THE RUNDOWN
- Taylor Swift started her second countdown of the week, set to expire at 2 P.M. ET today.
- Swift released a new alternate cover for The Life of the Showgirl at the end of her first countdown.
- She revealed a second alternate cover, the Baby, That’s Show Business edition, after her countdown today.
Another The Life of a Showgirl alternate cover has arrived, Swift revealed at the end of her August 21 countdown.
“The Life of a Showgirl: Baby, That’s Show Business Vinyl Collection is available now on my site for 48 hours, while supplies last ❤️🔥,” she wrote.
The shopping page went live on her site at the end of the countdown. Shop the limited edition vinyls here.
On August 18, Swift posted a purple countdown that led to her announcing a limited-edition vinyl collection for her album, called “The Shiny Bug” collection. The records were available for just 48 hours.
Ahead of that reveal, fans theorized that she could be announcing “Actually Romantic” as her first single or even that she’s playing the Super Bowl halftime show next year.
Given this countdown’s timing—and the industry standard of artists releasing new music at midnight on Fridays—there was a chance Swift could’ve announced a single. But there will likely be more countdowns for that.
Swift has stayed out of the public eye this week, but she spoke on New Heights just days ago about why she loves setting Easter eggs for fans. That desire to connect with them could be fueling her multiple countdowns.
The singer discussed her methodology, saying, “The art of the Easter egg is that there’s do’s and don’ts, right? I’m never going to plant an Easter egg that ties back to my personal life. It’s always going to be towards music…”
“Something I’m coming up with, something I have coming up, a plan I have coming together,” she continued. “Something that you don’t know I’m saying for a specific reason that you’ll hear later and you’ll go back and be like, ‘Oh my god.’ I think my favorite one of those was I was given an honorary doctorate from NYU, and I made the commencement speech. And I put so many lyrical Easter eggs in that speech that when the Midnights album came out after that, the fans were like, ‘The whole speech was an Easter egg.’ And for me, that’s really fun, because they find it fun.”
