Taylor Swift‘s new album is just weeks away, but some fans think the first taste of The Tortured Poets Department might be coming even sooner.
Swift’s 11th record, which drops April 19, features a song called “Fortnight,” leading some social media sleuths to believe that the title is actually a clue about the release of a potential single. (Swift, 34, has not officially announced whether any songs will debut before the album comes out.)
A new fan theory suggests that “Fortnight” could be released as a surprise single on Friday, April 5 — two weeks before TTPD (a.k.a. a fortnight). Some Swifties have worked out the math in the opposite direction, predicting that a “Fortnight” music video could potentially drop two weeks after TTPD on May 3.
Swift hasn’t released a lead single for an album since 2019’s Lover. The following year, her albums Folklore and Evermore were announced mere hours before they were available to stream. 2022’s Midnights — along with the rerecorded versions of Red, Speak Now and 1989 — continued the pattern.
Earlier this year, Swift threw fans a curveball by announcing album No. 11 on stage at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Leading up to the event, it was widely believed that Reputation (Taylor’s Version) would finally be revealed.
Swift was accepting the award for Best Pop Vocal Album — her 13th Grammy win — when she broke the news. “[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 19,” she said in February. “It’s called The Tortured Poets Department, and I’m going to go post the cover right now backstage.”
While performing in Tokyo days later, Swift told the crowd that she didn’t expect to have a platform at the awards show. “Going to the Grammys, going in, I had this plan,” she said. “I had told my friends, I told Jack [Antonoff], but I hadn’t really told very many other people. I thought, ‘OK, if I’m lucky enough to win one thing tonight, I’m just gonna do it. I’m just gonna announce my album.’ And luckily enough, that ended up happening.”
She added, “My backup plan was I was gonna do it tonight in Tokyo.”
Swift has since announced several variations of the album, including “The Bolter” and “The Black Dog,” causing fans to analyze each title for hidden meaning — and signs point toward the singer’s 2023 split from Joe Alwyn being the key inspiration for her new music. She described the writing process as a “lifeline” during a February concert in Australia.
“It sort of reminded me of why songwriting is something that actually gets me through life, and I’ve never had an album where I’ve needed songwriting more than I needed it on Tortured Poets,” she explained.
