On Thursday, Taylor Swift pleasantly surprised her audience by announcing the arrival of the Lavender Haze music video.
It's from her tenth studio album Midnights, which was released in October of last year.
It's the third song to have a music video, but it's the second single off the album that's been officially released.
Like many other Swift videos, this one has a number of Easter Eggs, or secret messages, for fans to figure out regarding the singer's potential next move.
Fans of the musician, referred to as Swifties, have already analyzed the video and believe they have figured out what album the pop star might be releasing next.
After the rights to her original masters were purportedly sold to an investment fund for $300 million (£242 million), the 33-year-old has committed to re-recording her first six albums.
With Nashville's Big Machine Recordings, the singer's first record label, she signed a record deal but did not fully retain ownership of her music, which allowed them to sell the master recordings after the term of her contract with them ended.
Swift re-recorded her fourth album Red in 2022 and her second album Fearless in 2021 as a result.
Fans predict that her third album, Speak Now, which was initially released in 2010, will be the next to be re-recorded.
Before the release of Midnights last year, the singer explained the significance of the title Lavender Haze, citing her viewing of the Emmy Award–winning television series Mad Men as the source.
"I thought [the phrase] sounded cool, so I looked it up. And it turns out that it was a common way for people to describe being in love in the 1950s," she said in a video on Instagram.
She explained, "If you're in the 'lavender haze,' then that meant you were in that all-pervasive love glow. "And I found that to be really lovely. ".
Swift continued by saying that she and many other people who were raised in the social media era are familiar with what it's like to fall in love while being in the public eye.
"Like my relationship, which has been together for six years, we've had to avoid strange rumors and tabloid material, and we just ignore it. This song is about putting aside unimportant things in order to safeguard the important things, she continued.
Swift describes the music video as a "sultry sleepless 70s fever dream" and claims that storyboarding the Lavender Haze music video helped her "conceptualize the world and mood of Midnights.".
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that there are numerous references to lavender in the explicit language-filled music video. For example, Swift is seen swimming in a purple pool, and the background of her house is painted in lilac-hued haze.
Even Swift's original album cover for Speak Now, which featured her wearing a purple dress, may be a hint that the song was re-recorded.
Swift's previous music video, Bejewelled, which featured the singer in an elevator pressing a purple-colored button for the third floor in an apparent allusion to her third album, also featured the color as one of its main themes.
However tenuous the connection may be, the shape of a fish offers another potential hint.
Swift frequently played a guitar covered in painted koi carp fish during her Speak Now world tour, and koi fish can also be seen in a few spots in the Bejeweled and Lavender Haze music videos.
It takes several viewings to understand what's happening in the music video because there are many other Easter Eggs that aren't connected to Speak Now but rather to Swift in general.
Naturally, the video contains many scenes with a Midnights theme, such as when the alarm clock sounds at midnight (and there are no points for figuring out when the video was released).
The view then shifts to a stack of vinyl album covers. The top song on Midnights, the 13th and last track, is called Mastermind.
Swift's Sagittarius star sign and her partner Joe Alwyn's Pisces sign are aligned on the vinyl cover's unique album art.
The other fish-related visuals in the video might also be a nod to the Pisces zodiac sign.
Since she was born on December 13, 2013, the number 13 is a lucky number for Swift and is mentioned in almost every one of her music videos.
She can be seen in the video watching the weather forecast while it appears that it is 13 degrees in Nashville, where she resides.
That would be quite cold because Americans measure temperature in Fahrenheit rather than Celsius.
If that isn't enough of an Easter Egg, the forecast also mentions "Midnight Rain.".
This isn't the first time Swift has made headlines this week; aside from her music videos, her upcoming Eras Tour has drawn a lot of unwarranted attention.
Ticketmaster and Live Nation were in charge of selling tickets for the US leg of the tour, but system failures prevented thousands of fans from purchasing them in November 2022, leaving them disappointed.
On Wednesday, the business expressed regret to Swift's supporters as well as to her personally, adding, "we need to do better.".
It happens after Ticketmaster was the subject of an inquiry by the US Senate committee on consumer rights.
The company, which sells 70% of the tickets in the US, has been criticized by politicians and music lovers for having too much sway over the market for live performances.
Swift has not yet announced her UK and European tour dates.
