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THE POP SUPERSTAR TELLS ALL ON HER DEEPLY PERSONAL NEW ALBUM THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT 

-  PERNILLA CEDENHEIM

Leave it to Taylor Swift to know the value of a good surprise. After the pop superstar announced her 11th studio album The Tortured Poets Department at the Grammy Awards on Feb. 4, fans began wildly speculating about the revelations it would contain. Most assumed Swift, 34, would reflect on the demise of her six-year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn, which ended in the spring of 2023. On April 19, with the album's release, the singer's dedicated legion of Swifties were shocked: Tortured Poets was a deeply vulnerable breakup album, yes, but one that seemingly grappled not with her split from Alwyn, 33, but her brief, decade-in-the making romance with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy in the months following.

As listeners were still dissecting Swift's revealing lyrics, she flipped her carefully laid manuscript once more with a late-night reveal that the record was a double album. "I'd written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you," she announced at 2 a.m. as she dropped 15 more songs that altogether make up The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.