Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl: All the Easter Eggs You Might’ve Missed Before the New Album Announcement.

Photo by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott

 Words by Paula Zawicka

It’s well known by now that there’s nothing Taylor Swift likes more than involving her fans in the mystery surrounding her projects. Swift has a not-so-secret obsession with Easter eggs, and she’s made a habit of keeping her fans, Swifties, constantly on their toes.

With a history of planning album releases years in advance, it’s no surprise that many of the clues only become clear after the album drops.

Swifties may be used to decoding the singer’s puzzles, but The Life of a Showgirl, her highly anticipated 12th studio album, proves once again that Taylor is always several steps ahead. Or in this case… years ahead.

From her beloved numerology to her wardrobe choices and carefully staged tour moments, Swift has been teasing this era for over a year.

The power of 12

There’s no mistaking it – the number 12 is everywhere. The Life of a Showgirl is Taylor’s 12th album (TS12), and she’s making sure everyone knows it.

In her “Back in the office” TikTok, Swift casually walks past a sign marked A12, an unmistakable nod to both TS12 and the album’s announcement date, August 12th. After the news broke, Hard Rock Stadium posted a TikTok confirming it was, in fact, an Easter egg.

While supporting Selena Gomez’s new album, Taylor posted “OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDD” with exactly 12 D’s. A bit on the nose? Maybe. Still iconic.

In her public letter about reclaiming her masters, she used the letter I 12 times in a single word. That same statement then stayed up on her website for exactly 12 days.

During the Grammy Awards, her earrings featured 12 stones.

In the Anti-Hero music video, she smashed her guitar… yes, 12 times.

The Eras Tour wrapped on December 8th (12/8), which perfectly mirrors the August 12th (8/12) album announcement date.

On page 12 (because of course) of the Eras Tour book, Taylor is seen in an orange showgirl-style outfit, matching the album’s aesthetic.

The Eras Tour countdown clock was set to 2:24 at every show. On the 224th day of the year, August 12th, The Life of a Showgirl was announced.

During the second leg of the tour, she wore orange outfits during her 8th and 12th shows, breaking stan Twitter each time.

On August 12th, 2024, exactly one year before the announcement, Taylor wore an orange and light green plaid outfit, now recognised as the signature TS12 colours.

Taylor Nation posted 12 slides of her orange Eras outfits with the caption, “Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era…’”

And let’s not forget the Bejeweled music video, where Taylor ascends to the 12th floor dressed as a showgirl in outfits that resemble the new album’s photoshoot.

That’s a lot of twelves, but it doesn’t end there. Thirteen Easter eggs wouldn’t be enough even for Taylor Swift.

Visual Clues and Tour moments

Taylor’s tour performances are more than just concerts. She carefully organises three hours of entertainment each night, full of surprises and secret meanings.

One of the biggest confirmed clues came from the final show of the Eras Tour, when she exited through an orange door, breaking her usual pattern of descending beneath the stage. Fans immediately caught the change, and Swift later admitted she was proud of the moment. That door, as it turns out, signified the end of the Eras era and the beginning of a new one.

The final page of the Eras Tour book ends with the words, “See you next era…”

On Gelsenkirchen Night 1, Taylor wore an orange dress during the surprise songs set while the screens flashed green. Fans were sure this was hinting at Reputation (Taylor’s Version), but it turned out to be teasing the new album.

And in the I Can Do It With a Broken Heart music video, we see Swift and her dancers using orange feathers, props that never appeared on stage during the tour itself.

Track 1: “The Fate of Ophelia”

The opening track of The Life of a Showgirl is titled “The Fate of Ophelia,” and if the name wasn’t enough of a clue, the album cover definitely is. Taylor is shown lying in water, referencing the iconic image of Ophelia, the Shakespearean character who famously drowned in a moment of madness.

During the Eras Tour, she ended each acoustic set the same way, by diving into water. At the time, it felt like a dramatic exit to entertain the fans. Now, it seems like a reenactment of Ophelia’s fate. The flowers often surrounding Ophelia in paintings also resemble the floral design on Taylor’s secret set piano.

With The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor re-establishes that no detail is too small to use in an album rollout. Clues carefully hidden in plain sight have been visible for fans for months, but only now are we able to fully understand them. The pop star always invites fans to play along, turning each release into a shared experience. There’s always more to her choices than meets the eye.

Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated new album, The Life of a Showgirl, drops on October 3rd!