Lover Tracklist
Swift’s seventh studio album was her first release with Republic Records, after leaving Big Machine in November 2018. Fans began speculating about the album as early as February 2019, and Swift alluded to this in a speech at the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards the next month, saying that fans “will be the first to know” about new music.
Swift indirectly announced the record when she posted a thirteen-day countdown to social media, which was also featured on billboards in cities like New York and London. After posting the countdown, Swift posted new pictures to social media every day leading up to the release of the lead single, “ME!,” featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco on April 26th.
Acting as an elaborate Easter egg hunt, Swift hid hints about the album title, song titles, and lyrics throughout the music video.
Swift announced the album and its August 23rd release date officially on June 13th during an Instagram livestream, as well as announcing the second single, “You Need To Calm Down.”
The full album tracklist was allegedly leaked by iTunes on August 14, two days before the title track “Lover” was officially released. Two days later, Taylor Swift officially announced the tracklist in multiple Instagram posts, confirming what the leak had already revealed two days earlier.
After just one day on sale, Lover became the top-selling 2019 album in the U.S., selling 450,000 copies in its first day alone. It later topped the Billboard 200 chart, with 867,000 total units in a week, becoming her sixth #1 album, having the biggest U.S. sales week since that of her 2017 project reputation, and earning the second-biggest streaming week for a female artist, behind Ariana Grande’s thank u, next. On September 27th, 2019, the album was certified platinum.
“Lover” Q&A
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Translations
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How does Taylor describe the album?
In a radio interview with Zach Sang, Taylor stated about the upcoming album:
There isn’t ever one song that could sum up what the album is, but I knew that this one felt like, it felt like a celebration— it felt like something that could make you feel good, and like, I just want that right now for people, and I want to feel that way when I perform it. …I wanna feel good and positive and hopeful. And I think that a song is kind of like a mantra if you think about it. If you get a song stuck in your head, that’s the message you’re telling yourself— whether it’s intentional or not, whether it’s conscious or not.
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How does the album compare to its predecessor, reputation?
Swift told Entertainment Weekly:
This time around I feel more comfortable being brave enough to be vulnerable, because my fans are brave enough to be vulnerable with me. Once people delve into the album, it’ll become pretty clear that that’s more of the fingerprint of this — that it’s much more of a singer-songwriter, personal journey than the last one.
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When did Swift finish the album?
Swift told Entertainment Weekly that she finished the record in late February 2019, the day that she posted a now-infamous photo of palm trees on her Instagram:
I posted that [picture] the day that I finished the seventh album. I couldn’t expect [my fans] to know that. I figured they’d figure it out later, but a lot of their theories were actually correct. Those Easter eggs were just trying to establish that tone.
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How did Taylor first reveal the album?
On June 13, 2019, Swift hosted an Instagram Live where she discussed the album:
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What has Taylor said about the album title "Lover"?
I think that with this album, the word lover encompasses like someone who possesses the ability to make you feel all the ranges of emotion that you have, you know, because when people say like: “We just don’t have that spark”, what they’re talking about that’s missing is the element that I’m singing about on this album, if that makes sense to you.
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Did Swift consider any other titles for the album?
Swift told Rolling Stone in August 2019:
[‘Daylight’] almost was [the title track]. I thought it might be a little bit too sentimental. […] I was kind of in my head referring to the album as Daylight for a while. But Lover, to me, was a more interesting title, more of an accurate theme in my head, and more elastic as a concept.
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What kind of scenery does Swift associate with the album?
Swift shared via Instagram in September 2019:
For me, the Lover album is open fields and sunsets and SUMMER.
She told Rolling Stone in an interview that came out the next day:
Lover is, like, completely just a barn wood floor and some ripped curtains flowing in the breeze, and fields of flowers and, you know, velvet.
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Has Taylor hinted at what the album's title might be?
Taylor posted this in the YouTube comment section of her music video for “ME!”:
In the aforementioned video, a neon sign reading Lover was visible in the background. Nearly a month after its release, Swift confirmed this was in fact her 7th album’s title.
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What certifications has the album received?
Lover is certified 3x Platinum by the RIAA.
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How did this record perform on the charts?
Lover debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 for the week of September 7th, 2019, after moving a total of 867,000 album-equivalent units of the record.
Album Credits
Album Credits
