Taylor Swift Superfans Called Her Big April 26 Announcement Months Ago

Taylor Swift (opens in new tab) is counting down to...something. The singer made it clear on Saturday that something big is happening on April 26.

Yes, Taylor posted a cryptic Instagram (opens in new tab) captioned "4.26," but she did so much more than that. She also turned her official website into a pastel, watercolored countdown clock. She bought digital billboards in major cities (opens in new tab) around the world, and streamed the same countdown to each of them. She bought the domain "www.apriltwentysix.com (opens in new tab)" and set it to redirect to "www.taylorswift.com (opens in new tab)."

Basically, Taylor went so extra with her promotion of the countdown that if whatever she debuts on April 26th isn't legitimately huge, it will feel like a letdown and a waste of everyone's time.

But, while the mainstream internet is busy freaking out over April 26, the Swift-loving internet is like, "Yawn. Tell us something we don't know."

Taylor Swift superfans cracked this Da Swifty code way back in February, when the singer embedded some Illuminati-level clues into Instagram posts. Specifically, this Instagram post from February 24:

So how did Swift fans look at this picture of palm trees and stars and conclude that Taylor was planning to release new music on April 26? A few things, actually.

First, the trees: April 26 is Arbor Day. This is the most rational and obvious clue in the post.

Second, the stars: There are exactly 61 stars in the picture and April 26 is 61 days after February 24 (the day the 'gram was posted).

Does this sound insane? Not to Taylor Swift fans, who get the way her mind works, because they figured this out within HOURS of the initial Instagram: 

But wait, there's more! Fans are also pretty sure that Taylor gave a hint about the genre of her new album in that same palm tree picture and that she's already announced that the new album won't be country or pop (or at least not something that sounds like her previous iterations of country and pop). The evidence? There are seven trees in the picture, four on the left (representing Taylor's four country albums), two on the right (her two official pop albums) and one in the middle, standing alone (whatever genre #TS7 will be). 

What's more, fans are speculating that Taylor has known that April 26 would be the release date for her seventh album (or at least something significant) for two years:

Taylor is also leaning heavily into butterfly iconography in the buildup to whatever is happening on April 26, marking a stark departure from the snake-filled Reputation era and giving a pretty clear signal that rebirth and transformation will figure heavily into the new...whatever it is we're getting in 13 days.

We'll just have to wait until April 26 to know for sure what Taylor has up her sleeve, but clearly we can trust the sleuthing of Swiftiverse Twitter, if you're looking for spoilers before then.

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