Our five biggest predictions for Taylor Swift’s 'The Life of a Showgirl'

Since Taylor Swift announced her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, last week (on boyfriend Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast, no less!), her fans have been buzzing about what to expect from the upcoming project.

There have been quite literally hundreds of theories floating around the internet, including everything from colour-theory analyses to carefully hidden Easter eggs to, of course, album-track-list analysing, all in hopes of decoding what’s to come from TS12. If there’s one thing we can accurately predict, it’s that every Swift release always comes with a surprise.

While we won’t be able to listen to the new project until October 3, until then, we can indulge in a bit of innocent speculation. Ahead, Harper’s Bazaar editors share their personal predictions of what to expect from Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl.

Bops on Bops

“The fact that she’s working with the Swedish songwriter and producer Max Martin on this album—and the fact that it’s 12 tracks long—makes me hope we’re going to get another 1989. Martin co-wrote and co-produced Blank Space, Bad Blood, Style, and Shake It Off, among other tracks on that album. He also coproduced ‘…Baby One More Time’ and he’s the man responsible for the existence of I Want It That Way, so he’s kind of a pop superhero. Just give us a no-skips album of perfect pop songs, Taylor! It’s what the world needs now.”
—Izzy Grinspan, digital director

A Newfound Freedom in Fashion

“Based off the choice alone of having Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott shoot her (many!) album covers for this project, maybe her personal style will shift into something a bit hotter: more revealing, more edge, and a more grown-up sensuality versus the girl-next-door vibe that she’s become so insanely famous for. It feels like she’s about to go ultra-glamorous, perhaps trading in the friendship bracelets for diamonds—or pasties!”
—Brooke Bobb, fashion news director

Her and Travis Kelce’s Love Story

“When it comes to her love life, I would argue that Taylor is actually pretty guarded. She speaks little about her relationships in interviews, and it’s rare that she makes public appearances with her partners. The most we learn about her romances is through her lyrics—all the puzzles and poetic clues that she leaves us. Up until this point, and until her recent New Heights podcast interview, we didn’t know much about Taylor’s relationship with Travis. The most we got was those internet-breaking moments in the NFL stands, and her songs about him were somewhat rote: the football metaphors of ‘The Alchemy’ and, well, even more football metaphors in ‘So High School.’ So, my hope for The Life of a Showgirl is that we get to see the deeper side of their relationship. Taylor stated that she recorded these songs while embarking on her world-dominating Eras Tour, which was also when she first fell into her whirlwind relationship with Travis. What was this new romance like during the most successful, but also most demanding period of her career? Travis seems different from all the boys she’s loved before, so how does a love like that affect Taylor’s songwriting? I can’t wait to find out.”
—Joel Calfee, assistant editor
 

A New Side of Swift

“I think this is going to be Taylor’s sexiest, spiciest album yet—and I know I’m not the only one. There has already been considerable discourse around the album artwork, with some arguing that now that she owns her body of work (the master recordings), she is no longer shy about showing her actual body (including her belly button). There was also the PDA during the New Heights podcast (for what it’s worth, she remarked that Travis could ‘throw’ her ‘over a mountain’), as well as the curious song titles (‘Wood’ and Jason Kelce’s hilarious response to hearing ‘Wood’). I hope we get 12 songs that sound like ‘Dress,’ ‘Guilty as Sin?,’ ‘Delicate,’ and ‘King of My Heart.’ Taylor has metaphorically danced and written around the topic of sex in her songs (‘I had died the tiniest death,’ ‘His hands are in my hair, his clothes are in my room’), but I think TLOAS is shaping up to show a new side of Taylor.”
—Jenna Rosenstein, beauty director

An Ode to Showgirls Past

“When I first saw the photo shoot for The Life of a Showgirl, it immediately brought to mind Britney Spears’s Circus album rollout, with all of the glamorous vintage details incorporated into the styling. Of course, the concept of the showgirl in pop culture isn’t new, but it really has been reimagined time and time again via different divas like Spears, Kylie Minogue, Madonna, and more. With that said, I wonder if Swift will reference or pay homage to showgirls past (like Spears, whom she’s shared in the past to be a huge fan of) in any of the 12 tracks we’ll soon hear or in any of the upcoming music videos. She’s said that this album will provide ‘a peek behind the curtain’ of what’s seen onstage, and maybe there’s more commentary to come on how she’s handled out-of-this-world fame over the years.”
—Bianca Betancourt, culture editor

Lead image: Getty Images

This article originally appeared on harpersbazaar.com

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