Taylor Swift has officially announced her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl.

The surprise announcement came via Swift’s website just after a countdown ended at 12:12 a.m. on Tuesday. While no exact release date was given, her site noted that vinyl versions of the album are expected to ship before October 13.

Speculation about Swift’s next album had been building for weeks. On Monday, her marketing team, Taylor Nation, posted a TikTok slideshow featuring 12 images of Swift dressed in orange, captioned with the phrase, “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era…’”

A limited-edition vinyl of the album, described as “Portofino orange glitter,” is available for pre-order, along with a special cassette version.

Adding to the buzz, fans connected a cryptic post from the New Heights podcast — hosted by Swift’s boyfriend and Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce and his brother, Jason Kelce — which shared an orange image featuring a mysterious silhouette. Many fans guessed it hinted at Swift’s appearance.

Early Tuesday, the podcast confirmed Swift would be a guest on an upcoming episode, releasing a teaser that showed her revealing the new album from a briefcase. The artwork for the album remains blurred, both on the podcast and her website.

The Life of a Showgirl is Swift’s follow-up to The Tortured Poets Department, which she announced at the 2024 Grammys and released during her history-making Eras Tour — a global run that grossed more than $2.2 billion, becoming the highest-earning tour ever.

This marks Swift’s first album release since she fully regained ownership of her music catalog. In May, she announced that she had purchased the rights to her early recordings, which were originally under Big Machine Records but later sold to Shamrock Capital. She did not reveal the purchase price.

Over the past few years, Swift has been re-recording her first six albums as part of her mission to reclaim control over her work. The project began after Scooter Braun's controversial acquisition of her original masters. Each re-recorded release — dubbed "Taylor’s Version" — has included new songs “from the vault,” hidden clues, and fresh visuals.

So far, four re-recordings have been released: Fearless and Red in 2021, followed by Speak Now and 1989 in 2023. Each debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and Swift now holds the record for the most No. 1 albums by a female artist.