Taylor Swift’s Website Gets a Mysterious Countdown Clock — Is ‘TS12’ Upon Us?

Hours after Taylor Swift fans started buzzing on Monday (Aug. 11) due to clues that a major announcement might be imminent — and that the superstar’s 12th studio album might be the subject of that announcement — a mysterious countdown clock appeared on Swift’s official website on Monday night. The countdown ends in a few hours, at… 12:12 a.m. ET, on Aug . 12. (See the countdown here.)

On Monday morning, New Heights — the podcast hosted by Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother, fellow NFL star Jason Kelce — teased “a VERY special guest” for their new episode on Wednesday, with a social teaser suggesting that Swift would be making an appearance on the show. Minutes later, Taylor Nation, the official fan account for Swift, posted a series of 12 photos of Swift wearing the color orange — hinting at the long-held fan belief that Swift’s next era will have an orange theme.

Late Monday night, New Heights officially revealed that Swift would be their guest this week, with Taylor ending the new teaser by saying “We’re about to do a f—ing podcast!”

Although the timing of the New Heights post and the Taylor Nation message nodded toward a major announcement arriving Wednesday, Aug. 13, Swift might be making a splash on the 12th instead. Billboard has reached out to Swift’s rep for comment.

Swift’s 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, was released last year and scored the biggest Billboard 200 debut of her career, along with another album of the year Grammy nod. The superstar has been relatively quiet since her record-breaking Eras tour wrapped up last December, although the May news that she successfully bought back the master recordings of her first six studio albums did prompt a streaming resurgence for those projects, as well as her entire catalog.