'The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore': Taylor Swift is Releasing 4 Brand New Songs This Week

What is The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore?

Taylor Swift announced that not only are we getting "Patient Zero" on September 25, we're getting three other brand new songs!

"About a year ago, you guys did a truly unfathomable thing. Something that completely blew my mind… You gave The Life of a Showgirl the biggest first week for an album in history. I took a trip to Sweden to celebrate with Max and Shellback, my two collaborators on this album," the singer writes on Instagram. "Really we just wanted to reflect and take in how grateful we were for the moment we were in, but there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs. I hope you love them, because they were born out of pure gratitude for your exuberance for and celebration of the album we made. The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore including four new songs is out on Friday and available to pre-order and save now."

What are the new Taylor Swift songs?

If you go on Spotify, you can see the upcoming tracks are listed underneath the original 12 songs. Here's what I think they could be about!

• Patient Zero: We know that the definition of patient zero is the first test subject in an experiment, or the original contamination. This reminds me of the lyric in "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" that says "you wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me." I have a feeling Taylor is the titular patient zero and we'll explore the dark side of fame.
• Cleveland!: The last time we saw Taylor use a city name and pair it with exclamation points was for "Florida!!!" so I'm thinking this new Taylor Swift song will be about Travis' hometown — and maybe even the new home they bought together in Ohio. It feels like a sequel to "Wi$h Li$t"!
• Pink Clouding: This is a term that refers to feelings of intense euphoria or hope. It looks like we're getting a song all about the honeymoon phase with Travis!!!
• Babylon: We know Taylor has a fascination with the ancient world and film (I have a whole theory that a ton of her songs are inspired by movies), and she's also sung about Babylon before in "Cowboy Like Me." "Now you hang from my lips like the Gardens of Babylon" is such a beautiful lyric, but I think this song will be the bookend to "Patient Zero"s exploration of the dark side of fame. The movie Babylon is all about the chaos — and somewhat emptiness — of fame and I would love for Taylor to explore what it looks like that her true Babylon and her true treasure is love and not her career. Stay tuned!

Is Taylor Swift releasing a new song?

Um, surprise! Taylor Swift just announced a brand new single called "Patient Zero" and I have so many questions!

Taylor announced the song in a September 22, 2026 Instagram post, saying, "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. 0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣0️⃣"

It's important to note that she included 12 exclamation points in the post, which just says we're still in the TS12 era (especially since the site specifies it's a Life of a Showgirl deluxe)...or it could just be a nod to the song coming out at midnight, just like the four zeroes!

What is patient zero for Taylor Swift?

I'm also wondering who patient zero is! The literal definition is basically the first test subject in an experiment. And Taylor Swift has written songs about herself, her partners, and her fans, so we'll just have to wait to see who the titular Patient Zero actually is.