Taylor Swift almost didn’t announce her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, at this year’s Grammy Awards.
Swift revealed that her 11th studio album will drop on April 19 during her acceptance speech for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2024 ceremony.
Speaking at her Eras Tour concert in Tokyo, Japan on Feb. 7, Swift disclosed how she initially planned to surprise fans with her latest release.
“I had this plan in my head, and I told my friends … but I hadn’t really told many other people,” she tells the crowd in a now-viral fan video. “I thought, ‘OK, if I’m lucky enough to get up there and win one thing tonight, I’m just gonna do it. I’m just gonna announce my new album.’”
Taylor’s “Backup Plan”
In the fan-posted video, Swift goes on to explain that had she not won any Grammy trophies on Feb. 4, she was “gonna announce tonight in Tokyo.”
The singer also revealed that she began writing The Tortured Poets Department soon after finishing her Grammy-winning album Midnights, which was released in 2022.
“I’ve been working on it for about two years,” Swift continued. “I kept working on it throughout the U.S. tour. When it was perfect in my opinion — when it was good enough for you — I finished it.”
Concluding her speech at the Tokyo stop of her Eras Tour, Swift said she’s “so, so excited” for fans to hear the record. “Everyone asks, ‘Why do you make so many albums?’” she continued. “It’s like, ‘Man, because I love it so much. I’m having fun. Leave me alone.’”
Taylor’s Grammys Announcement
After winning Best Pop Vocal Album for Midnights at the Grammys on Feb. 4, Swift began her acceptance speech by noting that she’d just won her 13th Grammy (the singer’s lucky number), before sharing details of her forthcoming LP.
“I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I have been keeping from you for the last two years,” she said, “which is that my brand new album comes out April 19th. It’s called The Tortured Poets Department.”
Swift later unveiled the album’s cover art, photographed by Beth Garrabrant, and the official Tortured Poets Department tracklist — which some fans have dubbed “Joe Alwyn-coded.”
