Taylor Swift Reveals When She Started Working on ‘The Tortured Poets Department’
Taylor Swift is back on the road for her global Eras Tour, and soon, she’ll be adding a new “era” to the mix: The Tortured Poets Department, her 11th album which she announced during her best pop vocal acceptance speech at the 2024 Grammys.
And at her returning show in Japan on Wednesday (Feb. 7), she revealed exactly how long she’s been crafting her April 19-slated record. “I’ve been working on Tortured Poets since right after I turned in Midnights,” Swift shared at Tokyo Dome, adding, “You turn in albums months in advance.”
“I’ve been working on it for about two years,” she continued. “I kept working on it throughout the U.S. tour and when it was perfect — in my opinion when it’s good enough for you — I finished it and I am so, so excited that soon you’ll get to hear it. Soon we’ll get to experience that together.”
Fans were shocked Sunday (Feb. 4) when the 34-year-old pop star, while accepting the first of two Grammys she would earn that night for her fall 2022 album Midnights, revealed the title and release date of Tortured Poets on the Crypto.com Arena stage before immediately sharing its cover art on Instagram. But according to Swift, the album’s announcement would have come this week no matter what — even if she hadn’t won either best pop vocal or album of the year at the awards show.
In fact, the “Anti-Hero” singer said she’d planned to drop the news at Wednesday’s concert had she not taken home any golden gramophones a few nights prior. “Luckily enough that ended up happening,” she told the crowd, thanking fans for indirectly securing Midnights‘ AOTY win. “My backup plan was I was gonna do it tonight in Tokyo.”
“I’m over the moon about the fact that you guys care about my music, it still blows my mind,” she concluded. “Everyone’s like, ‘Why do you make so many albums?’ I’m like, ‘Man, because I love it. I love it so much.’ I’m having fun, leave me alone.”
Swift has three nights left at Tokyo Dome this week before she’s expected to fly back to the States to support boyfriend Travis Kelce at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, where the Kansas City Chiefs will face off against the San Francisco 49ers. The next week, she’ll embark on the Australian leg of the Eras Tour before doing a string of Singapore shows early March.
This week of Eras shows also means four nights’ worth of new surprise songs, which, at Wednesday’s show, were “Dear Reader” and “Holy Ground.”
See clips from Swift’s comeback Eras Tour show in Tokyo below.
Hannah Dailey
Billboard
