All of Taylor Swift’s Sneaky <i>The Life of a Showgirl</i> Easter Eggs

Taylor Swift just did it again: She not only announced a new album, but also snuck in a number of hints long before she broke the news. As she revealed her 12th LP, The Life of a Showgirl, is on the way, fans realized that the pop star had been sharing subtle nods at the record weeks—even months—in advance.

As Swift enters a new era of music, she’ll continue her longtime tradition of sharing Easter eggs with her fans. She told The Washington Post in 2022, “When I was 15 and putting together my first album, [...] I decided to encode the lyrics with hidden messages using capital letters. That’s how it started, and my fans and I have since descended into color coding, numerology, word searches, elaborate hints, and Easter eggs. It’s really about turning new music into an event for my fans and trying to entertain them in playful, mischievous, clever ways. As long as they still find it fun and exciting, I’ll keep doing it.”

Here are all the hints she sneakily dropped for The Life of a Showgirl.

A TikTok Swift posted back in October 2024 featured a sign that said “A12,” which fans now realize is a reference to “August 12,” the day she announced her new album. Mind you, she broke the news at 12:12 A.M. ET—because this is her 12th album.

The album announcement came 12 weeks after Swift revealed she bought the masters to all her albums.

Shortly after Swift announced The Life of a Showgirl, she dropped a playlist highlighting music she has written with Max Martin and Shellback. Many fans are left wondering if this new album will feature them as collaborators once again, a departure from her last few projects which heavily featured Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner.

During the Eras Tour, Swift notably burned down the Lover house, which had a room for each of her eras. Debuted during the “Lover” music video, the house has stood as a representation of Swift’s career. Well, now the house is out of rooms, so during her performance of “Bad Blood” on the tour, Swift burnt it to the ground. And now, in this new era, the emoji Swift is using is a heart on fire.

During the Eras Tour, as Swift would wrap up her last song, “Karma,” an orange door would begin to descend from the stage, which many eagle-eyed fans believed to mean she was finally leaving her Lover house. The house, which is out of rooms, does need an addition, so perhaps the door was to a dressing room ready for The Life of a Showgirl.

In a letter about the masters that she posted on her website, Swift said she was “Thiiiiiiiiiiiis close” to releasing new music, with the letter I written 12 times. Her mind!

In the past, Swift has dabble in the showgirl arts. In the music video for “Bejeweled,” Swift worked with famed burlesque performer Dita Von Teese and concluded the video with a fully-feathered performance where she stood in a glowy orange spotlight.

Fans also noticed that Swift’s “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” number in the Eras Tour was showgirl-inspired. To further emphasize the through line, in the “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” music video, as Swift is seen practicing, her backup dancers are carrying orange fans, possibly alluding to what’s to come. For their performance in the Eras Tour, they switched to white fans.

There might even be an Easter egg in Swift’s “Anti-Hero” music video, which was released two years ago. In one scene featuring two Swifts, one version of the singer wears white (possibly symbolizing her The Tortured Poets Department era), while another wears orange and green, the colors of her Showgirl era.

This post will be updated.