Easter eggs Taylor Swift dropped hinting that she would rerelease ‘1989’ next

Taylor Swift announced that the next album she will be rereleasing is “1989,” making the announcement on Aug. 9 (8/9, or 89) during the last show of her 2023 U.S. Eras Tour in Los Angeles. The album will be available for streaming and purchase on Oct. 27 — exactly nine years after she released the original.

Swift has been rerecording and rereleasing her first six original albums in order to gain full ownership over her music. The streams of “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version)” surpassed the number of streams of the original albums earlier this summer.

The night she announced “1989,” she debuted a blue dress for the “Speak Now,” “Folklore,” “1989” and surprise song segments of the concert, signaling to fans that the album associated with the iconic blue was about to be announced.

Known for dropping intricate clues and hints to her fans, dubbed “Swifties,” the musical artist has been signaling “1989” as the next album for a while, especially dropping easter eggs during her Eras Tour shows.

Swift herself admitted to scheming up plans for easter eggs on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” and also commented on a fan’s TikTok video: “Can’t stop won’t stop being cryptic and weird,” per US Weekly.

Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ easter eggs during The Eras Tour

It appears nothing Swift does is unintentional, so eagle-eyed fans noticed her final show for The Eras Tour was going to be on Wednesday, Aug. 9 (8/9), marking the name of the album and signifying the year she was born.

Here are some of the other clues she dropped while on tour:

• The show also took place exactly 13 weeks after she announced the rerecording of “Speak Now” — 13 is Swift’s lucky number, according to the Mirror.

• During each show throughout the tour, Swift has performed two surprise songs. By the time the Los Angeles shows came around, she only had two of the 16 songs from the album left. By Wednesday night, only “New Romantics” remained.

• SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, tweeted its welcome to Swift with artsy photos, and one of the photos featured a beach backdrop with a lifeguard shack “cleverly emblazoned with the words ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version),’” Forbes reported.

• This one includes some intricate math — Swift first released “1989” on Oct. 27, 2014. It’s been 3,208 days since the album released — 8 years, 9 months and 13 days, which comes out to 8, 9 and 13, per USA Today.

• The night before she made the announcement, she revealed a new bodysuit for the “Midnights” portion of the show that looked remarkably similar to one she wore during her “1989” tour.

• Also during the Tuesday night show, the bracelets fans don throughout the show blinked blue to close out the show — the night before she announced “Speak Now,” the lights blinked purple, per USA Today.

‘1989’ easter eggs during ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’ promotion

Following Swift’s rerelease of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” she quickly started dropping more clues about what she would be up to next — all signs pointing to “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”

• With promotion of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” Swift dropped a music video for “I Can See You” that featured a sign that read “1’9” 8.9tv” — meaning “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”

• Also in the video, a vault opens and reveals a blue light.

‘1989’ clues during Taylor Swift’s ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ era

Long before The Eras Tour even started, fans started speculating about when Swift would release her version of “1989.”

One of the first clues after Swift rereleased “Red (Taylor’s Version)” in November 2021 takes place during the release of her “All Too Well” short film. In the film, the characters drive a car with “1989” on the license plate, per Forbes.

Here are other easter eggs Swift dropped about “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” during her “Red (Taylor’s Version)” era:

• Seagulls are featured on the cake in the “I Bet You Think About Me” music video. Seagulls are an iconic part of the “1989” era.

• During her interview with Jimmy Fallon the night she dropped “Red (Taylor’s Version),” Swift used the term “rabbit hole” and said “we’re all a little mad here.” Fans assume the reference has to do with her song “Wonderland” from “1989.”

• In an interview on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Swift dropped several hints through a mood board she shared with the host. Some of the clues included a vintage photo of Colbert from 1989, a seagull and “The Dark Tower” series by Stephen King that was released in 1989, according to Bustle.

• She ended the interview telling Colbert to “shake it off” after she explained that her song “Hey Stephen” was indeed not about him.

Taylor Swift clues about ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ in ‘The Joker and The Queen’

Fellow music star Ed Sheeran teamed up with Swift to produce the song “The Joker and The Queen” in February 2022, and accompanied the release with an emotional music video. Not one to miss an opportunity, the video also included hints about Swift’s next steps that super fans caught onto, according to Elite Daily.

• The video shows a house with five windows — “1989” was Swift’s fifth album.

• One scene shows the female character in a classroom taking notes, which “could be a slight nod toward Swift’s ‘New Romantics.’”

• Another scene shows characters in an open music room that’s eerily similar to the one in Swift’s “Shake It Off” music video.

• One overhead shot displays a lunch tray with a New York cheesecake and a box of apple juice — possibly signifying “The Big Apple” and the city of New York, which could be a reference to the first track on “1989,” which is “Welcome to New York.”

Rereleasing her versions of ‘This Love,’ ‘Wildest Dreams’

Swift made a dramatic introduction to TikTok by rereleasing “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)” in 2021, after the song went viral as a trend. She first announced the song from the app, introducing Swifties to another place to check for clues.

Earlier this summer, Swift also announced “This Love (Taylor’s Version)” with a snippet included in the trailer for “The Summer I Turned Pretty” on Prime Video, per US Magazine.