STACK #253 November 2025

MUSIC FEATURE

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For her 12th album, superstar Taylor Swift delivers 12 bangers.

SHOW BUSINESS

The album announcement on the New Heights podcast had a record 1.3 million live viewers, beating the previous podcast record, held by Donald Trump on The Joe Rogan Experience . The Life of a Showgirl became the most pre-saved album ever on Spotify.

The Life of a Showgirl by Taylor Swift is out Oct 3 via Universal

M any years ago, Taylor Swift said: “I have to believe in fairytales, and I have to believe in love.” Her life reads like a modern day fairytale: she grew up on a Christmas tree farm and now she’s the biggest pop star on the planet. And despite some missteps along the way, she is now lucky in love, recently becoming engaged to football star Travis Kelce. The new album, The Life of a Showgirl , was announced on the

New Heights podcast, hosted by Travis and his brother Jason. “I’m so proud of it, and it just comes from the most infectiously joyful, wild, dramatic place I was in in my life,” says Swift, who worked on the record during breaks on her Eras Tour. “That effervescence has come through on this record. So, as you said, bangers.” Swift says she wanted to create “melodies that were so infectious that you’re almost angry at it”. “I tend to love to write lots and

lots of music, so it’s a temptation to release lots of music. But I wanted to do an album that was so focused on quality and the theme and everything fitting together like a perfect puzzle… I feel we achieved that. “Every single song is on this album for hundreds of reasons. You couldn’t take one out and it be the same album, you couldn’t add one. It is just right. “This is the record I’ve been wanting to make for a very long time.” Jeff Jenkins

SHOWSTOPPER

No female artist has had more number one singles on the Australian charts. Before the Showgirl album, Swift had 12 chart-toppers. Madonna has 11; Kylie has 10. Swift also holds the record for the most number one albums in Australia by a female artist – 13. Madonna has 12; Kylie has nine. Who’s had the most Top 10 singles in Australia in a year? It’s a list that features Swift in the top three spots. In 2023, she had 11. In 2024, 10. In 2022, nine. Most Top 5 singles from one album? Swift shares the record with Ed Sheeran. Six singles from the Midnights album hit the Top 5 in 2022. In March 2024, Swift became the first – and only – artist to occupy the top six spots on the Aussie albums chart.

SHOW AND TELL

Talking about the new album’s striking cover, showing the singer in a rhinestone-encrusted dress, Swift said: “My day ends with me in a bathtub, not usually in a bedazzled dress. I wanted to sort of, like, glamourise all the different aspects of how that tour felt.”

SHOW STARTER

Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989. Named after the singer-songwriter James Taylor, her star sign is Sagittarius. “I think that means I’m always looking for something new.” In 2000, she won a national poetry competition with a poem called A Monster in My Closet! In 2001, a computer repairman named Ronnie showed her how to play three chords on a guitar. Soon after, she wrote her first song, Lucky You . She made her first trip to Nashville to get a

record deal but was rejected by every label. In 2006, she released her debut single, Tim McGraw , a song that came to her in math class. “I was dating a guy who was about to go off to college. I knew we were going to break up, so I started thinking of all the things that would remind him of me. Surprisingly, the first thing that came to mind was that my favourite country artist is Tim McGraw.” The song peaked at number six on the US country charts and 40 on the pop charts.

46 NOVEMBER 2025

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