Taylor Swift had fans convinced they would hear music from her upcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department, months before its release.
During a performance in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, February 8, Swift, 34, revealed she would be playing two “brand new songs” in the acoustic set that she’s never played live. (Swift performs different pairs of surprise songs each night on her Eras Tour, attempting to not repeat them unless she makes a mistake on stage.)
“Wait! Sorry! I didn’t mean from the new album,” Swift clarified to the crowd. She ultimately performed “Electric Touch (Taylor’s Version)” and “Eyes Open (Taylor’s Version)” from her rerecorded Speak Now and Red albums. .
“I have never performed this live. I love this one,” Swift noted about “Electric Touch,” which fans heard for the first time when Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) dropped last summer.
Swift resumed the international leg of her Eras Tour days after announcing her 11th album at the 2024 Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 4.
“[The way I can celebrate] is by telling you a secret that I’ve been keeping from you for the past two years, which is that my brand new album comes out April 19th. It’s called The Tortured Poets Department and I’m going to go post the cover right now backstage,” she said while accepting her Best Pop Vocal Album win for her 2022 record, Midnights.
She went on to share the artwork for The Tortured Poets Department, which featured Swift lying in a bed wearing black lingerie, via Instagram with an accompanying poem. “And so I enter into evidence my tarnished coat of arms,” she wrote. “My muses acquired like bruises, my talismans and charms. The tick, tick, tick of love bombs. My view of pitch black ink. All’s fair in …”
Marcelo Endelli/TAS23/Getty Images While Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department came as a surprise to fans, the pop star seemingly left several Easter eggs hinting that her 11th studio album was on its way. Swift revealed her latest musical endeavor while accepting the award for Best Pop Vocal Album — her 13th career win — […]
Swift has since provided more information about her upcoming record — including the entire track list, which features collaborations with Post Malone and Florence + the Machine.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” on February 7, 2024 in Tokyo, Japan. Christopher Jue/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Other titles from the album include “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” “Down Bad,’ “Fresh Out the Slammer,” “I Can Fix Him (No, Really, I Can)” and “So Long, London.”
Fans have assumed that the end of Swift’s six-year romance with Joe Alwyn served as the inspiration for The Tortured Poets Department. (Us Weekly confirmed the former couple’s split in April 2023, and Swift has since moved on with NFL star Travis Kelce.)
Alwyn, 32, notably spoke about having a group chat with Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott called the “Tortured Man Club.”
“It’s me, you — and Andrew Scott started the group,” he said during Variety’s Actors on Actors interview with Mescal, 28, in December 2022. “[Andrew is] just messaging himself good mornings. We were both in the Sally Rooney universe and crossed over with Lenny Abrahamson. We were so lucky to have that experience.”