Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. Are you a Taylor Swift fan who has caught wind of a thing happening on Google involving her upcoming release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version)? We’re here to help.
The big news as of late involving Taylor Swift has been whether she’s dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, but let’s focus on the other thing we’re all anticipating: The release of the re-recorded 1989 (Taylor’s Version).
A big Google Easter Egg revealed that there are some tracks that could drop … but only if fans solve a puzzle.
Confused? Let’s dive in:
OK, wait. What's this now?
Because the masters of her first six albums were sold and bought by a group owned by manager Scooter Braun and sold once again, Swift decided to take back control and re-record those albums.
The latest? 1989 (Taylor’s Version), set to drop on October 27.
No, I know that. Get to the Google part!
Ah, OK! On Tuesday, when you searched “Taylor Swift” on Google, a little vault showed up in the corner of the screen. When you clicked on it — I’m using the past tense, but you can still do this! — a word jumble showed up.
If you solved the Swift-centric puzzle, you typed in your answer and if you were right, you get the next puzzle.
Fun! And then what?
There are 89 puzzles to solve. Once you get all of those, you unlock the vault and you get — per Google — the vault track titles!
Vault track titles?
It sounds like it’ll be titles of unreleased songs that will appear on the re-released version of the album.
Got it! Has anyone solved them all yet?
Yes! After Swift fans basically broke Google trying to solve these, they’re in … mostly:
After teasing her Swifties with a Google scavenger hunt, Taylor Swift dropped titles to four of her five promised vault tracks on ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’
The title of the fifth vault track, however, is a clue still left to unscramble 🔎 pic.twitter.com/NrnhgbGXkc
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) September 20, 2023
But there’s one track left to go. Hmmm.
