This summer belongs to Taylor Swift, the reigning queen of pop music. Amidst her rapturous Eras Tour, Swift has set the internet ablaze with an announcement that has her fans, colloquially known as “Swifties”, rejoicing.
During a performance on Wednesday night at the SoFi stadium in California, the last venue of the first United States leg of her tour, Swift revealed the release date of her much-anticipated album, “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”. Slated for release on October 27, the album is a re-recording of her 2014 blockbuster, “1989”. This date also marks the ninth anniversary of the original album’s release.
Swift took to social media to express her excitement, stating, “The 1989 album changed my life in countless ways, and it fills me with such excitement to announce that my version of it will be out on October 27th.” Swift added that this was her “most FAVORITE rerecord I’ve ever done.”
Taylor Swift announcing #1989TaylorsVersion tonight at SoFi Stadium! #LATStheerastour #TSTheErasTour pic.twitter.com/zCSzcEWT2b
— The Eras Tour (@TSTheErasTour) August 10, 2023
The album, which includes chart-topping hits like “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space,” is a part of Swift’s ongoing effort to regain control of her first six albums’ master recordings. This endeavor began after music executive Scooter Braun bought Big Machine, Swift’s former label, and with it, the original recordings of her first six albums. The sale, which Swift claimed, “stripped me of my life’s work,” led the rights to her music to change hands again, with Braun’s company selling them to Shamrock Capital, an investment firm founded by Roy E. Disney, for over $300 million.
Since her announcement to re-record her albums in 2019, Swift has released “Fearless,” “Red” and “Speak Now.” Each of these albums has served to reinforce her belief that, “Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work.”
Swift’s Eras Tour, which has rapidly morphed into an international business and cultural phenomenon, has seen fans worldwide clamoring for tickets, pushing ticket systems to their limits. The tour, which features 146 stadium dates, will continue in Mexico this month, with later performances in Argentina, Brazil, Japan, and Europe. The tour is expected to resume in the United States in the fall of 2024. Trade publication Pollstar estimates the tour’s earnings to surpass $1 billion by the time Swift reaches Singapore in March.
Swift’s fans, known for dissecting every detail of her posts and appearances, had already speculated about the potential announcement of the “1989” re-recording. Their theories were further fueled by SoFi Stadium’s social media posts teasing a “surprise.” With Swift’s announcement, the speculation has turned into celebration, and the countdown to October 27 has officially begun.
