Meet her at midnight! Taylor Swift released the music video for her song “Lavender Haze” on Friday, January 27 — and it is unsurprisingly full of Easter eggs.
Swift, 33, first teased the visual for the Midnights opening track on Thursday Night Football in October 2022, along with clips for the “Anti-Hero” and “Bejeweled” music videos, both of which premiered that same month and featured hidden messages for fans to decode.
Many Swifties considered certain “Bejeweled” elements to be confirmation that Speak Now: Taylor’s Version will be the next re-recorded album the Pennsylvania native releases. For example, when Swift enters an elevator in the video, there are 13 different-colored buttons appearing to represent each of her albums in the order that they were released. The “Lover” songwriter hits the purple button for the third floor, seemingly acknowledging her third record, Speak Now.
The Midnights era isn’t the first time Swift has left trails of clues for her devoted fans. Leading up to the release of Red: Taylor’s Version in November 2021, the Grammy winner shared videos of jumbled letters via social media, giving her followers a chance to guess the titles of the album’s vault tracks.
“*Presses post* *cackles maniacally* Level: casually cruel in the name of being honest,” Swift captioned one of the clips in August 2021.
The Folklore musician’s penchant for cryptic messages goes back to her debut album when she began the tradition of hiding sentences in her album liner notes using out of place uppercase letters.
“I love to communicate through Easter eggs,” the “Blank Space” singer told Entertainment Weekly in May 2019. “I think the best messages are cryptic ones.”
Despite her love of mystifying fans, Swift explained the meaning behind the “Lavender Haze” lyrics via Instagram in October 2022.
“I happened upon the phrase ‘Lavender Haze’ when I was watching Mad Men. I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool, and it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the ’50s where they would describe being in love,” the Reputation artist shared in a video. “If you were in the lavender haze, then that meant that you were in that all-encompassing love glow, and I thought that was really beautiful.”
She continued, referencing her relationship with Joe Alwyn: “I think a lot of people have to deal with this now — not just like ‘public figures’ — because we live in the era of social media, and if the world finds out that you’re in love with somebody, they’re going to weigh in on it. My relationship, for six years, we’ve had to dodge weird rumors … this song is sort of about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff.”
Swift and Alwyn began dating in 2016. The Conversations With Friends star, 31, has collaborated with the “Cruel Summer” singer on songs including “Betty,” “Exile” and “Sweet Nothing.”
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Scroll through for all the biggest Easter eggs from the “Lavender Haze” music video:
