Taylor Swift Dropped a New Album Announcement—and a Trail of Clues You *Need* to See

If you haven’t heard by now (and honestly, if you have internet access or even a drop of pop culture awareness, you probably have), Taylor Swift has officially announced a new album.

After teasing fans with a mysterious countdown on her website—which ended at exactly 12:12 AM ET on August 12—Taylor dropped the news: her 12th studio album is coming. The title? The Life of a Showgirl, revealed on the New Heights podcast, hosted by none other than her boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother Jason.

In a video shared to Instagram on Tuesday, August 12 Taylor opened a mint green briefcase with "T.S." on it and told Jason, "Can I show you something?" The former Philadelphia Eagles player replied, "Okay. What do we got? We got a briefcase? Mint green, with T.S. on it."

"Yup," Taylor confirmed.

"What’s in it?" Jason asked.

"This is my brand new album, The Life of a Showgirl," Taylor announced, while Travis cheered, "TS12!"

But of course, this is Taylor Swift we’re talking about. A surprise album announcement is rarely just that. Shortly after the reveal, mysterious billboards started popping up in Nashville and NYC, leading fans to a new Spotify playlist titled, “And, baby, that’s show business for you.” Naturally, Swifties went into full detective mode.

The playlist has fans convinced that Taylor’s longtime collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner won’t be involved in this album—marking a major sonic shift. Why? Because the songs on the playlist were one's produced by Max Martin.