Taylor Swift reveals new 'Life of a Showgirl The Encore' album - USA Today

Taylor Swift is extending the life of "The Life of a Showgirl."

The pop star has announced "The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore," a follow-up to her 12th studio album "The Life of a Showgirl," featuring four brand new songs.

The encore album drops on Friday, Sept. 25, with the new tracks "Patient Zero," "Cleveland!", "Pink Clouding" and "Babylon."

In an Instagram post, Swift explained the new songs came together after she took a trip to Sweden to celebrate the success of the original album with her collaborators Max Martin and Shellback.

"Really we just wanted to reflect and take in how grateful we were for the moment we were in, but there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs," she said. "I hope you love them, because they were born out of pure gratitude for your exuberance for and celebration of the album we made."

The announcement comes a day after Swift revealed a new single, "Patient Zero," set to drop on Sept. 25. But fans were initially confused about whether the track was the start of a new era for Swift or was connected to her "Life of a Showgirl" album, which originally debuted in October 2025 and set a new record for single-week album sales. The album's release was also accompanied by a listening party film in movie theaters, which came in at No. 1 at the box office that weekend.

In her Instagram post, Swift said the success of "The Life of a Showgirl" "completely blew my mind."

This isn't Swift's first time following up one of her albums with more music. In 2020, she released "Evermore" less than five months after "Folklore," saying that the "sister record" was produced because she "just couldn't stop writing songs."

And both Swift's 2022 album "Midnights" and her 2024 album "The Tortured Poets Department" received extended editions with additional songs, which were dropped a few hours after the original.

That's why Swift, when she announced "The Life of a Showgirl" on the "New Heights" podcast in 2025, had to specify that the album consisted of just 12 songs, with no more on the way.

"There's no other songs coming," she said at the time. "Like, with 'Tortured Poets Department,' I was like, here's a data dump of everything I've thought, felt, or experienced in two or three years. Here's 31 songs.' This is 12. There's not a 13th, there's not a 14th. There's not other ones coming."

That was seemingly the plan, at least. But in signature Swift fashion, the singer appeared to sneak an Easter egg teasing the encore album into her February music video for "Opalite," which included a sign that read, "Patient for the encore."

"The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore" will drop two days before the MTV Video Music Awards, where Swift will receive the inaugural Artist Director Honors.