Taylor Swift’s Mystery 2 P.M. ET Countdown, Revealed: All We Know
THE RUNDOWN
- Taylor Swift started a new countdown clock this morning, leading to a 2 P.M. ET announcement.
- Fans theorized Swift could be announcing The Life of a Showgirl’s first single. In reality, she shared a special The Life of a Showgirl: The Shiny Bug Vinyl Collection, which is available for only 48 hours.
- Over the weekend, fan theories about Swift hinting a 2026 Super Bowl halftime performance also went viral.
Less than one week after revealing the cover art, tracklist, and release date for her upcoming album The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift had another announcement at 2 P.M. ET today: She is selling a rare vinyl collection for her new album, available for only 48 hours.
Swift put fans on alert this morning when she started a new countdown on her site. Thankfully, the wait wasn’t long:
Taylor Swift’s new countdown on her site.
At 2 P.M., she posted on Instagram, “The Life of a Showgirl: The Shiny Bug Vinyl Collection is available now on my site for 48 hours❤️🔥,” alongside a new cover shot of her taken by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott.
You can shop it here:
It was initially unclear what news she’d share, although possibilities included Swift revealing that she will perform at the 2026 Super Bowl or 2025 MTV VMAs. Some fans were convinced she’d announce her album’s first single and release date. The URL for her site auto-directed to store.taylorswift.com/password, which was a telling hint the ultimate announcement would be merch of some form.
Ahead of the countdown ending, fans noticed that Swift’s Apple Music page was glittering in purple ahead of the announcement, with some Swifties theorizing her first single will be “Actually Romantic.”
Over the weekend, fans speculated that the star hinted at a 2026 Super Bowl halftime show performance during her New Heights appearance.
Swift spoke about her love of numerology during the show, and fans linked her comment about having thoughts of sourdough “60 percent of the time” to next year’s Super Bowl since it is the NFL’s 60th ever. The game will also take place in Levi’s Stadium, home to the San Francisco 49ers whose mascot is notably Sourdough Sam.
During the interview, the singer explained her Easter egg methodology: “The art of the Easter egg is that there’s do’s and don’ts, right? I’m never going to plant an Easter egg that ties back to my personal life. It’s always going to be towards music or a musical.”
“Something I'm coming up with, something I have coming up, a plan I have coming together,” she continued. “Something that you don’t know I’m saying for a specific reason that you’ll hear later and you’ll go back and be like, ‘Oh my god.’ I think my favorite one of those was I was given an honorary doctorate from NYU, and I made the commencement speech. And I put so many lyrical Easter eggs in that speech that when the Midnights album came out after that, the fans were like, ‘The whole speech was an Easter egg.’ And for me, that’s really fun because they find it fun.”
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