Taylor Swift surprised everyone with news about her eagerly awaited album, “Reputation (Taylor’s Version),” after announcing she has repurchased her entire set of master recordings.
In a letter to fans on her website Friday, she addressed concerns saying, “I know, I know. What about Rep TV? To be completely honest, I haven’t even re-recorded a quarter of it yet.”
The pop icon shared that the 2017 album was “very specific to that phase” of her journey, and she encountered several challenges whenever she tried to re-record it.
“All that defiance, that longing to be understood while feeling purposely misunderstood, that desperate hope, that shame-born snarl and mischief,” she wrote.
Swift said that it was the only album out of her first six that she thought “couldn’t be improved upon by redoing it.”
“Not the music, or photos, or videos. So I kept putting it off,” she said.
She did tell fans that there will come a time when she plans on putting our unreleased vault tracks from the album.
“I’ve already re-recorded my entire debut alum,” she revealed of her eponymous 2006 debut studio album. “And I really love how it sounds now.”
“Those two albums can still have their moment to re-emerge when the time is right, if that would be something you guys would be excited about,” she said. “But if it happens, it won’t be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have. It will just be a celebration now.”
Swift began re-recording and re-releasing her music in 2021 as a way of reclaiming ownership over her catalog after her first six albums were sold by Big Machine Recordings.
She has already released “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” “Red (Taylor’s Version),” “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”
On Friday, Swift revealed that she was “bursting into tears” after finally buying back her entire life’s work.
âI almost stopped thinking it could ever happen, after 20 years of having the carrot dangled and then yanked away,” she wrote. “But thatâs all in the past now. Iâve been bursting into tears of joy at random intervals ever since I found that this is really happening. I really get to say those words.
âAll of the music Iâve ever made ⦠now below ⦠to me.â
The update came just weeks after the pop star had fans thinking she dropped some major clues that she would be releasing the long-awaited “Reputation” re-recording.
Earlier this month, fans noticed that Swift’s official store website had been updated with a clue that spelled out AMAs.
“Apparel, music, accessories and sale,” the tiles read in order.
The Grammy winner had appeared to be hinting at the project for months.
She seemingly dropped an Easter egg last September when she attended a Kanas City Chiefs game wearing red boots that resembled the shoes from her âLook What You Made Me Doâ music video.
Swift set tongues wagging again when she wore a daisy-print dress while spending this year’s Mother’s Day with boyfriend Travis Kelce’s family. Swifties believed the floral frock was a callback to the lyrics in her song, âDonât Blame Me,â in which she sings, âI once was poison ivy but now Iâm your daisy.”
The “Cruel Summer” singer, 35, debuted her first song from the highly anticipated album when an extended cut of her song “Look What You Made Me Do (Taylorâs Version)” was featured in Season 6 of “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
This was the first time the song has been played in its entirety, though snippets of the tune were used in the 2023 teaser for “Wilderness” and in 2024’s “Dynasty: New England Patriots” docuseries.
A segment of her hit, “Delicate (Taylor’s Version),” was also used in Prime Video’s âThe Summer I Turned Pretty.â
