Taylor Swift Announces The Title of the First ‘Midnights’ Song ‘Mastermind’

Taylor Swift is aware of her penchant for scattering clues across her social media and music for keen-eyed admirers to interpret and analyse. However, she is not doing it this time.

She posted a TikTok first thing in September, at exactly midnight with the caption ‘Midnights Mayhem With Me,’ giving off a very cable-access vibe, to offer her fans some direct information. A gold lottery-ball cage with ping-pong balls labelled 1 to 13 next to the famous singer/songwriter, who was sitting in front of a brown crushed-velvet backdrop and wearing a mustard blazer, represented each song on her upcoming ‘Midnights’ album, which is due in October.

“I know I have a habit of dropping cryptic clues and easter eggs when giving you information about new music, and I’m not here to deny that, but I am here to defy that,” she says in the intro of the clip. “Welcome to a new series I’m calling ‘Midnights Mayhem With Me.’ I am going to be using this technologically advanced device to help me allow fate to decide exactly what track titles I’m going to be announcing and in what order.”

She then draws the first ball out of the cage, and guess what? It’s Track 13, which is also Taylor Swift’s well-known lucky number.

“The first track I’m going to tell you about is Track 13, because of course,” she says with a smirk, before picking up a red phone and revealing into the receiver: “Track 13 is called ‘Mastermind.’”

“Midnights tracklist reveal!!” the TikTok video is captioned. “Introducing: Midnights Mayhem with Me.”

Swift was recognised as the Songwriter-Artist of the Decade at the NSAI’s Nashville Songwriter Awards before the song’s title was made public. She gave a speech and then unexpectedly performed her 10-minute song ‘All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)’ for the audience.

–Shantala