15 The Life Of A Showgirl Easter Eggs And Fan Theories

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4 hours ago

On Monday, Taylor Swift's official fan account, Taylor Nation, and her boyfriend Travis Kelce's podcast, New Heights, hinted at Taylor having a big announcement coming up...specifically around a new project. Later that night, a countdown appeared on her website, which ultimately led to the announcement of her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. The release date is still TBA.
While we have a name and a color scheme, the album's track list and cover have been kept under wraps, likely until Taylor's appearance on New Heights Wednesday evening. Nonetheless, Swifties like myself have been passing the time by searching far and wide for Easter eggs, clues, and anything else our beloved, glittery Jigsaw of a popstar left behind for us to piece together what might be instore for the Showgirl album.
Well, my fellow Swifties, I present to you, the Tourted Poets Department, this here thesis, in which I have scoured the internet, my memory of the Eras tour, and Taylor's tour book for every bit of evidence we have thus far for what The Life of a Showgirl era may have in store for us. Here are 15 Easter eggs and fan theories regarding Taylor's new album, a few of which have already been confirmed by Taylor herself:
During the final act of her record-breaking Eras Tour — The Midnights Era — an orange door descended on the massive screen at the very back of the stage. At the time, many of us speculated that the door hinted at Taylor's next project or era, and given that The Life of a Showgirl is, in fact, orange, it seems like we were right!
Taylor also usually left the stage after her final "Karma" bows from beneath the stage, but on the very last night of tour, she exited through where the orange door had been on the screen, which many fans took as her "walking into" her next era.
In Taylor and Travis's New Heights promo, there are four suspiciously album-shaped items labeled "T.S." on the bookcase behind them. There's an orange one, a silver one, a red one, and a blue one.
Could this mean a multi-part album like TTPD and Midnights with The Anthology and the 2AM editions, respectively? The Life...and Death of a Showgirl, maybe? Or perhaps these are hinting at alternate covers for the album?
As shared in a Spotify advertisement in Times Square last night, Taylor also dropped a playlist titled, "And, baby, that's show business for you ❤️‍🔥," seemingly teasing a lyric from the album...
You can find the playlist here.
But also? The playlist consists exclusively of songs from Red through Reputation that were produced and co-written by her previous collaborators, Max Martin and Shellback. The trio created hits like "Style" and "Shake It Off", and it looks like they'll be teaming up again for this album, hinting that it's likely to have a pop-y, 1989-esque sound.
That being said, at the present moment it looks like Jack Antonoff and Aaron Desner aren't currently involved with the project, but never say never!
Not to alarm anyone...but the first song added to the playlist is 22, and it was added two weeks before all the others. Could we be getting a single on the 22nd of this month? Or maybe there are 22 songs?
As the album's title suggests, it appears as though, like The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor worked on much of this record while on the Eras Tour. Some eagle-eyed fans pointed out that the sparkly orange background that's made an appearance in her New Heights teaser, her TS12 announcement countdown, the temporary album cover, and in several other pieces of The Life of a Showgirl promo has been seen before. Where, you might ask? In the Eras Tour book, in the "Behind the Scenes" chapter, which had led fans to believe that the album is perhaps a look at her life "behind the scenes" of the Eras Tour.
Do you remember the theme of "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart" (her last music video release pre-Showgirls era) on the Eras tour? The performance was showgirl-themed, of course, as was its segment in The Eras Tour, which depicted Taylor as an exhausted, overworked showgirl who had to put on her "professional" face and get the job (aka the show) done. The choreography of the number was made up of routines from other numbers in the show, signifying Taylor having to put on a brave face and have a "The show must go on!" mentality despite how she may actually be feeling or what is going on in her personal life.
Further, in the music video, her backup dancers can be seen performing with...orange feathers. While the TTPD era's set and aesthetic was largely white with gold, black, and silver accents, it seems this pop of color in the video may have been a hint at what was to come...and a reminder that Taylor Swift allllllways has something up her sleeve.
I've always wondered what these orange feathers were for, because the first image seems to be Kam's "We Are Never Getting Back Together" moment and the bottom image seems to be her "Midnight Rain" costume change, which are not only totally different eras, but use totally different props (or none at all).
Other tweets Taylor recently allegedly liked hint at other Easter eggs of or aspirations for the Showgirl album's theme and aesthetic, like the Grammys stage and her "Bejeweled" music video:
We were playing checkers (clowing over Rep TV for the 13 millionth time, which didn't even exist!!!!) while she was playing chess (hinting at a project we didn't even know existed).
Kicking off this whole thing Monday morning, Taylor Nation posted this Instagram carousel of Taylor wearing orange outfits on tour, with the caption, "Thinking about when she said, 'See you next era...'❤️‍🔥" There were, of course, 12 photos in reference to this being Taylor's 12th album they were hinting at. Who else made an appearance in this photo dump, you might ask? None other than the "Espresso" singer and Eras Tour opener herself, Sabrina Carpenter, on the very last slide. So, we're finally getting a TayBrina collab on this album, right?
Orange and white? TTPD and The Life of a Showgirl??
Put on your clown nose and roll with me here on the whole "Taylor feat. Sabrina" thing, okay? So, last week, Sabrina posted these photos on Instagram with the caption "Go put on some clothes!" Well, the night the photo of Taylor and Sabrina above was taken, Taylor invited Sabrina on stage to sing an "Espresso" and "Is It Over Now?" mashup by calling her live in front of the audience and saying, " Is there any chance you could get off the rollercoaster you're on and, like, put on some clothes and come down to the stadium real quick?" Is that...an Easter egg, perhaps???
Here's a transcript of that portion of the phone call: TAYLOR: What are you doing? Why aren't you here with us? What are you doing right now?SABRINA: Obviously, I'm on, like, a rollercoaster, I'm somewhere where everyone is screaming so loud.T: Oh! I know, I'm somewhere where people are screaming really loud, too. I just- here's the thing, Sabrina. Is there any chance you could get off the rollercoaster you're on and, like, put on some clothes and come down to the stadium real quick?Now, could that post merely be a reference to the slut shaming and pushback Sabrina has received since her original Man's Best Friend album cover dropped? Surely! But could it also be teasing something they wrote or recorded together way back in October? I think it could!
And who else chimed into that conversation on Instagram? None other than Taylor's longtime friend, supermodel Gigi Hadid.
Back to Taylor Nation's announcement post for a sec. We've gotten a lot of "12" themed hints (things being posted at 12, the announcement at 12:12, etc.). Looking at Taylor's The Life of a Showgirl vinyl listing on her site, it's priced about the same as the original edition of Midnights ($29.99), which was a 1LP and featured just 13 tracks. It's also priced less than TTPD's pre-anthology vinyl ($34.99) which was a 2LP with 16 tracks. So, what if The Life of a Showgirl is 12 tracks total, each of which was hinted at in TN's post, vibe-wise?
The fifth image of the photo set, for instance, is of Taylor performing "Champagne Problems." As we all know, Taylor's track 5's are usually her most raw and heart-wrenching on the album...so perhaps this is hinting at Showgirl's track 5 being "Champagne Problems"-esque. And Sabrina is featured on the final album, which could hint to track 12 of the album being a collab between the pop star besties.
If you really wanna put your clown hat on with me for a second, remember that intro she would play on tour while talking about Evermore and Folklore before she sang "Champagne Problems"? Like...what if that's the melody of Showgirl's track 5?
Alright, last one, and it's a fun one. Given that orange is one of The Life of a Showgirl's main colors, fans were expecting its corresponding heart to be the orange emoji* (🧡), however, it seems as though the flaming red heart is actually the one Taylor chose (❤️‍🔥). A Taylor Swift Easter egg list is nothing without a reference to the good 'ole Lover house (I know, I know!), which Taylor famously burned down in the visuals on the Eras Tour.
*If you're new here, allow me to explain. Each era (or album) has a designated color and a matching heart emoji. The list is as follows: 💚💛💜❤️🩵🖤🩷🩶🤎💙🤍, and now, ❤️‍🔥.
Lover's muse was Taylor's then-boyfriend Joe Alwyn, whom she's written about from Reputation through The Tortured Poets Department. The couple broke up before her Eras Tour kicked off. Does the Showgirl heart emoji, in addition to the burning of the Lover house, signify her ending that chapter of her life creatively, or in her music?
Or perhaps the burning red heart is a reference to the songs "Red" from her Red album and "Daylight" from Lover, which discuss colors in association to love. In "Red" Taylor sings about love being "burning red", but in "Daylight," she retracts the statement, singing, "I once believed love would be burning red, but it's golden, like daylight." Perhaps this means we're getting a new reflection on what "color" she thinks love is? Or that she felt she was actually right in the first place?
Are there any The Life of a Showgirl Easter eggs we missed? Do you have a theory? Tell us in the comments below!