Taylor Swift's 'Life of a Showgirl' colours light up Empire State Building

Taylor Swift is going all out as she ushers in her new era with the announcement of her upcoming album, The Life of a Showgirl.

At exactly 12:12 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Aug. 12, the pop megastar announced her 12th studio album. To mark the occasion, New York City’s Empire State Building lit up in vibrant orange just a few hours later. The stunning spectacle was shared on the official Instagram account of the NYC landmark with the caption, “Onto the next era.”

Swift, 32, is known for associating different colours with each of her albums or “eras.” She demonstrated the concept during her record-breaking near-two-year-long Eras World Tour, where she paid tribute to all her albums in a three-hour long setlist. Each era — or album — was identifiable through its unique colour palette.

But during her last Eras show in December 2024, she introduced a new, bold colour: a bright, peachy orange.

Taylor’s marketing account, Taylornation, called back to that moment in a teaser leading up to the announcement of The Life of a Showgirl. They shared a carousel of images from the Eras Tour featuring Taylor exclusively in orange outfits.

“Thinking about when she said ‘See you next era…’” the caption read with a “heart on fire” emoji.

It was only a few hours later that the multi-Grammy-winner — whose last album was 2024’s The Tortured Poets Department — announced Showgirl during a teaser for her debut appearance on boyfriend Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast, premiering Wednesday August 13 (another Easter Egg!).

Keeping in theme, the podcast’s set featured pops of orange as Taylor, who switched her signature bold red lip for a bold orange lip, opened a briefcase marked with an orange “TS” and whose interior was — you guessed it — orange.

“This is my brand new album, The Life of a Showgirl,” she said.