So much has gone down in the Taylor Swift world this week... and it's only Wednesday. If you haven't heard about everything that's gone down so far this week, here's a basic run-down of everything that has made me absolutely lose my mind:
On Monday, July 22nd, Taylor announced on all her social media platforms that she was going to be doing an Instagram live on Tuesday, July 23rd at 5 p.m. est to talk about some things that she's "reeeeealy excited about." The gif she posted featured an arrow being shot into a target, which was a scene in the "You Need To Calm Down" music video, when Hayley Kiyoko show the arrow into a target that had a bold "5" in the middle. Me, and other fans, speculated that this meant that track five of Taylor's album was coming... this week. Track five is known as being one of the most vulnerable and emotional of the songs on each of Taylor's albums, and there was no reason to believe that Lover's track five would be any different.
Tuesday morning, iTunes posted a timestamp next to track five on the Lover album, stamping it with "3:31," which also made fans believe that track five was coming, as soon as within the next twenty-four hours. A few minutes later, iTunes revealed the name of track five along with the time stamp, "The Archer." "Archer" can mean many things, a person who shoots a target (like in the "You Need To Calm Down" music video), or it can be the symbol for a Sagittarius, which is Taylor's astrology sign.
Once five o'clock rolled around, Taylor had her promised Instagram live. On the live, she expressed her gratitude for being nominated for ten VMA awards, discussed her deluxe edition copies of "Lover" in more detail, and confirmed that track five will be called "The Archer." Each of Taylor's four deluxe editions will contain thirty pages of unique content (one hundred twenty pages total) of journal entries she has written, in celebration of it being thirteen years since she has released her first pieces of music to the world. The pages are photocopied into the book, so it is really as if you are reading actual entries from Taylor's journals. Some things that she mentioned that will most likely be in the deluxe editions include the original lyrics of "All Too Well," and a Grammy reflection entry. If you want to preorder Taylor's deluxe editions to get your hands on these journal entries, you can do so here.
Once Taylor revealed that track 5 will indeed be called "The Archer," she said that it would be out "imminently" and that "it might actually be out now," making me and so many others absolutely lose our minds. Immediately after her live ended, I went straight to YouTube to watch the lyric video to the song, which you can also do here, and I absolutely recommend that you do. This is for sure one of Taylor's most vulnerable songs, because it's not really about how other people see her or how others have hurt her or changed her, it's how she has done these things to herself. It's truly a beautiful, angelic sounding song, and I definitely recommend giving it a listen, even if you are not a Taylor fan.
You can vote for Taylor for video of the year, song of the year, best collaboration, best pop, and video for good here.