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1 year oldTaylor Swift has sent Swifties into a frenzy as she announced the release of the much anticipated “1989” (Taylor’s Version).
Taking to the stage during her last Los Angeles show, Swift dropped the news just before launching into her “surprise songs”, where she plays two “surprise” acoustic songs during the 44 song setlist.
Donning a new blue dress, Swift shared an intimate moment with concertgoers, expressing her gratitude that fans had responded so well to her re-recordings in a bid to own her music.
The special occasion was also shared with fans from far and wide on an Instagram livestream, where Swift explained how she’d wanted to own her work ever since she was a teenager.
“And the way that you’ve embraced that, the way that you’ve celebrated that, you really decided that it was your fight too, and that you were 100 per cent behind me, and if I cared about it you cared about it, and I will never stop thanking you for that,” she said in between excited screams from fans.
“There’s something that I’ve been planning for a really, really, really, ridiculously, embarrassingly long time, and I think instead of just, like, telling you about it, I think I’ll just sort of show you.”
She then directed the roaring crowd to the screens that revealed the new album cover for her version of 1989 – which will be available October 27. The crowd went wild before Swift went into an acoustic version of the 1989 single “New Romantics”.
The announcement for this latest addition has cleverly landed on 08/09/2023, and comes as the US leg of Swift’s Eras Tour comes to a close after six nights in Los Angeles, and 146 shows across America in total.
Throughout the show, Swift left fans with no shortage of her infamous “Easter eggs”, debuting four new (and blue!) outfits, and reportedly changing some of the lighting to blue to reflect the “era’s colour”.
A dazzling blue ball gown was tagged in for the “Speak Now” era of the concert, with more blue substitutions following for “Folklore”, “1989” and the “surprise songs”, leaving the internet in a storm of speculation.
Some concertgoers also mentioned that the light up bracelets that fans are given at all of Swift’s shows were flashing blue, just as they flashed purple before the rerelease of “Speak Now” was announced.
1989 marked Swift’s electric pop debut, winning Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Music Video at the 58th Grammy Awards.
Fans have suspected the re-recording was on the way for a little while, now: just last week SoFi Stadium sent Swifties into a craze, posting a photo of a lifeguard tower with “1989” written boldly on the side to Twitter.
Fans also caught onto potential hints in an Instagram post by the star weeks ago on Independence Day. Reminiscent of the “1989 era” – which is characterised by polaroids and her iconic “squad” of friends – Swift posted photos of polaroids with friends including Selena Gomez and the HAIM sisters.
The announcement is also long overdue, with Swift having released “Wildest Dreams” and “This Love” (Taylor’s Version) in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
Swift also released a snippet of “Bad Blood” (Taylor’s Version) for the film DC League of Super-Pets last year.
During tonight’s show, Swift also talked about how fun the tour has been for her so far.
“I figured it would be fun, but I did not know it would be like this, I just didn’t, but the thing is that you guys have made it so much fun,” she said.
“And the last time I was so pleasantly surprised by some stuff that you guys did was when I announced that I was going to be rerecording my first six albums,” she said as fans began to catch on, erupting into screams.
The singer/songwriter has been on a mission to own her first six albums since 2021, when she released both “Fearless” and “Red” (Taylor’s Version). As of the end of October, Swift will own four of the six albums.