Why Is Taylor Swift’s ‘Life of a Showgirl’ Era Orange? The Singer Explains

Time for a wardrobe update!

Taylor Swift answered the burning question Swifties have been wondering about since she gave viewers a first look at her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, in a teaser clip ahead of her New Heights podcast appearance.

And by “Swifties,” we also mean Jason Kelce — who cohosts the podcast opposite his brother and Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce — who asked the 14-time Grammy winner in the full episode about the album’s appearance, specifically its color.

“What is the significance behind the color orange? Why orange?” the retired Philadelphia Eagles player, 37, asked Swift, 35, during the episode released on Wednesday, Aug. 13.

“I’ve just always liked it, Jason,” Swift replied. “It feels like energetically how my life has felt — and this album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during [The Eras Tour], which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant.”

“One of the things about this record is, like, it’s a record I made with my mentor Max Martin and Shellback. The three of us have made some of my favorite songs that I have ever done before,” she shared, before rattling a few off upon Jason’s request.

“They were my main collaborators on my Red album,” she pointed out, then shared: “We did ‘We Are Never Getting Back Together,’ ‘I Knew You Were Trouble,’ ’22,’ ‘Shake It Off,’ ‘Blank Space,’ ‘Style,’ ‘Wildest Dreams’… ‘Ready for It,’ ‘Delicate’.”

Travis, visibly excited and into it as his girlfriend listed the songs, jumped in to say, “So that’s the energy we’re going for — okay, I understand why it’s orange now. Okay!”

Jason added, “Yeah! There are going to be some bangers. Yeah, I’m picking it up.”

Swift compared the collaboration process to “catching lightening in a bottle” when raving about her work with Martin and Shellback, noting that they hadn’t worked together in around seven or eight years before they came together for The Life of a Showgirl.

“They’re just geniuses,” she emphasized.

On Aug. 11, the New Heights Instagram account posted a teaser image that featured a glittery orange background paired with mint green-colored text and Jason wearing what appeared to be a shirt with a photo of Swift ahead of its “VERY special guest.”

Twelve minutes later, Taylor Nation, her in-house marketing team, uploaded an Instagram carousel of 12 orange-themed pictures from the Eras Tour with the caption, “Thinking about when she said, ‘See you next era… .’ ”

As the day went on, the Kelce brothers confirmed that Swift would be the special guest, and a mysterious glittery orange and green countdown appeared on the singer’s website.

After that, fans began speculating that the glittery orange background and mint green text — the same hues that later appeared on a countdown on Swift’s website — might be the color scheme for a new album (of which they were ultimately correct!).

Swifties know that color coding, among other Easter eggs, are all part of Swift’s “Mastermind.”

This was one fans caught onto, which came as early as Aug. 12, 2024 — exactly one year before she announced the new album — when Swift stepped out in London wearing an orange and mint green plaid outfit.

More recently, Swift wore an orange-tinted lip color during the New Heights taping — which fans pointed out in the teaser clip released the day prior that it was a unique pivot from her iconic crimson red shade she famously wears.

Beyond glam, when the singer announced her forthcoming album on Aug. 12, the iconic N.Y.C. landmark, the Empire State Building lit up in the color of the new album.

“Onto the next era,” the official Empire State Building Instagram account captioned the shot.