Taylor Swift resumed the international leg of her Eras Tour on Wednesday in Tokyo, where she shared a few details about her upcoming album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”
The singer-songwriter announced her 11th LP at the Grammys on Feb. 4 after winning best pop vocal album for “Midnights.” But if she didn’t take home any awards that night, she had a contingency plan in place for the album reveal.
“Going to the Grammys, going in, I had this plan,” Swift told the Tokyo crowd, adding that she’d shared it with only a few people, including producer Jack Antonoff. “But I really hadn’t told very many other people. I thought, ‘OK, if I’m lucky enough to get up there and win one thing tonight, I’m just gonna do it. I’m just gonna announce my new album.’”
Swift continued, “And luckily enough, that ended up happening. My backup plan was I was going to do it tonight in Tokyo. But thanks to you and your support, I was lucky enough to win a Grammy and tell you about it on stage at the Grammys. And now we can talk about it afterward, we can do like a debrief tonight.”
“The Tortured Poets Department,” out April 19, contains 16 new tracks, plus a bonus song called “The Manuscript.” Swift told the audience that she began working on the album immediately after turning in “Midnights.”
“I’ve been working on it for about two years,” she said. “I kept working on it throughout the U.S. tour, and when it was perfect, in my opinion — when it was good enough for you — I finished it. I am so, so excited that soon you’ll get to hear it, soon we’ll get to experience that together.”