Taylor Swift is the most talked-about woman in the world right now, releasing her new long-awaited studio album The Tortured Poets Department on Friday.
“The Tortured Poets Department,” Swift announced on social media. “An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure.”
Her message continued: “This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it. And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”
The 34-year-old’s album release came with a major twist too, as two hours after the original album dropped, she released a second instalment of 15 additional songs, revealing that The Tortured Poets Department was a double album.
“It’s a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album,” Swift announced in her second post. “I’d written much tortured poetry in the past two years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second instalment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours.”
According to Swiftie sleuths however, a double album was hinted at before its release, with the singer dropping a massive Easter egg ahead of time – and we all missed it.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The hint in question took place at the 2024 Grammy Awards when Swift announced the album in her acceptance speech.
“Okay, this is my 13th Grammy, which is my lucky number. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you that,” Taylor announced in her now-viral acceptance speech. “I want to say thank you to the members of the Recording Academy for voting this way, but I know that the way that the Recording Academy voted is a direct reflection of the passion of the fans. So I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I have been keeping from you for the last two years, which is that my brand-new album comes out April 19th. It’s called ‘The Tortured Poets Department.’ I’m going to go and post the cover right now backstage. Thank you, I love you! Thank you!”
During the speech Swift can be seen holding two fingers up in what appears to be a peace sign, but in fact fans believe that it symbolises the number two.
This is something that Swift has continued through social media, adding the peace sign emoji to all of her teasers about The Tortured Poets Department.
We will continue to update this story.
The Tortured Poets Department double album is out now.
