Taylor Swift executed the world’s largest (unconfirmed) mic drop at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards.
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First by showing up, second by taking home three moon person statues, three by making history, and four by announcing a new album. And no, it wasn’t an announcement of the next re-release. She announced TS10. Casually (cruel) at the end of her speech. Mic. Drop.
Now, backing up for a second, it wasn’t that surprising that Taylor attended the VMAs last night. She was up for five awards last night and took home three including the coveted Video Of The Year award and Best Longform Video. She made history by being the first artist ever to win Video of The Year three times, and she is also only the third person to win Best Longform Video.
So what were all of the theories surrounding last night and what easter eggs has she been dropping for the last seventeen years to lead us to her forthcoming tenth album Midnights out October 21? Let’s try to figure that out, shall we?
Just before the awards show started, Taylor dropped a TikTok video using BLACKPINK’s “Pink Venom” that showed she was indeed dressed for the black carpet and on her way. Theories immediately started flying across the internet wondering what she was up to because she had to be up to something.
Her dress had serious “Look What You Made Me Do” vibes, so some speculated that she would drop “Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version)” that night. While it is as good of a theory as any, she only received the rights to re-record “Look What You Made Me Do” on August 24 as she can’t start the re-record process until five years after the release (so reputation can’t be re-recorded until November 10). Taylor Swift is efficient at what she does, but less than four days to record, produce and release a new song is a quick turnaround.
The next theory was that hashtag TayPink was coming aka a collab between Taylor and BLACKPINK. While we hope this is still on the table (could you imagine how iconic that would be?) Taylor’s use of “Pink Venom” (which includes the line “look what you made us do”) did not mean she would be joining them on stage during their performance or announce a collab. Yet.
Since Red (Taylor’s Version) was announced in July of 2021, Swifties have speculated that 1989 would be the next album she re-recorded. That theory was given more life on May 5 when "This Love (Taylor’s Version)" was debuted in the trailer for Amazon Prime’s The Summer I Turned Pretty and subsequently released that night.
At midnight.
Was that the first easter egg for Midnights? Yes, probably. At least it was an easter egg for the album. But it felt like an easter egg for 1989 (Taylor’s Version) which completely threw us off the scent. That same day she dropped “The Old Taylor Collection” in her merch store. And do you know what that consisted of? 1989 and Speak Now merch.
Um. Ok. That wasn’t confusing at all.
Shortly after that, on May 13, a mysterious countdown appeared on Taylor Nation’s socials. This was it. This was the announcement of 1989 TV. It was a date with a 13!
But no. It ended up being another merch drop. This time for summer items.
1989’s lead single “Shake It Off” is currently entangled in a lawsuit and there were some issues with the Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) copyright, so it’s likely those won’t be released for a while. But what was the deal with those merch drops? Were they easter eggs? It’s a long shot that they were easter eggs for Midnights however the album aesthetic for Midnights does match the way her site looked for those drops…
Now, if we really want to dive deep into our Swiftie brains and look for signs that this was coming all along then it’s possible Taylor has been teasing this for YEARS at this point. No really. She has been releasing things at midnight for years. Who cares if that’s industry standard?
We’re going to pack that away into our easter basket and go back to trying to find symbolism in the five holes in the fence.
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