Welcome back Taylor Swift.
After teasing a new release on Instagram, Taylor Swift dropped new music on Friday at midnight.
Swift’s brightly colorful new music video for “ME!” featuring Panic! At the Disco’s lead singer, Brendon Urie arrived on YouTube at midnight — and fans already have plenty to say about it. As for the meaning of the imagery, fans have latched onto all sorts of details.
The artist started sprinkling the April 26 date on her Instagram posts earlier this month, and even added a countdown clock to her website. Of course, she knows the anticipation is real: Fans have been waiting a year and a half for new music. “I love your passion, I love your attention to detail, I love how much you care. I love seeing all the things you’re posting online,” she said of the Swifties at the iHeartRadio Music Awards on March 14, about one month before teasing the April 26 date on social media.
Her last album, Reputation, arrived to similar fanfare on social media, with many applying scholarly attention to speculate about the symbolism of the lyrics and themes of the album. Reputation contemplated a new side of Swift.
Given the obsession with all things she does with her music, the star even addressed the scrutiny, penning a letter in her zine that accompanied the long-awaited fall album.
“When this album comes out, gossip blogs will scour the lyrics for the men they can attribute to each song, as if the inspiration for music is as simple and basic as a paternity test,” she wrote at the time. “There will be slideshows of photos backing up each incorrect theory, because it’s 2017 and if you didn’t see a picture of it, it couldn’t have happened right?”
This release is no exception as fans are busy theorizing, analyzing and anticipating the upcoming music. See below for the early word on Taylor Swift’s new music.
Watch a moment from Taylor Swift’s TIME 100 performance below.
Earlier this year, fans had speculated that the album would be mermaid-themed after the artist was seen wearing aesthetics with nods to the mythical sea creature. For her New Year’s Eve party this year, Swift even asked guests to dress up as their childhood heroes, and Swift chose Ariel from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
Lately, Swift has been busy of late preparing for her role in Tom Hooper’s film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats alongside Idris Elba, Rebel Wilson and James Corden, in the U.K.
