Taylor Swift has announced that the first single from ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ will be ‘Fortnight’, featuring Post Malone.
The pop star’s 11th studio record arrives tomorrow (April 19) – the follow-up to 2022’s Grammy-winning ‘Midnights’ – and anticipation is at a fever pitch among her fans.
With the album dropping at midnight, fans will be able to hear the full record in its entirety before the single’s release, but at 8pm ET, or 1am UK time on Saturday morning, Swift will also release the video for ‘Fortnight’.
Sharing the news on Instagram, Swift wrote: The first single from The Tortured Poets Department is…………. Fortnight featuring @postmalone.”
“I’ve been such a huge fan of Post because of the writer he is, his musical experimentation and those melodies he creates that just stick in your head forever. I got to witness that magic come to life firsthand when we worked together on Fortnight. Honestly can’t wait for you guys to hear this song at Midnight TONIGHT and see the video at 8pm ET TOMORROW.”
Earlier in the week, Swift ramped up the hype by sharing a new video on Instagram, brimming with Easter eggs about the record. Titled ‘The TTPD Timetable’, the video contained the first clear indication that she intended to release the video for the album’s first single at 8pm on Friday, through a notice on a calendar. Check it out below:
As the video jumps through the keyhole into a new room, it zooms in on a calendar that is open at April 19 and reads ‘The Tortured Poets Department Release Day”. The calendar also reads: “8 p.m. ET music video release!!”.
A lyric from the album was also leaked this week at a Spotify event in Los Angeles. At the pop-up library installation, a display case showed an open book, on which was printed the line: “Even statues crumble if they’re made to wait”. At the same time, Spotify’s page for the album carried a video of Swift sitting at a typewriter, hammering out the same phrase.
It appears that the ‘Tortured Poets’ project was inspired by the five stages of grief. Recently, Swift tackled denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance over five Apple Music playlists – each representing one of these stages.
Many fans had previously speculated that ‘Tortured Poets’ could delve into Swift’s six-year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn (Conversations With Friends), as well as the pair’s 2023 break-up. It has been reported that Alwyn, along with the actors Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott, had a WhatsApp group chat named ‘The Tortured Man Club’.
Earlier this year, Swift explained that writing ‘Tortured Poets’ was “really a lifeline for [her]”. She added: “Just the things I was going through and the things I was writing about.”
Swift continued: “It kind of reminded me of why songwriting is something that actually gets me through my life, and I never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I needed it on ‘Tortured Poets’.”
Following the LP’s release, Swift will resume her career-spanning ‘Eras Tour’ in Europe next month before heading to the UK and Ireland in June. Swift is due to play eight shows at Wembley Stadium in London this summer as part of the run, with support coming from Paramore.