Taylor Swift is continuing to fulfil her fans’ Wildest Dreams — this time with an announcement that a re-release of her album 1989 is on the way.
On Wednesday, during her final performance at California’s SoFi Stadium as part of her Eras Tour, Swift announced she would be releasing the highly anticipated 1989 (Taylor’s Version).
The re-recorded album will be released on Oct. 27, the same date 1989 was originally released in 2014. The new album will include five previously unreleased tracks.
Swift, 33, made the announcement during the surprise song portion of her show, a fan-favourite segment that sees the Grammy-winning singer perform two numbers not previously included in her setlist.
Swift told her screaming fans that she wanted to share something she’s been planning for a long time.
“I think instead of just telling you about it, I think I’ll just sort of show you,” Swift said as she revealed the new album art for 1989 (Taylor’s Version).
As expected, the Swifties in Los Angeles launched into raucous cheering.
Swift then performed a rendition of New Romantics from the album 1989.
On social media, the singer confirmed the news and posted a photo of the album.
“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 October 27th,” Swift wrote. “To be perfectly honest, this is my most FAVORITE re-record I’ve ever done because the 5 From The Vault tracks are so insane. I can’t believe they were ever left behind. But not for long!”
The announcement was also projected onto the top of the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
The 1989 album included some of Swift’s most popular songs like Shake It Off and Blank Space.
1989 (Taylor’s Version) is the fourth of six albums Swift will be re-recording after a dispute with music mogul Scooter Braun and her ex-record label. The feud arose in 2019 after it was revealed Swift did not own the master recordings of her older albums. Swift has already re-recorded and released Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (2021), Red (Taylor’s Version) (2021) and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (2023).
Every Taylor’s Version album has included new album artwork, unreleased songs “from The Vault” and new music videos inspired by the album’s original era.
Eagle-eyed Swift fans expected that 1989 would be the next album to get a revamp. Last month, when she released her music video for her new song I Can See You, an unreleased from Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), fans noticed a sign at the video’s end that reads “1989TV.”
As part of her ever-popular Eras Tour, Swift also changed her stage outfits from purple to blue on Wednesday — blue is associated with 1989, while purple coincides with the theming of Speak Now.
The official announcement has already drummed up excitement online.
Swift is currently on tour, and many fans are clamouring for a ticket to her show. Canadian fans still have chances to score a ticket to her six upcoming Toronto concerts — though competition is fierce.
The Nov. 16, 2024 show will go on sale at 11 a.m. ET and the Nov. 21, 2024 date will be up for grabs at 1 p.m. ET.
Ticketmaster is staggering ticket presales for six shows at the Rogers Centre over three days to avoid online technical issues Swift fans may have encountered for past shows. Buyers must have already registered for and received a “verified fan” sale code in order to get in the virtual queue for the tickets.
— With files from The Canadian Press