Taylor Swift Revels in Easter Eggs on ‘The Life of a Showgirl’

Sometime the hint's come just weeks in advance; sometimes, Swift plants seeds for years down the road. In her 2022 “Antihero” music video, Swift is sized up by an alter-ego wearing the same shade of orange that has become characteristic of her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, released Friday, and already having broken numerous contemporary metrics. During her performance of “Karma” on her long-spanning Eras Tour, display screens featured a similarly colored orange door dropping slowly down from the sky, which some speculated even then was meant to tease the new era.

For Taylor Swift fans, these motif are evidence enough to pin down an upcoming project or promotion. It’s a skill that’s been cultivated over years of microdosing content and deeply concealed reveals on behalf of their favorite singer – some may say that the superstar has made being a mastermind her brand.

Since the early days of her country music career in Tennessee, Swift has been tuned into the art of easter-egging, imbuing hidden meaning into her work. The liner on the CD copy of her debut album, which contained lyrics to each of its tracks, actually featured random capitalizations that could be connected to spell out messages related to the songs’ content.

Even as her career has broadened over her past two decades in the public eye – from transitioning out of the country genre to reclaiming her master recordings to embarking on the two-year, worldwide retrospective Eras Tour – Swift continued to lace her discography with surprises. On her last appearance on Fallon’s show in 2021, while promoting the release of Red (Taylor’s Version), she discussed her inclination towards dropping hints; While it began as a tactic to encourage fans to engage with the lyrics she takes such pride in, her tactics have amplified over the years.

“When it got out of control was when I started to realize that it wasn’t just me… they had fun with it, too,” Swift said. “And I should never have learned that because then I couldn’t stop.”

For instance: ahead of The Life of a Showgirl', lyrics posted to Apple Music featured miscellaneous uppercase letters. They spelled out phrases like “they don’t make loyalty like they used to.” Some speculated that the hidden message could allude toward an upcoming release for Reputation: Taylor’s Version. Ultimately, it turned out to be a lyric from new song “Father Figure” — a move reminiscent of the wordplay on her earliest CD covers.

The most cynical of us might argue that this meticulousness can double as an insincere marketing tactic – a ploy built off of Swift’s star power to harvest engagement. In September, an enigmatic progress bar released to her website seemingly driven by pre-saves of The Life of a Showgirl on streaming platforms incentivized the masses to take action.

But the reason her listeners dedicate time and energy to dissecting Swift’s discography is because their efforts are rewarded, and they embrace her vulnerability with intention. Amidst a hyperaware online landscape in which she’ll be read to filth regardless, the freedom to leave the significance of everything she does up to interpretation might be one of Swift’s greatest blessings.

Sometimes, the nail polish really is just blue, but fans will never really be sure.

Eleanor Jacobs is PAPER's 2025 Fall Intern

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