“Meet Me At Midnight”: Taylor Swift Announces Tenth Studio Album, Coming October

The announcement came in Swift’s acceptance speech for Video of the Year at the VMAs

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Dia Dipasupil

Taylor Swift showed up to the 2022 MTV VMAs dressed similarly to scenes in her 2017 music video “Look What You Made Me Do.” While accepting Video of the Year for “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” Swift announced her next studio album would be released Oct. 21.

Carly Philpott, Editor-in-Chief

Well, it’s happening. Buckle your seatbelts, because Taylor Swift’s tenth studio album is coming in two months.

The initial announcement came just moments after Swift won the biggest award at the 2022 MTV VMA awards, Video of the Year, for her “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” short film released last November. In her acceptance speech, sporting a sparkly silver dress reminiscent of her 2017 “Look What You Made Me Do” getup, Swift announced her tenth album would be coming Oct. 21. Shortly after, her social media pages hinted at another announcement coming at midnight. And the internet went wild.

Among Creek students, Instagram exploded. The Creek Taylor Swift fan account (@cchsswifties13), run by seniors Gauri Thaliyil and Julia Gralla, first posted about Swift’s surprise appearance at the VMAs and her stunning red carpet style.

“I was so surprised, especially once I saw what she was wearing,” Gralla said. “It was so unlike anything she has ever worn before.”

Then, the album announcement was made.

“I couldn’t process the fact that we were getting a new album,” Thaliyil said. “Literally started crying.”

The idea of Swift announcing new projects at the VMAs is not new. In 2017, after three years without new music, Swift dropped the music video for “Look What You Made Me Do” during the show. She had announced her sixth album, reputation, earlier that week.

Fans began to wonder if Swift was actually hinting at the release of reputation (Taylor’s Version) when she showed up to the VMAs on Sunday in a dress almost identical to one she wore in that 2017 video. She wasn’t really expected to show up to the 2022 awards ceremony, although the MTV TikTok account actually teased her appearance on Saturday. In Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Longform Video, she said the award was “an indication we did something right,” similar to the line “we did one thing right” from “Call It What You Want,” another song from reputation. Fans wondered if the midnight announcement would actually be the release of reputation (Taylor’s Version) or a single from it.

Instead, at midnight, the cover art and concept were revealed for Swift’s next album, Midnights. According to Swift’s announcement statement, Midnights is “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life.” The album will be 13 tracks long.

Swift’s last album, evermore, was released on Dec. 10, 2020. It was the surprise “sister” album to folklore, Swift’s quarantine album she announced and dropped unexpectedly on July 23, 2020. Since evermore, Swift has released the re-recordings of her 2008 album Fearless and 2012 album Red.

“I am so excited to see what the sound of this album is,” Gralla said. “I feel like it will be very different from folklore [and] evermore. Maybe a little more rock.”

In addition to the announcement of her tenth album, Swift also broke a record at the 2022 VMAs – she has now won more Video of the Year Awards than any other artist (previously, she won it for “Bad Blood” and “You Need to Calm Down”). Between the newest accolades and the global response to her next release, it’s clear that Swift remains the pop icon of her time.