US pop superstar Taylor Swift has revealed she is releasing a new studio album, The Life of a Showgirl.
Swift is known for dropping hints to her loyal fans, dubbed Swifties, in the lead-up to a big announcement, and this time was no different.
On Monday, Swifties were quick to spot a cryptic countdown sitting on a sparkly orange background on her official website. It teased an announcement at 12:12am on August 12, local time.
Prior to the countdown appearing, several social media posts alluded to the 14-time Grammy winner releasing her 12th album.
Taylor Nation, an Instagram account run by Swift's marketing team, shared 12 photos of the singer in orange outfits from the Eras tour. They were captioned: "See you next era …"
And the hosts of the New Heights podcast, Swift's boyfriend and NFL star Travis Kelce, and his brother and retired NFL great Jason Kelce, shared that they were "coming back early with a VERY special guest".
At 12:12am local time, Swift's website briefly crashed before then directing users to pre-order a green and orange The Life of a Showgirl record.
The New Heights podcast later shared a video promoting an upcoming appearance from Swift.
In it, the singer is seen opening up a suitcase with the letters T and S on it, and pulling out a record.
"This is my brand new album, The Life of a Showgirl," she says.
Fans were quick to take to social media to share their excitement about the upcoming album.
"If you told me the day the Eras Tour opened that the show would end with an orange door that would hint at TS12, but the announcement would be on her future boyfriend's football podcast, I don't know what I would have said," one user wrote.
"Now how am I supposed to just wake up to this and go to work?" another wrote.
A date for The Life of a Showgirl's release has not yet been announced.
