Taylor Swift might not have released her ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ yet, but fans are already looking ahead to when her next re-recorded drop might be announced.
So far, the pop icon has shared new versions of ‘Fearless’, ‘Red’ and ‘Speak Now’, with ‘1989’ set to be released on October 27, exactly nine years after it was originally unveiled. That leaves her with just her self-titled debut album and ‘Reputation’ to re-record and, according to fan theories, it’s the latter that will be coming up next.
Swift is known for leaving Easter eggs in her songs, album artwork, concerts, videos and everything else in between and her Swifties have been working overtime to read between the lines of, well, anything that can be read into. They’ve concluded that ‘Reputation (Taylor’s Version)’ will be announced in February thanks to the ‘Karma’ music video – which also could have included some hints about ‘1989’.
At the end of the video, Swift holds a latte with a drawing of a clock drawn in its foam. Her nails are painted light blue and black – thought to represent different eras of her career, with the blue repping ‘1989’ and the black ‘Reputation’. The blue nail is next to the eight on the clock and, fittingly, she announced the ‘1989’ re-release in August. It stands to reason, then, that the black nail being next to the two could hint a ‘Reputation’ announcement in the second month of 2024.
Expanding on this, TikTok user @alexantonides predicted that the album itself will then arrive in April. They suggested the solar eclipse in the ‘I Can See You’ video pointed to an April 8, 2024 release date – because that is when the next solar eclipse will occur.
The Eras tour could also have given a big hint for the ‘Reputation’ announcement date. The show begins with a countdown clock set to two minutes and 23 seconds – a seemingly random amount of time. Nothing in Swift’s world is random though and, as TikToker @swiftieinkc pointed out, February 23 2024 is a Friday. That could suggest either a release date or just when Swift will share the news of the re-recorded album with us.
But other fans have suggested ‘Reputation (Taylor’s Version)’ could be dropping even sooner than that and even arrive before the end of the year. They’ve used the lettering on the cover of ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ as evidence, suggesting the ’s’ in ‘Version’ looks like a snake – a symbol commonly associated with that era – and the ‘I’ and ‘o’ in the same word look more like numerals. The conclusion? ‘Reputation is coming on November 10.
‘Glitch’, from Swift’s latest original album ‘Midnights’, could also back up that theory somewhat. In the song, she sings “2,190 days of our love blackout, which some fans have linked to the social media blackout she embarked on prior to releasing ‘Reputation’ in 2017. They’ve worked out that 2,190 days since the original release is November 9, 2023, which also coincides with her kicking off the next run of ‘The Eras’ tour and the album’s sixth anniversary.
The star’s VMAs acceptance speech has also been catching fans attention. It was rumoured that Swift was set to announce something at the awards ceremony – and she might have, in the most subtle way. While collecting the award for Best Pop Video, she told the audience that she “loves slinking around different genres”, immediately linking herself back to that snake imagery. That she was wearing all-black with a snake bracelet seemed to give further proof that ‘Reputation (Taylor’s Version)’ is coming – and soon.
While we wait and see if the Swifties have cracked Taylor’s codes once again, delve into her back catalogue a bit more with her 10 most underrated songs.
