Taylor Swift made history at Sunday's Grammy Awards when she won Album of the Year for the fourth time for her record-breaking long-player Midnights—and now she's scored another huge win.
Sunday was a big night for Swift, as she also dropped the bombshell that she would be releasing a new album when accepting the award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, her 13th Grammy win. She had been recording the album "The Tortured Poets Department" in secret and it is due to be released in April.
"I know that the way the Recording Academy voted is a direct reflection of the passion from the fans," Swift said. "So I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I have been keeping from you for the last two years, which is that my brand new album comes out April 19. It's called "The Tortured Poets Department," I'm going to go and post the cover right now backstage. Thank you, I love you."
Swift's multiple wins, as well as the surprise announcement, resulted in an impressive jump in social media followers. According to Social Blade, she gained over 373,000 followers on Instagram on Sunday and on Monday she acquired 62,590 new followers, bringing her follower count to 280 million.
Her X (formerly Twitter) follower count also jumped on Monday. At the time of writing, she had 70,615 new followers, bringing the total to 95.1 million. It's safe to say that Swift has enormous influence.
Newsweek contacted Swift's publicist for comment via email Monday.
Much like every other major Swift event online, including trying to buy tickets for The Eras World Tour and subsequent concert movie, her fans rushed to the website to get their hands on the album, only to encounter major technical glitches.
Those in line to pre-order the album faced long waiting times to check out, with some even saying they were told it could take up to 90 minutes to make payment.
The pop superstar has started the year on the front foot, following a record-breaking 2023.
One can't deny that Swift is one of the biggest stars in the world right now. Her Eras Tour has earned over $1 billion in revenue since it began in March 2023, breaking the Guinness World Record for the highest-grossing tour ever—with another year of gigs to go.
It has seen unprecedented demand and according to stats shared by Pollstar on December 16, 2023, it had already earned $1.04 billion. The tour is also projected to generate close to $5 billion in consumer spending in the U.S. alone, bringing fans together from across the globe.
Swift's sixth concert tour has been so successful that it has made more money than the combined earnings of the next two highest-grossing tours of 2023, which were the tours of Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen.
The singer's success doesn't end there, as in just its first weekend of release, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour became the highest-grossing domestic concert film of all time. It made $92 million in its opening weekend and according to Box Office Mojo, the movie has made more than $260 million globally since its October 13 release.
The cherry on top is the fact that she was crowned the most listened-to artist in the world with more than 26.1 billion global streams in 2023.
"The Tortured Poets Department" is available to pre-order in a number of different packages from limited edition vinyl to cassettes and CDs.
The limited edition versions of the 16-track album include the bonus song, "The Manuscript," a collectible 24-page book-bound jacket with three handwritten lyrics and never-before-seen photos.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Billie is a Newsweek Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. She reports on film and TV, trending ... Read more
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