Taylor Swift Reveals ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ Is Coming at L.A. Tour Finale

Fans’ predictions that Taylor Swift might use her 8/9 date at L.A.’s SoFi Stadium to announce a re-recorded version of “1989” proved correct.

Swift took several minutes out of the three-and-a-half hour show to reveal that “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” will be arriving Oct. 27, just before giving a long-awaited performance of “New Romantics” as one of the night’s two acoustic “secret songs.” (See video of her announcement and subsequent song below.)

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“So now, here we are on the last night of the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour, in the eighth month of the year, and the ninth day,” Swift began, teasing the ecstatic sold-out crowd.

“Notice there’s some new outfits in the show,” she continued, calling out what eagle-eyed Swifties already noticed. By Swift Easter-egg standards, the buildup to this reveal throughout the show had not been particularly subtle: Swift had switched her wardrobe to a nearly all-blue set of costumes, beginning with a sparkling blue gown to perform “Enchanted” and “Long Live,” followed by more blue looks as the set list progressed into the “Folklore” and “1989” tracks. Blue, as many fans know, is the shade that has been associated with “1989” on Swift’s color wheel.

Finally, Swift cut through the crowd’s screams of anticipation and broke the big news.

“There’s something that I’ve been planning for a really, really, really, ridiculously embarrassingly long time. And I think instead of just like telling you about it, I think I’ll just sort of show you something I’ve been excited to show you,” she said as the crowd erupted with glee. The new “1989” album art appeared on the screens behind her, featuring a sky blue backdrop and a brightly-smiling Swift, along with the fall release date.

Swift then launched into “New Romantics” — the only song from “1989” she hadn’t yet played on tour — and “New Year’s Day,” the second secret song. As she played the final notes of the latter, the album release news went live on her social media channels.

“Surprise!! 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is on its way to you,” reads the post, which revealed the new album cover to the rest of the world. “The 1989 album changed my life in countless ways, and it fills me with such excitement to announce that my version of it will be out October 27th.” The re-release date holds special significance too, as the original “1989” dropped on the same date in 2014.

The post continued: “To be perfectly honest, this is my most favorite re-record I’ve ever done because the 5 From The Vault tracks are so insane. I can’t believe they were ever left behind. But not for long!”

And not only did Swift announce the re-record in the stadium and online, but the roof of SoFi Stadium also lit up with the announcement, per KTLA’s helicopter feed.

The degree to which Swift might have been a mastermind in picking Aug. 9, 2023 to formally reveal “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” was underscored by some of the numerology uncovered by fans in the run-up to the date, making the announcement seem more and more inevitable, unless she was pulling the greatest red (or blue) herring of all time.

Swifties had pointed out not only the obvious significance of the 8/9 date as the tour leg closer, but also: 3,208 days had transpired since the 2014 release of “1989,” and 3 + 2 + 0 +8 =13, the singer’s historically touted lucky number. And how did the length of time since the original album came out work out in years and months? Fans calculated it had been eight years, nine months and (you guessed it) 13 days.

Just in case those numbers left any doubt about Swift’s intentions in the run-up to the show, the singer had literally sent a signal to attendees of the previous night’s show in her unprecedented six-night SoFi run. According to fans who carefully paid heed to the glowing wristbands they were handed at Tuesday night’s concert, at the very end of that performance, the bracelets had flashed the color blue five times, signifying some heavy action about to come in regard to her fifth album, “1989.”

And how long had it been since the previous entry in her series of re-recordings came out? Thirteen days, since the release of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).”

What it means is that when Swift announced the Eras Tour in November 2022, with SoFi as the final engagement on the initial U.S. run, she had presumably long since picked the closing date of 8/9 with the intention of announcing the “1989” news as part of that gig.

Fashion observers had also noticed that Swift had introduced a premonitory blue bodysuit into her wardrobe at the Tuesday show.

At Swift’s web store, “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” is being offered in just one sky-blue vinyl edition, in contrast to some of the more elaborate series of LP variants she has offered for releases like “Folklore” and “Midnights.” The five previously unheard Vault tracks (with titles yet to be revealed) that are are being added to the 16-song running order of the deluxe edition from 2014 will bring the total track list to 21 tunes, which can easily be squeezed onto two LPs, just like the 22-track “Speak Now” edition that came out July 28. (One of her remakes, “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” had been packed enough, at 27 tracks, to require a three-LP set.)

(The 2014 deluxe edition of “1989” actually ran to 19 tracks, technically, but it would appear that Swift has no intention of doing a “Taylor’s Version” of three short voice-mail demos she included as bonus tracks to round out the set.)

Despite the dearth of vinyl variants being put up for sale, Swift is making up for it by offering four different collectors’ editions of the CD, with different covers and photo inserts, only available in a limited-time offer through Aug. 13 (naturally).

“1989 (Taylor’s Version)” will mark the fourth in a series of six re-recordings Swift is doing of her original catalog of Big Machine albums, in order to divert fans toward versions of the songs she wholly owns, after she expressed outrage about the masters being sold and resold. Fans can now start their engines guessing which order the remaining two “TVs” — “Taylor Swift” (redoing her 2006 debut album) and “Reputation” ( her last Big Machine album, from 2017)— will be released in, in 2024 or beyond.

For Variety‘s fresh ranking of Swift’s 25 best bonus tracks of all time, in which “New Romantics” inevitably rates high, read here.

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