The Billboard charts should be prepared to leave a “Blank Space" for Taylor Swift once again. On Friday, Swift is set to release “1989 (Taylor’s Version)" — nine years to the day after the original album was released.
When Swift released “1989” in 2014, it seemed like she was at her peak. “Shake It Off” became a massive hit, the viral “Bad Blood” music video featured seemingly every A-lister in Hollywood, and "1989" ended up edging out “Frozen” as the most popular album of the year.
While Swift’s re-recording journey may have been conceived as an effort to reclaim her work, the “Taylor’s Version” albums have been triumphant successes in their own right. All three re-recordings have debuted at No. 1, with each one performing better than the last.
The re-recording of “1989” is also poised to be a huge success. Here’s everything we know so far.
When does the album drop?
“1989 (Taylor’s Version)” will be released Friday at midnight. The release was announced at the final stop of the first U.S. leg of the Eras Tour in Los Angeles on Aug. 9. Fans speculated about the significance of the date, 8/9, for weeks ahead of the announcement.
Swift also announced the news on Instagram that night. “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," she wrote in the caption. "I can’t believe they were ever left behind.”
Ahead of the release, Taylor Nation, the official account for Swift’s management team, also shared a “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” album cover generator for fans to re-create the cover with their own photos. Fans posted their personalized covers, including versions featuring pictures of themselves and their pets.
Are there any new songs?
Swift revealed the track list in September in typical Swiftie fashion: with a complicated puzzle for fans to solve. Google announced that its search function would populate a series of 89 puzzles that fans could solve to eventually reveal the names of those new songs.
Fans successfully decoded the names of the five vault tracks, or songs that weren’t included on the original album. Swift posted the official track list to her social media platforms on Sept. 20, confirming the vault track titles: “Now That We Don’t Talk,” “Suburban Legends,” “Say Don’t Go,” “Is It Over Now?” and “‘Slut!’”
“I can’t wait for this one to be out, seriously,” Swift wrote on X. “Thank you for playing along, sleuthing, puzzling and making these reveals so much chaotic fun (which is the best kind of fun, after all 😜).”
Does the album feature any collaborations?
As of now, “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” doesn't seem to have any collaborations on the track list. But that hasn't stopped fans from posting their dream collab artists, including Harry Styles on “Style,” a track many believe to be about Swift’s former rumored relationship with her fellow pop star.
In terms of producers, the original “1989” was the first collaboration with Jack Antonoff, who has become an integral part of Swift’s discography and social life. He is credited as a producer on every “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” vault track. Other original producing collaborators, such as Max Martin and Imogen Heap, also returned for the re-recorded version of the album.
Have there been any notable Easter eggs?
It wouldn’t be Swiftdom without Easter eggs. Swift and her team have unleashed plenty of online speculation ahead of the album release.
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