Taylor Swift Hints At Major Production Shift For The Life Of A Showgirl

Taylor Swift is making some changes to her tortured poets department. On Aug. 11, the pop star announced her long-awaited 12th album, titled The Life of a Showgirl. While the new record is still shrouded in mystery, Swift has dropped a major clue about its sound, hinting that she’s parting ways with her longtime production partner Jack Antonoff.

Even before Swift lifted the curtain on her new album, Swifties had already come to the conclusion that it would be a massive departure from her recent work. However, nobody guessed that might mean Swift turning away from Antonoff. So far, the only real details about The Life of a Showgirl that have been revealed are its name and the fact that it is closely associated with the color orange. In that same vein, the album is also predicted to be inspired by Swift’s love story with Travis Kelce — orange is a combination of the Kansas City Chiefs’ colors, and Swift announced the album on Kelce’s podcast New Heights.

The lovey-dovey vibe is a marked shift from Swift’s recent releases: 2024’s Tortured Poets Department centered on her torturous fling with Matty Healy, 2022’s Midnights has been recontextualized as a breakup album, and 2020’s Folklore and Evermore saw Swift leaning into forlorn storytelling. Another thing all those records had in common — they were all produced by Jack Antonoff. But it sounds like The Life of a Showgirl will be Swift’s first release in over a decade to not include Antonoff’s production.

The big clue about the album’s sound design comes from a playlist Swift posted to Spotify on Aug. 11. Titled “And, baby, that’s show business for you” (which is predicted to be a lyric from the new record), the 22-song collection is comprised only of Swift’s songs from her albums Red, 1989, and Reputation. Notably, all the tracks included were produced by Max Martin and Shellback, and none by Antonoff.

The main takeaway from the playlist seems to be that Swift is re-teaming with Martin and Shellback after nearly a decade, and Antonoff did not work on The Life of a Showgirl, which would mark Swift’s biggest sonic shift in her modern era.