Taylor Swift announces completed re-record of second album following masters dispute
Taylor Swift has announced that she's finished re-recording her second album Fearless after the original recordings were sold by her former record label.
The 32-year-old shared on Good Morning America on Thursday that the first single to be officially rereleased is Love Story (Taylor's Version) on Thursday, which was featured on the original 2008 record.
Swift has previously announced her intentions to re-record her first six albums to gain ownership of her music.
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She's now said the album, known as Fearless (Taylor's Version), will have a few extra tracks "from the vault" written when she was a teenager.
EXCLUSIVE: @taylorswift13 is dropping a new re-recorded version of her song “Love Story” at midnight! She tells @GMA she has re-recorded her entire “Fearless” album and gives us a sneak peek at the new cover! 💛💛 #TaylorSwiftOnGMA https://t.co/UQUu2QuE6O pic.twitter.com/8ZvZBmvgiR
— Good Morning America 💛💛 (@GMA) February 11, 2021
It will be comprised of 26 songs in total.
It comes as she has been engaged in a high-profile dispute with her former record label Big Machine over the masters of her early albums.
Music manager Scooter Braun owned them after acquiring Big Machine, with Swift saying at the time she was “sad” and “grossed out” and accused him of being behind “incessant, manipulative bullying”.
In November it was announced he had sold the rights to a private equity firm in a deal reportedly worth more than 300 million dollars (about £216 million).
I’m thrilled to tell you that my new version of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is done and will be with you soon. It has 26 songs including 6 never before released songs from the vault. Love Story (Taylor’s Version) will be out tonight. Pre-order now at https://t.co/NqBDS6cGFl 💛💛 pic.twitter.com/Vjyy2gA72O
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) February 11, 2021
The singer has been with Universal Music Group since 2018, releasing albums Lover, Folklore and Evermore on the label.
In December, she had given fans a little preview of the new Love Story as she allowed friend Ryan Reynolds to use a snippet of the song in an advert for a dating website.
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In a longer statement about her plans fans noted Swift - who has a track record of teasing her fanbase with crytpic clues - appeared to leave a hint through the seemingly random capitalisation of a few letters throughout her message.
Commenters pointed out it spelt "APRIL NINTH", perhaps pointing to the release date of the new Fearless.
You missed two! It says APRIL NINTH 🥳 must be release date
— Dr Becky Smethurst (@drbecky_) February 11, 2021
The statement also said: "I've spoken a lot about why I'm remaking my first six albums, but the way I've chosen to do this will hopefuLy illuminate where I'm coming from," she said.
"Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really *knows* that body of work."
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