What is Taylor Swift planning?
Taylor Swift is planning something.
The pop megastar has been noticeably out of the spotlight since her pre-Super Bowl concert in early February to promote a new deal with DirecTV. She hinted to the crowd that she was about to take a break: “As far as I know, I’m only doing one show in 2017, and as far as I know, this is that show. By coming to this show tonight, you are attending 100 per cent of this year’s tour dates.”
Afterward, her radio silence was immediate. No red carpets, no strolls down the streets of New York, no paparazzi photo shoots while leaving the gym.
Then, the gears of the Swift machine started to grind.
It always starts quietly. In early March, close pal Ed Sheeran let it “slip” in an interview that Swift “probably” would release an album at the end of the year. In April, “Entertainment Tonight” reported Swift was in Nashville working on new music, which reportedly would drop in late 2017.
But real alarm bells went off when People magazine published an exclusive story last Thursday titled “Inside Taylor Swift’s ‘Conscious Choice’ to Disappear and Focus on Her New Music.”
The story appeared to be a reassurance that Swift’s break was intentional.
So, OK, we get it: She’s definitely releasing new music soon. Thank you, anonymous sources via tabloids.
Then, Tuesday evening, it arrived: “TAYLOR’S BRIT ON THE SLY,” trumpeted the U.K. Sun. “Taylor Swift has secret Brit actor boyfriend Joe Alwyn and the pair have been dating for months.”
Aside from the immediate reaction (“Who?”), the news just raised more questions. Swift made a concerted effort with her last album, “1989,” to move on from the narrative that she only writes songs about her boyfriends. With a sudden rush of stories about her new music in the same week that it’s revealed she’s dating someone, doesn’t it seem like that’s exactly what’s she’s doing again?
Swift is a master at image management — does she know how this looks?
Does she care? If there’s one thing we know, Swift does everything for a reason — and it looks like we’ll only have a few more months to find out what it is.