Taylor Swift had another trick up her sleeve just two hours after the midnight release of The Tortured Poets Department.
The Grammy-winning star, 34, announced in a late-night surprise to fans that her latest body of work is a double album.
“It’s a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album. ✌️ I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours. ????” she wrote on Instagram.
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The rollout of The Tortured Poets Department has been full of mystique for Swift’s sleuthing fans. On April 16, Swift collaborated with Spotify to host a pop-up exhibit in Los Angeles in which Swifties were able to walk around a library-themed room filled with subtle clues about the record, including new lyrics and imagery that hinted at possible content.
Mysterious murals popped up around the U.S. ahead of the album’s release, too — in Chicago, the murals include a QR code, which linked to a YouTube Short on Swift’s official YouTube that includes the text “Error 321″ as it’s spelled out in a typewriter-like font, as well as the number 13 beneath it.
Swift first made the surprise announcement that she was releasing her eleventh studio album during her acceptance speech for best pop vocal album for Midnights at the 2024 Grammy Awards (which also marked her 13th Grammy award, famously her lucky number).
During the speech, Swift thanked her fans for their support of her 10th album, Midnights, and said she wanted to repay them by telling them a secret she’s been keeping for two years: the details of her brand-new album.
The day after the album’s announcement, Swift unveiled the official tracklist for the album. Side A includes “Fortnight,” “The Tortured Poets Department,” “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” and “Down Bad.” The songs on Side B are “So Long, London,” “But Daddy I Love Him” and “Fresh Out the Slammer.”
Swift then announced on April 18 that “Fortnight,” which features Post Malone, will be the first single off her new album The Tortured Poets Department.
“I’ve been such a huge fan of Post because of the writer he is, his musical experimentation and those melodies he creates that just stick in your head forever,” Swift wrote on Instagram. “I got to witness that magic come to life firsthand when we worked together on Fortnight.”
Swift, 34, also announced that she and Malone, 28, would be releasing a music video for the track at 8 p.m. ET on Friday, April 19, the same day of the album’s release.
The Tortured Poets Department is out now.
