Every second has felt like an hour for Swifties since early May when Taylor Swift confirmed her re-recorded Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) album during one of her The Eras Tour shows in Nashville.
Swift is preparing to stage back-to-back The Eras Tour concerts at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri on Friday, July 7, and Saturday, July 8, and she’s bringing a one-of-one souvenir. We’re only hours away from the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) at 9 p.m. PST and midnight EST.
Speak Now originally arrived in October 2010 as her third LP, and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is the third of her re-recorded albums. Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) preceded it in April 2021 and November 2021, respectively. Both of those albums debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It’s probably the safest assumption imaginable that Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) will become Swift’s 12th career No. 1 album — the most recent one being last October’s Midnights.
Swift leveled with her fans before they collectively revisit her Speak Now era while performing at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota in late June, seemingly trying to preempt any online harassment that might be headed John Mayer’s way after “Dear John” reenters the mainstream.
| Taylor urging fans tonight to be kind and gentle online when Speak Now comes out as she doesn’t care what happened when she was 19 yo, she only cares about the music she wrote and the fact that she gets to own it now pic.twitter.com/KZrKNp0vfw
— Taylor Swift Updates
(@swifferupdates) June 25, 2023
“I’m putting this album out because I want to own my music, and I believe that any artist who has the desire to own their music should be able to. That’s why I’m putting out this album,” she said, in part. “I’m 33 years old. I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19, except the songs I wrote and the memories we made together. So what I’m trying to tell you is I’m not putting this album out so you can go and should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about.”
On Wednesday, July 5, Swift also announced 14 additional international The Eras Tour dates for 2024 with Paramore serving as her opener. See those dates here.
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is out 7/7 via Republic. Find more information here.
Paramore is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.