Taylor Swift surprises fans with huge announcement, but the clues were hiding in plain sight
Taylor Swift once again has huge news to delight fans – a new song, called Patient Zero, is coming this Friday.
“I’ve been impatiently waiting to tell you that my brand-new single ‘Patient Zero’ will be out on September 25 (!!!!!!!!!!!!) and it’s available to pre-order now on my website for 24 hours.”
Patient Zero is out on Friday. Instagram/@taylorswift
It’s an unusual move for Swift, who hasn’t released a pre-single from a project since 2019.
Hours ahead of the announcement, she teased it with clues that included the letter O being changed to zero in her Instagram bio, as well as a short countdown on her website.
While eager Swifties had been convinced the musician’s next project would be a re-record of her very first, self-titled album from 2006 to mark 20 years in the industry, she’s kept them on their toes with this surprise single.
Patient Zero instead appears tied to her most recent The Life of a Showgirl era, and not just because Swift used 12 exclamation points (for her 12th album) in her announcement.
At last week’s Emmys, Swift appeared in a surprise pre-recorded appearance during a Law & Order: SVU spoof sketch with host Mariska Hargitay, poking fun at her fans’ obsession with fishing out clues.
“I think what we’re going to be looking for is hiding in plain sight,” Swift said in the sketch.
“Saccharide. Aries. From the vineyard. North or south.”
Fans, of course, went into overdrive trying to figure out what that meant – but it’s only with hindsight that a meaning referring to the new single has been uncovered.
When you look at the third letter of those words, and do a little unscrambling, it spells the word encore.
This also links back to her Opalite music video, which features a poster reading “patient for the encore”.
Swift’s Opalite video features another reference to ‘encore’. YouTube/Taylor Swift
Earlier this week, eagle-eyed fans noticed that the page on her website where she announced the acquisition of her master recordings and the Showgirl tracklist now featured a third sheet of paper.
It’s currently covered up by the others, but presumably means there’s more to come – as there always is from Swift.
As for what Patient Zero will sound like? That one is still a mystery, but Aussie fans will be able to hear for themselves when the song is released at 2pm (AEST) on Friday.
