Taylor Swift unveils the VERY sexy cover for new album The Life Of A Showgirl… and reveals release date

Taylor Swift excited fans by unveiling the cover for her highly-anticipated new album The Life Of A Showgirl as well as revealing the official release date.

The 14-time Grammy Award-winning singer, 35, first dropped the news about her 12th studio album earlier this week while teasing her upcoming appearance on boyfriend Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast.

And on Wednesday, just minutes after her New Heights episode premiered, Swift revealed the official album cover for The Life Of A Showgirl, which is currently available for preorder on her website, on social media.

She confirmed that the album will be released on October 3 — just over a year and a half after the release of her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department.

Swift also revealed the album’s official 12-song track list, confirming the inclusion of the song, Ruin The Friendship, which fans are convinced is a Blake Lively diss track.

‘And, baby, that’s show business for you. New album The Life of a Showgirl. Out October 3 ❤️‍,’ Swift tweeted to fans on X (formerly Twitter).

Proving to be her sexiest album cover yet, Swift flashes the flesh in a skimpy green jeweled bodysuit while submerged in water in what appeared to be a bathtub.

The album’s cover art has a collage-like look as cropped, close-up photos of Swift’s bedazzled body are used as a border. ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’ is spelled out in glittery orange lettering. 

The busty starlet stares stoically at the camera in the striking image captured by famed photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, who she last worked with on the album artwork for her 2017 album Reputation.

‘I loved what they did with those photos, so I called them up for [this album],’ she shared on the New Heights podcast. ‘I am so happy with the way the photos came out with this one.’

She said she wanted to go ‘all out’ on the imagery for The Life Of A Showgirl because she is ‘so proud’ of the music.

‘This is a full send. I care about this record more than I can even overstate.’ 

Swift revealed that the album cover is meant to depict what the ‘end of [her] night’ looks like on tour.

‘My day ends with me in a bathtub — not usually in a bedazzled dress — but we try to keep it decent,’ Swift joked. ‘I wanted to glamorize all the different aspects of how [the Eras Tour] felt and [the The Life Of A Showgirl cover] is how that felt at the end of the night.’

Swift said she chose that image because it best represents the album, which centers around the feelings and experiences in her ‘offstage’ life.

As revealed by Swift, the album’s song titles are: The Fate Of Ophelia, Elizabeth Taylor, Opalite, Father Figure, Eldest Daughter, Ruin The Friendship, Actually Romantic, Wi$h Li$t, Wood, CANCELLED!, Honey and The Life Of A Showgirl.

Fans were quick to spot that the album’s title track features Swift’s Eras Tour opening act and two-time Grammy winner, Sabrina Carpenter.

According to Swift’s website, there are a total of four deluxe album variants that fans can purchase — all of which feature different cover photos of Swift and cost $17.99.

A $29.99 vinyl, a $12.99 CD with a poster and a $19.99 cassette tape featuring the album’s official album cover are also available for purchase.

Other artwork for the album, all shot by Alas and Piggott, was also shared with fans on Wednesday. 

Posing in a stunning theatre, Swift looked nothing short of sensational in a skimpy feathered and bejeweled outfit as she stood with outstretched arms.

In another snap, the Shake It Off singer wore huge pink feathers and traded her blonde hair for a bobbed black wig as she perched on a table sipping a cocktail .

Keeping in the showgirl theme, Swift also slipped into a huge 20s themed feathered headpiece and dazzling bodysuit.

Last but not least, Swift dropped jaws in a black and red glittering strapless bodysuit as she posed lying on a chair. She left her long blonde tresses loose and accessorized with coordinated long gloves and sexy fishnet tights. 

The Life Of A Showgirl comes just a year and a half after the release of Swift’s Grammy Award-winning 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, which came out in April 2024.

The Life Of A Showgirl marks a major musical departure for Swift as it is her first album in over a decade that will not feature production by her go-to collaborator and co-songwriter, Jack Antonoff.

Instead, Swift confirmed she co-produced her new album with pop music heavyweights, Max Martin and Shellback.

Shortly before Martin’s involvement was confirmed, Swift’s eagle-eyed fans noticed that every song on the star’s latest Spotify playlist, which included choice cuts from 1989, Reputation and Red, had been produced by Martin.

Martin used to be a major collaborator with Swift, but the two haven’t worked together since recording music for Reputation, and Martin was notably absent from the sessions to rerecord songs he had previously worked on with Swift.

During her appearance on the New Heights podcast on Wednesday, Swift revealed that she recorded the new album while on her record-breaking Eras Tour, which ran from March 2023 to December 2025.

The superstar said she made frequent trips to Sweden to work with producer Martin during her rare days off from performing around the globe.

‘I would do like three shows in a row. I’d have three days off. I’d fly to Sweden, go back to the tour, and was actually working on this.

‘I was physically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating,’ she explained.

Kelce, who was seated beside Swift during the interview with his co-host and brother Jason Kelce, added: ‘She was literally living the life of a showgirl.’

‘That’s why I called [the album] that. Nailed it,’ Swift quipped as she playfully patted her boyfriend on the shoulder. 

Swift read the entire 12-song track list for The Life Of A Showgirl aloud for listeners before revealing the ‘significance’ behind the era’s orange color scheme and the ‘theme’ of the album.

‘I’ve just always liked [the color orange], Jason,’ Swift began. ‘It feels, energetically, like my life has felt and this album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during [the Eras Tour] which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant.’

She explained that The Life Of A Showgirl is so special because it’s ‘a record I made with my mentor Max Martin and Shellback and the three of us have made some of my favorite songs I’ve ever done before.’ 

It also marks the ‘first [full] album we’ve made just the three of us.’

She continued: ‘There’s no other collaborators, it’s just the three of us making a focused album where it felt like catching lightening in bottle.

‘We hadn’t worked together in like seven or eight years and there’s just something about them. These guys, like, they’re just geniuses in different avenues, in different ways.’

Swift reminded the Kelce brothers that Martin and Shellback are behind some of her biggest hits, including songs like 22, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, Shake It Off and Blank Space.

‘We’ve made songs that I am so proud,’ Swift gushed as Jason predicted: ‘There’s going to be some f***ing bangers [on this album].’

She then recalled meeting up with Martin at her Eras Tour show in Stockholm and how she felt as though they’d ‘knocked it out of the park’ with The Life Of A Showgirl.

She also remembered telling the producer that she wanted ‘to be as proud of an album as I am of the Eras Tour and for the same reasons.

‘And he was like, “Do you understand what kind of pressure that is?”‘

Proud boyfriend Travis later bragged that he already got ‘to hear every song on the album’ and that they are all ‘bangers.’ 

He teased that the album is ‘a lot more upbeat. It’s a lot more fun pop,’ to which Swift replied: ‘Life is more upbeat.’

Kelce also said that it’s ‘a complete 180 from the songs’ off Swift’s 2024 album The Tortured Poets Department, which was produced by Antonoff — who is noticeably absent from The Life Of A Showgirl.

Swift explained that her albums without Martin and Shellback, such as Folklore (2020) and Midnights (2022) were more ‘esoteric’ and ‘specific in their sound’ because she was ‘exploring and trying to challenge [herself] as a writer.’

Being that Martin and Shellback also explored a similar musical path in recent years, their reunion with Swift revealed a newfound ‘dexterity’ between the three of them.

Being that her and Shellback were both in their ‘early 20s’ and Martin was their mutual ‘mentor’ when they first started working together over a decade ago, Swift said that making The Life Of A Showgirl felt as though ‘all three of us in the room were carrying the same weight as creators.

‘It was really special. It meant the world to me to have this creative experience where we knew we had to bring the best ideas we ever had and I also know the pressure I’m putting on this record by saying that but I don’t care because I love it that much.’

Swift further teased that the album comes from an ‘infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life and so that effervescence has come through on this record.’

She said that her ‘main goals’ for the album were ‘melodies that were so infectious that you’re almost angry at it’ and lyrics that are ‘vivid but crisp and focused and completely intentional.’

She also confirmed that unlike The Tortured Poets Department, which had 31 songs, The Life Of A Showgirl is capped at 12 songs.

‘This is 12. There’s not a 13th. There’s not a 14th. There’s not other [songs] coming. This is the record I’ve been wanting to make for a very long time.’

Swift told fans that the album would be out on Friday, October 3, which she noted is Travis’ ‘birthday week.’

‘It’s gonna be a good week,’ Travis said with a smile.

To close out the album conversation, Swift spoke about ‘having different goals with different albums’ and how The Tortured Poets Department was a ‘lyrical’ project for her.

She said she wanted to achieve a ‘full catharsis’ by releasing that 31-song album and ’embracing the mess of writing.’

For The Life Of A Showgirl, Swift’s goals are completely different. ‘I was feeling a complete pivot at [that] point in time and I wanted the album to feel the way my life felt,’ she explained.

‘And this [album] completely matches the way my life has felt. Every single song is on this album for hundreds of reasons, you know? And you couldn’t take one [song] out and it be the same album. You couldn’t add one and it be [the same]. It’s just right.

‘And that focus and that kind of discipline creating an album and keeping the bar really high is something I’ve been wanting to do for a really long time.’

Swift explained that her natural instinct is to ‘write lots and lots of music’ and so it’s a ‘temptation to release lots of music.’

But with The Life Of A Showgirl, Swift said that she was ‘so focused on quality and on the theme and everything fitting together like a perfect puzzle.

‘With these 12 songs for my 12th album. I feel like we achieved that. And I’m really happy about that.’

Swift first announced that she had a new album in the works on Tuesday, August 12 after exciting fans with a surprise countdown on her official website. 

Her website crashed immediately after the timer ran out, stymying many of her devoted fans, but the X account for her boyfriend Kelce’s podcast shared a clip of her announcing the new LP.

‘So I wanted to show you something,’ Swift said in a clip as she sat next to Kelce. Then she pulled out a white case with ‘TS’ written on the side in orange block letters.

‘This is my brand-new album, The Life Of A Showgirl,’ Taylor said proudly as she held up a vinyl version of the album, which was censored in the video.

Travis’ brother Jason Kelce let out a piercing scream of joy as soon as the album title escaped her lips.

‘TS 12!’ Travis cheered excitedly, referencing The Life Of A Showgirl’s status as her twelfth studio album, as the announcement clip came to an abrupt end.

Once Swift’s website was back online, it had transformed into a ‘pre pre-order’ store for the upcoming album.

She was offering a $30 vinyl version of the album, a $13 CD that came with a double-sided poster decorated on either side with photos of the hitmaker and a $20 cassette version designed to appeal to fans with a retro streak.

Each display featured a heavily blurred version of what appeared to be the album cover, and the description promised that the various formats would have unique cover designs.

The vinyl version appeared to be tailored to collectors, as it was described as being printed on ‘Portofino Orange Glitter Vinyl,’ which was described as translucent orange vinyl decorated with gold glitter.

Fans had to wait until Swift’s New Heights episode premiered on Wednesday to see an uncensored version of the striking new album cover.

The podcast episode also provided devout Swift and Kelce fans with a rare look at their nearly two-year romance.  

During the sit-down with Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce, Swift recalled how her boyfriend first got her attention, when he attended one of her Eras Tour concerts in July 2023.

Kelce planned to give her a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it, but he was unable to meet her after the show. Later, he talked about it on the podcast, which Swift heard, leading to them finally meeting.

‘This dude didn’t get a meet and greet, and he’s making it everyone’s problem,’ Swift joked.

The Karma hitmaker compared their love story to being in ‘an 80’s John Hughes movie’ adding, ‘and he was just like standing outside my window with a boom box just being like ‘I wanna date you!”

‘I was like, if this guy isn’t crazy — which is a big if — this is sort of what I’ve been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager.’

The sweet appearance also featured plenty of PDA, including Kelce kissing Swift’s hand and gushing that he was ‘the luckiest man in the world.’

Swift shared how she owed a lot to the New Heights podcast, joking it helped her get a boyfriend because ‘Travis decided to use [the podcast] as his personal dating app.’

Travis’ brother and co-host Jason then inquired, ‘Were his friendship bracelets that good? Did you get the friendship bracelet?’

‘I’ve never seen the original,’ Swift quipped.

Travis then explained that the bracelets ‘didn’t leave the stadium because he was ‘butthurt’ that he didn’t get to meet Swift.

‘He threw a tantrum. He threw a man tantrum,’ Taylor joked.

‘It was such a wild, romantic gesture, to just be like, ‘I wanna date you!” the singer gushed.

‘Sweetie, that’s what it does when you’re on stage, you performed in Arrowhead, that’s what it did to me,’ Kelce said. ‘You come to Arrowhead, I get to meet you. That’s the perk of playing for the Chiefs,’ the NFL star added.

Taylor then humorously recalled how Travis ‘didn’t even reach out’ to her management.

‘He thought that ’cause he knows the elevator lady, that he could talk to her about just getting down.’

‘And I got denied,’ Travis chimed in.

‘He really was just like, ‘I know a guy, I can figure this out.”

She then compared Travis to a John Hughes movie character, joking he was outside her window with a boombox yelling ‘I wanna date you! Do you wanna go on a date with me? I made you a friendship bracelet. Do you wanna date me?’

Travis then added with a pleading voice, ‘Just come outside and meet me. Just meet me once. Just give me a chance.’

Travis also jokingly said he was listening to all of Taylor’s songs and knew she wanted him to come to her concert.

Taylor then imitated Travis’ voice, stating, ‘I’m upset that you didn’t meet me, even though you didn’t know I wanted to meet you because I didn’t do any proper logistical planning.’

‘Who plans nowadays?’ Travis quipped.

‘It was wild, but it worked,’ Taylor said.

Travis then kissed Taylor’s hand, and said he was ‘the luckiest man in the world.’

Jason then asked Taylor, ‘How did you know he wasn’t crazy?’ to which the singer humorously replied, ‘He is crazy, Jason’ before adding, ‘He’s the good kind of crazy.’

She then recalled how Travis went about getting to know her better in a was that was ‘very natural, very pure, very normal.’

The Grammy winner praised Travis for ‘the way he could make me laugh so immediately about normal things. He’s just a vibe booster in everyone’s life that he’s in. He’s a human exclamation point.’

She also gushed about the athlete being ‘so non-judgmental about people’ adding that he didn’t mind that she lacked knowledge about football when they met.

‘Jason, on our first date, I legitimately asked him what it was like when the Chiefs played the Eagles in the Super Bowl (in February 2023) and he looked across the field, across the line of scrimmage, and saw his brother standing 5ft in front of him on the field,’ she shared.

‘It didn’t happen’ Jason chimed in, as both Travis and Taylor laughed.

‘And he didn’t even look at me… I now know what an insane question that was. He was like: ‘Actually I’m on the offense and my brother is the offense and I’m only on the field at the same time as the defense.’ I thought everyone was out there at the same time,’ Taylor shared.

‘Well that’s how you played on the playground growing up, so I understand…’ Travis said.

‘I thought it was like Jared Goff is here and Josh Allen is here and they’re going to blow a whistle and they go at each other… and who’s going to win?’

‘I didn’t know what a first down was, I didn’t know what the chains were, I didn’t know what a tight end was,’ Taylor said.

Travis then thanked her, stating, ‘I’m forever thankful for you diving into the football world wholeheartedly.’

‘I fell in love with it, I became obsessed with it, I became like a person who was running through the halls of my house screaming ‘WE DRAFTED XAVIER WORTHY!’ and my friends are like ‘Who body snatched you? What do you mean?”

Travis then revealed she was the first person who told him the news.

‘I couldn’t believe it either. I was like ‘Is she right?’ I have to look this up. Did she get the wrong information here?’

Elsewhere on the podcast Taylor broke down in tears as she opened up on how she fought for years to reclaim the masters of her music.

With over a million fans tuning in for the live stream, she explained how Kelce was playing video games when she found out she had bought the rights back but the NFL star even started weeping when he was told the news. Swift had sent her mother and brother to Los Angeles to negotiate with Shamrock Capital, the owners, on her behalf.

‘He was playing video games, and he put his headset down. I was like ‘I got my music back!’ And I was heaving crying. This changed my life.’