On Sunday August 28th, Taylor Swift surprised fans with an album announcement during the MTV Video Music Awards in her acceptance speech for Video of the Year. She accepted the award for the self-directed short film, “All Too Well.”

“I had sort of made up my mind that if you were going to be this generous and give us this, I thought it might be a fun moment to tell you that my brand new album comes out Oct. 21,” Taylor explained to cheering crowds.

Fans were ecstatic. This is the first time since December 11, 2020, the release of “Evermore,” that she was releasing all new music. However, she forced fans to wait until the clock struck twelve to announce the name and cover art of her 10th studio album on social media.

In an Instagram post she described the album concept as “”the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life.”

“We lie awake in love and in fear, in turmoil and in tears. We stare at walls and drink until they speak back,” she wrote. “We twist in our self-made cages and pray that we aren’t — right this minute — about to make some fateful life-altering mistake.”

“This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams,” the post continued. “The floors we pace and the demons we face. For all of us who have tossed and turned and decided to keep the lanterns lit and go searching — hoping that just maybe, when the clock strikes twelve… we’ll meet ourselves.”

The recording of her new album was held under wraps until now. Many of her fans were expecting to see another edition of her Taylor’s Version albums, re-records of her originals* like the ones she had won awards for earlier in the night. But this release will contain fully authentic material. It is yet to be seen what the sound of the new album will be and who her collaborators are.

*Taylor Swift is re-recording her albums after an ownership dispute over the master recordings of her first six studio albums. Her masters were previously owned by Big Machine Records, which was bought by Scooter Braun in 2019 unbeknownst to her. Swift must now re-record her albums in order to have control over how and when her music is used.