Taylor Swift has her release-week run of shows all set to go. For The Life of a Showgirl, Swift has it all scheduled in a handy itinerary to help everyone keep track: The Release Party of a Showgirl in theaters, a few late-night-show cameos, and … wait … what is “Standby,” written around the 7 p.m. slot on Saturday, October 4? Below, all the theories about Swift’s surprise release, in order of least to most likely.
6. A surprise performance with Sabrina Carpenter?
Fellow showgirl Sabrina Carpenter, who’s featured on the album, is headlining the Austin City Limits festival on Saturday, but a surprise performance at a musical festival sounds like a safety risk for Swift given the huge crowds and the highly anticipated album. The signed CDs were already a fiasco, and that was just on the internet. Swift’s first live performance for the album will probably be in a more controlled and secured environment, like 30 Rock.
5. Saturday Night Live?
Swift isn’t scheduled for SNL, but that doesn’t mean she can’t show up. She did a surprise introduction of Ice Spice’s performance in 2023; who says a girl can’t have a starring role in a Bad Bunny sketch? Swift could play Marcelo’s new girlfriend as he introduces her to his mother (Pedro Pascal) and aunt (Bad Bunny). She is a huge fan of his, after all, and she’ll be in town anyway for her late-night spot on Seth Meyers.
4. New merch?
“Standby” might be another pool-floatie situation. At the Spotify pop-up in New York, fans got a preview of what looks like merch fit for a pop star after her performance. PJs, a robe, slippers, a duffel bag, an ornament, and a vinyl case were spotted with the new Showgirl logo. Swift hasn’t dropped anything on her web store besides physical music for the new album, and waiting until after everyone has listened to the album seems like the perfect time to drop.
3. Remember the Eras tour?
Throughout the Showgirl era, there have been hints that we’re not totally done with the Eras tour. What about the added Tortured Poets set? Or all the filming that was going on during the final shows? Taylor Nation did say it lost a key in Vancouver. Maybe the surprise could be a live album or an update to the Eras Tour movie on Disney+. In the Spotify experience, there are two photos of Swift during the final leg in Vancouver and several references to the Eras tour stage — written in order, the track list is even in the shape of the stage.
2. Reputation vault tracks?
When Swift bought all of her masters, did she think we would just forget about those “fire” Rep vault tracks? As we get closer to the Showgirl release, Taylor Nation has been teasing that there’s a snake loose backstage. There is a hidden message in the Reputation lyrics on Apple Music that reads, “They don’t make loyalty like they used to.” Is it just another lyric for the new album or a vault track for Rep? When you search the lyric on the iTunes Store, the song “Father Figure” pops up. But there are other possibilities for a Rep vault-track release in the future.
For Showgirl, Swift worked exclusively with Shellback and Max Martin, who produced nine tracks on Rep, so it wouldn’t be too crazy to think that they could’ve recorded a few more songs together. In the letter she published when she bought her masters, she said she kept “hitting a stopping point” when trying to rerecord her sixth album, but she still recorded the vault tracks. Maybe that was during the Eras tour. Swift also said that there will eventually be a time for the vault tracks to “hatch,” making the dark glittery cracks in the Apple Music Showgirl cover suspicious. Similar cracks that look like Swift’s lightning bolts appeared during “Delicate” on the Eras tour.
1. It’s just a placeholder
During Swift release week, it’s really hard not to get carried away by Easter eggs. She’s trained us to be this way! What if the standby note is just that? A placeholder for Saturday because she isn’t doing anything that day, and the calendar looked weird without anything else in that spot? Swift wants everyone to be ready for the week ahead — when she inevitably will drop a bunch of merch.
