Leave it to Taylor Swift to kick the week off with a bang and leave us hanging on the edge of our seats. Just this morning, the pop star did what she does best and tossed us a sizeable Easter egg to her fandom on Twitter by teasing the possible release of her next re-recorded album, which, thanks to a single purple heart emoji, is believed to be her 2010 album Speak Now.
Swift, who is currently on the road for her Eras Tour, just finished performing at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Ever the polite performer, she took to Twitter to thank her fans for forking up their hard-earned cash and showing up.
“WOW Atlanta just… wow,” she wrote. “The band, dancers, and I can’t stop talking about how insanely magical it was playing for you guys the past 3 nights. You were always bouncing, dancing, screaming every lyric. And you created so many breathtaking moments for us, you know what I mean. Looove yooouuu. Hey Nashville you’re NEXT 💜”
Devoted Swifties will notice two things above all else in the tweet. The first is the purple heart for obvious reasons (the color theme for Speak Now is purple), but the second is her comment, “you know what I mean.” For those not in the know, “Mean” was one of Swift’s more popular singles from the 14-track album.
Swift has a long and dedicated history of planting Easter eggs in her songs, announcements, outfits, interviews, etc… Compared to some of her others, this Speak Now Easter egg is hardly obscure. In fact, some could argue that the singer has grown less and less subtle with her hints since her tenth studio album Midnights released last year. And her fandom thinks so, too.
Currently, Swift has re-released a total of two albums, including Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in 2021 and Red (Taylor’s Version) that same year. The remaining albums include Speak Now, 1989, and Reputation, all of which were released under Big Machine Records. Due to a legal dispute over the ownership of her masters, Swift left Big Machine Records for Republic Records in 2018 in partnership with Taylor Swift Productions Inc with the intent to re-release her entire discography.
Now that Swift’s five-year copyright lawsuit for her hit song “Shake It Off” has been dropped, many fans have speculated that 1989 would be the singer’s next re-release. However, the number of Easter eggs, including today’s, pointing to Speak Now indicates Swift is looking to close that gap between Fearless and Red. (Speak Now was actually released in between those two albums.)
If Swift does plan to follow through on her purple-heart Easter egg, fans can expect some form of an announcement on or around this Friday, May 5, when she performs at the Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. Much more likely, however, is that Swift will just continue to drop Easter eggs like breadcrumbs between now and the end of her Eras Tour, at which point she can reasonably spend more time promoting her next re-release.
In fact, knowing Swift, we may very well get our biggest Easter egg (or even an official announcement) at the end of the Eras Tour, which concludes on Aug. 9 in Los Angeles, California. Our butts are firmly glued to the edge of the seat.