What to know about Taylor Swift's '1989 (Taylor's Version),' from release to bonus songs
Get ready for "1989 (Taylor's Version)."
Taylor Swift is diving back into her 2014 ground-breaking album "1989" which served as the music superstar's major breakthrough and first "official pop" album.
Swift, 33, dropped the news of her new album on Sept. 8 (aka 8/9), which cleverly incorporated the title (named for Swift's birth year). The announcement at SoFi Stadium near Los Angeles coincided with the last date of the first leg of her wildly successful Eras tour, which returns for more North American dates in October 2024.
Here's what you need to know about "1989 (Taylor's Version)."
When's the '1989 (Taylor's Version)' release date?
"1989 (Taylor's Version)" will be available Oct. 27, the same date the original album was released nine years ago.
"Surprise!!" Swift wrote on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, when announcing the album. "The 1989 album changed my life in countless ways, and it fills me with such excitement to announce that my version of it will be out October 27th." She added that "1989" was her "most FAVORITE rerecord I've ever done."
Why is Taylor Swift re-recording all her albums?
The rerecorded "1989" is the fourth in Swift's catalog to be issued as "Taylor's Version," an exercise Swift began to reclaim her artistic ownership after the sale of her original master recordings in 2020. The sale, Swift said at the time, "stripped me of my life's work."
Announcing the new version of "Fearless" in February 2021, Swift wrote to fans on social media stating her re-recording reasoning.
"Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work," Swift wrote.
"Fearless (Taylor's Version)" was released in April 2021, "Red(Taylor's Version)" followed in November 2021 and "Speak Now(Taylor's Version)," originally released in 2010, had the "Taylor's Version" released in July. All three albums, naturally, shot to the top of the Billboard charts.
The No. 1 Billboard ranking for "Speak Now (Taylor's Version)" is her 12th album to reach the top slot and crowns Swift as the female artist with the most No. 1 albums in chart history (Barbra Streisand held the record with 11).
When was the original '1989' album released?
The album was originally released in 2014 and topped the Billboard 200 albums chart for 11 weeks with iconic tracks such as "Shake It Off," "Blank Space" and "Bad Blood" (featuring Kendrick Lamar). "1989" spent its entire first year in the Billboard Top 10, only the fifth album to accomplish the feat, and sold more than the combined total of 2014's next three biggest releases – Sam Smith's "In the Lonely Hour," Eric Church's "The Outsiders" and Coldplay's "Ghost Stories."
On the awards front, "1989" earned a total of 10 Grammy nominations (including three nods for the album's first single, "Shake It Off") for 2015's 57th Grammy Awards. At 2016's 58th Grammy Awards, "1989" ruled with three major wins including album of the year, best pop vocal album and best music video for "Bad Blood."
Will there be '1989 (Taylor's Version)' bonus and vault tracks?
Swift announced on her website on Sept. 13 that an unnamed exclusive bonus track will be available on the tangerine edition of the vinyl, which will be available at Target stores on Oct. 27.
On Sept. 19, Swifties were sent into a frenzy − and on a virtual scavenger hunt − when Swift teamed with Google to tease her "From the Vault" tracks. In order to reveal the track titles, fans around the world combined their powers to unscramble letters in 89 different puzzles. When 33 million of these challenges are completed, the vault will be opened and the song titles revealed.
Contributing: Melissa Ruggieri, KiMi Robinson