Ever since Taylor Swift released Red (Taylor’s Version), back on November 12, 2021, Swifties have been speculating what the next (Taylor’s Version) release will be. On June 16, Taylor Nation reposted on Twitter a fan’s photo of the merch they recently received: A 1989 t-shirt and a Speak Now T-shirt. Taylor Nation wrote, “Question is… which are you wearing first? 😏” You tell us, Taylor Nation! The tweet fueled, even more, a months-long Swiftie debate that’s been dividing the fandom. Which are we getting first, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), 1989 (Taylor’s Version), or both at the same time? Swifties are literally drowning in a sea of clues and Easter eggs for Taylor’s next project.
It all started earlier this year on January 20, when Record Store Day US nominated Taylor as the Global Record Store Day Ambassador. The logo celebrating the announcement included purple letters and a photo of Taylor with a (very) purple filter. Speak Now was released on October 25, 2010, and the album cover is famously a photo of Taylor wearing an iconic purple dress — therefore purple became the official color for that era. Now, every time Taylor posts anything that even remotely resembles Speak Now’s iconic purple, it’s considered an Easter egg. And that’s not all. Nashville-based indie music retailer Grimey’s New and Pre-Loved Music created a mural of Taylor’s purple logo for Global Record Store Day, and to thank them, Taylor posted an Instagram Story with, you guessed it, a purple heart! (Easter egg for Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) or are we Swifties just losing it?)
But if you thought we were headed to the Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) era, you were obviously wrong! On May 6, Taylor released This Love (Taylor’s Version) — a 1989 song. The song was released specifically for The Summer I Turned Pretty Amazon Prime series, adapted from Jenny Han’s book of the same name. And that’s not the first 1989 (Taylor’s Version) song she released: Back in March 2021, there was a snippet of Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version) in the Spirit Untamed movie trailer. The song was then released on September 17, 2021.
Okay, so far we have two 1989 (Taylor’s Version) songs and no Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) songs, so can we all agree that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is next? Not yet. Along with the release of This Love (Taylor’s Version), Taylor Nation also dropped new merch on Taylor’s official website. To make Swifties even more confused, the merch available was 1989 merch AND Speak Now merch. Some of the merch is still available on Taylor’s website and includes light blue products for 1989 and purple products for Speak Now. So which one is next, Taylor?
On June 11, Taylor attended the Tribeca Film Festival to speak about the All Too Well short film, which she directed. However, Swifties also believe that she dropped a subtle Easter egg there. The Instagram account @taylorswiftstyled posted that Taylor was wearing red Prada shoes from the fall 2010 collection — which is exactly when Speak Now was released. Could that be an Easter egg too, or again, are we just losing it?
A few days later, on June 18, Taylor received two awards at the Las Culturistas Culture Awards and, since she wasn’t able to attend the ceremony, she sent two thank you videos. In one of the videos, she’s briefly seen in front of the 1989 sign that was on display in her 1989 secret sessions, back when she first released the album, on October 27, 2014. It’s also important to mention that she is wearing a light blue vest in the video, AKA 1989’s official color. That has to be a hint, right?
Both 1989 and Speak Now were released in October, so can we expect Taylor to release her version of both albums this next October? We have so many Easter eggs for both albums, so maybe she’s planning on releasing both albums at the same time? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. While we wait, at least we can listen to Taylor’s newest release, “Carolina,” specifically written for Where The Crawdads Sing — which I personally think is an amazing name for a song.