heights" podcast. At 12:12, Swift announced the title, "The Life of a Showgirl," and a clip of her on Kelce's podcast showed her holding an orange and mint green briefcase. But what did this all mean?
Well, as usual, nothing gets past the Swifties. Fans took a deep dive into these colors. "The colour scheme is copper oxidizing," one fan claimed on X, "because a showgirl is on a pedestal for the world and over time, in the public eye they lose their shine ... the weathering from being the target for the world's misogyny." Another Switfie wrote in an X post, "Shiny statue oxidizes due to natural weathering but the actual oxidation protects it from corrosion," another fan on X pointed out. "She was shiny, now weathered, but stronger because of it. Wow." We think they're onto something.
Taylor Swift Has An Interesting And Incognito Mode Of Transport, According To This Theory
Taylor Swift can't step outside her house or the studio without the paparazzi bulbs flashing. Heck, she even had fans rocking up to her former apartment on Cornelia Street and her BFF Jack Antonoff's wedding rehearsal. As a result, some fans have theorized that she has taken to using a suitcase. That is, when she's not jet-setting -- a choice that has landed her in hot water.
Swift's no stranger to unorthodox ways of avoiding the paparazzi. She's adopted both backwards and sideways walking techniques. But in 2017, fans began to suspect that she'd adopted a low-budget and low-comfort way of going unseen. Photos showed the same large black suitcase going in and out of Swift's building multiple times. Once, the suitcase entered the building just minutes before Swift's squad member Gigi Hadid rocked up. Coincidence?
While a report from Splash News stated that Swift was in the suitcase, that was later retracted. A representative for the company explained to Spin, "The report stated it as a fact, which we actually don't know. How could we?" Since, more information has emerged from a surprising source. In 2018, former One Direction member Zayn Malik, Hadid's partner at the time, told Vogue U.K., "[Swift] was travelling around in a suitcase". Moreover, between 2023 and 2024, Swift used a similarly bizarre method, a janitorial cart, when traveling to the Eras Tour stage. The suitcase-truthers may have just been right.
Folklore And Evermore's Love Triangle Had An Alternate Ending
Much of Taylor Swift's career has seen her write about her complex dating history. With each album and song, fans leave no stone unturned when theorizing about each track's subject. But on her lockdown-era albums, "Folklore" and "Evermore," she delved into writing about fictional characters, which sparked even more theories.
The two-album Betty Saga (comprising the songs "August," "Betty," and "Cardigan"), is the story of a love triangle written from the perspectives of Betty, James, and Augustine. The conventional fandom wisdom suggests that Betty and James end up together, with Augustine jilted. "What happened in my head is that 'Cardigan' is Betty's perspective from like 20 to 30 years later looking back on this love that was this tumultuous thing," said the singer-songwriter in her Disney+ special, "Folklore: The Long Pond Sessions" (via Glamour). "In my head, I think Betty and James ended up together, right?" That's the beauty of art -- there are no wrong answers.
Interestingly, one Redditor has theorized that the Betty Saga is actually a quadrilogy. They claim the fourth installment is the song "Peter" from "The Tortured Poets Department" album. The theory: Peter sees Betty realize that she is no longer interested in James, and the tale becomes one of heartbreak. The titular Peter is a reference to James' arrested development, and so he is the boy who never grew up -- or Peter Pan. This reference is also a callback to "Cardigan," which references the J.M. Barrie play with the lyrics "Peter losing Wendy." Swift has form for these callbacks, so we wouldn't put this one past her.
The Woodvale Theory
Woodvale. It sounds like the name of a long-running British provincial detective drama. The Woodvale case, the one case the hard-bitten protagonist could never crack. Frankly, it's a conspiracy that goes right to the very top. Indeed, Swifties have been feeling a similar way about the album that never was, Woodvale.
After releasing "Folklore" and "Evermore," theories of a trilogy heated up. It all began after Taylor Swift released eight (yes, eight) special editions of "Folklore". An eagle-eyed Redditor found that an image for one of the editions had the words "Woodvale" almost imperceptibly written in the corner.
When Swift went on to release "Evermore," it all pointed towards a trilogy. But, in an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," Swift quashed any triple album hype. "When I was making 'Folklore', I was too afraid to even reveal the title of my album to my closest teammates and management," said the singer (via Cosmopolitan). "And so I came up with a fake code name that had the same amount of letters as 'Folklore'. Chose a random name... chose 'Woodvale'." It's an awfully convenient excuse.
Swifites didn't give up, however, and still held a candle for Woodvale. When Swift released "The Tortured Poet's Department: Anthology," fans noticed that the second half of the LP sounded uncannily like "Folklore" and "Evermore". "The way the Anthology is literally Woodvale," one stan wrote in an X post. "Like this is exactly how i imagined woodvale to sound." In a roundabout way, Swifties may be right about the trilogy.
Are Max Martin And Shellback ... Back?
After the furore of Taylor Swift announcing "The Life of a Showgirl," billboards in Nashville and New York City gave fans a Spotify playlist. The playlist -- titled "And, baby, that's show business for you!" -- is exclusively made up of songs produced by Max Martin and Shellback, the Swedish super-producers who last worked with Swift on "Reputation". So, understandably, fans are theorizing that the "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" hitmakers could be ... getting back together.
"Does Spotify even have the infrastructure to handle a Taylor Swift Max Martin and Shellbeck release?" one Swiftie remarked on X. Another wrote, "We are about to witness a POPQUAKE, the likes of which we haven't seen since 1989." The Swifties, unsurprisingly, were on board.
In fact, the loyal fandom was already digging into this theory before the playlist. "I actually think [Swift] has been working with [Martin] this year. In May, while in Sweden, she did the 'Max Martin supermix' of songs when he attended tour," a Reddit commenter shared nine months prior to "The Life of a Showgirl" announcement. "Through the summer, she was rumored a few times to be in Sweden during the week when she didn't have shows." This fan wasn't the only one onboard with the theory, though. A Redditor posed the question "Is it possible that [Martin] be part of TS12?" a full year before Swift's announcement on "New Heights." It now seems more like prophecy than a theory.
The Tortured Poets Department Is About Both Matty Healy And Joe Alwyn
Matty Healy? Joe Alywn? Who is the real tortured poet? Fans theorise it's both. "Every song on TTPD is actually about two people," one Swiftie remarked one fan on Reddit. In response, another Redditor said, "Fits with the yin/yang imagery, the white/black, good boy/bad boy heartbreak of it all."
On the two albums preceding "The Tortured Poets Department," Swift wrote largely about fictional characters. However, for the vast majority of her career, the "Love Story" singer has been an autofiction author. TTPD was a return to form since there are some seemingly obvious references to Healy and Alwyn. They range from a typewriter (The 1975 frontman loves typewriters) reference on the title track to "But Daddy I Love Him," acknowledging that fans weren't happy about her romance with Healy, to even apparently taking jibes at Healy's then-new girlfriend, Gabbriette Bechtel. Alwyn does not get off scot-free, either. "So Long, London" is the tragedy to the "London Boy" rom-com, with Swift seemingly heartbroken over the time and effort she put into their failed relationship. Look no further for an explanation of all the references in the album's song titles.
This is one theory that doesn't require too much detective work to get to the bottom of. It's important to note that Swift's relationship with Travis Kelce is different from all her others, as he gets the album's most loved-up lyrics.
thanK You aIMee Is About Kim Kardashian
As Taylor Swift herself sang in "Invisible String," she has a cold axe to grind. Indeed, when she released the track "thanK you aIMee" on "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology," it didn't take someone with a PhD in Swiftology to work out who it's about.
We'll spell it out, as Swift did with her meme-like alternating capital letters: It's Kim Kardashian. It seems Swift's feud with Kardashian and Kanye West hurt her more than we knew. Despite the beef starting in 2016, if theories are to be believed, it was still on her mind in 2024. The song's lyrics paint a picture of a tanned high school bully (i.e. Kim) and that Swift was the David to aIMee's Goliath. However, in the end, the narrator says the experience is what made her who she is today.
The song is widely believed to be about Kardashian and, at the end of the day, the stylization of the song title literally spells out KIM.
The Swifities Were On The Right Track With Karma
"Track 11 is called," teased Taylor Swift, before pausing for effect on the eighth episode of "Midnights Mayhem" via TikTok. "Karma." She then fought back laughter as she ended the video. "SHE KNOWS THAT WE KNOW SHE KNOWS," reads a comment below the post. But what did Swift know that they knew?
Since 2016, Swifties have held a belief that the singer has a yet-to-be-released album titled "Karma". Until 2016, Swift had an album release schedule as regular and efficient as the sun rising and setting. They dropped every two years, like clockwork. But her aforementioned beef with Kim Kardashian saw the showgirl shun the spotlight. Thus, many fans theorize that Swift has kept a "Karma" album waiting in the wings.
There's a litany of reasons that suggest Swifties are onto something. "Some 'proof' has been in the [Look What You Made Me Do] video, at the end Reputation Taylor is cutting the wing off an airplane with Reputation spray painted onto it," one fan suggested on Reddit, "like she's cutting the wings off the era that never was and Rep took over." Additionally, in April 2016 when Vogue asked the singer to name "the most important life lesson for someone to learn," she swiftly replied, "That karma's real." So karma's the breeze in Swift's hair on the weekend, a cat, a song title, and, potentially, a whole album.
Lana Del Rey Was Taylor Swift's Right-Hand Woman When She Announced The Tortured Poets Department
When winning Album of the Year at the 2024 Grammys, Taylor Swift brought Lana Del Rey up on stage with her. Not everyone liked this because Swift winning meant Del Rey, who was nominated for the same award, lost. "I'm sorry but Taylor is so evil for not only dragging Lana on stage with her but also making this pitiful speech about Lana when she's the one holding a grammy in her hand," one person wrote on X. "Y'all don't see how much of a mean girl moment this is?" However, Swift's fans suggested that there was more to this awkward-looking moment than meets the eye.
At the awards show, Swift wore a white Schiaparelli gown with black detailing, with Del Rey donning an all-black floral dress styled by Molly Dickson. Fans think there's a deeper meaning to those sartorial choices. "Lana was the Anthology at the Grammys while Taylor was the Tortured Poets Department," one Swiftie wrote on X. As "The Tortured Poets Department" is a double album with 15 additional songs, there were two covers. The original cover is a mostly white image while "The Anthology" cover is mostly black -- just like the outfits the singers wore to the Grammys.
Swift is known for using her 'fits as a vehicle to hint at new projects and hide easter eggs, so this theory makes a lot of sense.
Her Song Cassandra Is About Her Feud With Scooter Braun
In 2024, stars like Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande ended their working relationship with Scooter Braun. Taylor Swift had been there before. Braun and Swift's masters debacle went nuclear in 2019 and saw the singer release her own versions of past albums to reclaim her songs. Swift, here, was somewhat of a trendsetter. And she wasn't quiet about how she felt, even after buying back her masters.
In a May 2025 letter, she wrote, in part, "I'm extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans. Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I'm reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen. Thank you for being curious about something that used to be thought of as too industry-centric for broad discussion."
As with her aforementioned beef with Kim Kardashian or her messy split from Matty Healy, fans theorized that Swift used the Braun ordeal as inspiration. And that brings us to "Cassandra," a track on "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology". "Wait something just clicked," one fan mused on X. "Taylor must've written Cassandra after Demi, Ariana, and Justin all dropped Scooter as their manager." Both the letter and the lyrics do seem to support this theory. In the song, Swift narrates the story of Cassandra, who blew the whistle about someone in the town (read: industry) and was killed (read: not believed) for it. She spoke out, while some stayed quiet. Allegorical, much.
Read the original article on The List.
