NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Swift is back in action. Did you miss her?
On Wednesday, less than one day after announcing a new song, “Patient Zero” — her first since her starry wedding this summer — Swift has revealed “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore,” an extended version of her 2025 album
with four new tracks: The aforementioned single “Patient Zero” as well as “Cleveland!,” “Pink Clouding” and “Babylon.”The new collection arrives Friday.
“About a year
ago, you guys did a truly unfathomable thing. Something that completely blew my mind,” Swift wrote in an Instagram caption with the announcement. “You gave The Life of a Showgirl the biggest first week for an album in history. I took a trip to Sweden to celebrate with Max (Martin) 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.”
Here's what else to know:
The announcement of “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore” follows an exciting 24 hours for Swift’s audience. On Tuesday morning, the pop powerhouse launched a cryptic countdown clock on her website, displayed atop a red curtain and due to end at 2 p.m. Eastern.
Her dedicated fans, known as Swifties, quickly got to work attempting to decode whatever news was forthcoming, noting that her official Instagram bio was changed to read “And, baby, that’s sh0w business f0r y0u,” with each “o” replaced with a zero.
Now it appears clear that the gesture was a reference to “Patient Zero.” Once the countdown timed out, her website updated to reveal three, limited-edition CD variants of the new track for preorder: one with a double-sided cover as well as an acoustic and piano version, for $3.99 each.
It is her first new song since marrying Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden in July.
The original “The Life of a Showgirl” album was released last October, and she contributed a song to the “Toy Story 5” soundtrack in June.
At the Emmys last week, Swift appeared in a pretaped skit, playing a rookie in the “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” office.
Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia Benson went through two large crime boards to make connections between Swift’s songs, and the Emmy-nominated shows to see if she would attend the telecast. One of the detectives called it a “rabbit hole.” (In reality, Swift was at Arrowhead Stadium during the award show and sitting alongside Tom Cruise to watch the Chiefs open the NFL season against the Denver Broncos.)
In one pointed moment, Swift looked to the camera and appeared to utter a series of hints: “Saccharide. Ares. From the Vineyard. North or South,” she said. Fans have urgently been trying to decode the message since.
But in true Swift spirit: They won't know for sure until she has connected the dots.
