Taylor Swift's new re-recorded music is coming.
Following a public battle with music exec Scooter Braun, whose purchase of her masters Swift previously said was her "worst case scenario," the 31-year-old singer/songwriter will release a newly-recorded version of "Love Story" Friday at midnight before dropping a re-recorded version of her second studio album "Fearless," she announced Thursday on "Good Morning America."
"Fearless: Taylor's Version" will feature 26 songs, including six that fans haven't heard before.
"I've now finished re-recording all of 'Fearless,' which will be coming out soon," Swift said. "I've decided to add songs from the vault, which are songs that almost made the original 'Fearless' album, but I've gone back and recorded those, so everyone will be able to hear not only the songs that made the album, but the songs that almost made it – the full picture."
Swift shared her new album cover on Instagram, reflecting on the journey of returning to the 2008 hitmaker she wrote as a teenager. Eagle-eyed fans noted that Swift, always one to leave Easter eggs for her fans, left a secret note that spells out "APRIL NINTH," which her website confirmed is the release date.
"I've spoken a lot about why I'm remaking my first six albums, but the way I've chosen to do this will hopefully help illuminate where I'm coming from," she wrote. "Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really 'knows' that body of work."
She added: "I've decided I want you to have the whole story, see the entire vivid picture, and let you into the entire dreamscape that is my Fearless album. That's why I've chosen to include 6 never before released songs on my version of this album. Written when I was between the ages of 16 and 18, these were the ones it killed me to leave behind."
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Swift returned to "GMA" a year and a half after she appeared on the morning show to share that she would soon be re-recording all the music from her first five albums. She spoke with Robin Roberts in August 2019 during a Central Park performance promoting her seventh studio album, "Lover," saying she intended to re-record her first five albums – "Taylor Swift," "Fearless," "Speak Now," "Red" and "1989" – the following year.
“Yeah, that’s true," Swift said after Roberts asked her about her plans to re-record her music. "And it’s something that I’m very excited about doing because my contract says that starting November 2020, so next year, I can record albums one through five all over again. I’m very excited about it."
"I just think that artists deserve to own their own work," she added. "I just feel very passionately about that.”
Swift originally confirmed her plans to re-record her albums in an interview for "CBS Sunday Morning," earlier in August 2019, in which correspondent Tracy Smith asked about re-recording past songs in order to regain control of her master recordings.
“Might you do that?” Smith asked.
“Oh yeah,” Swift said.
“That’s a plan?” Smith asked.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Swift replied.
In late June 2019, Swift publicly denounced Braun – who manages Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Swift's past foe, Kanye West – after he paid $300 million to acquire Swift's former record label, Big Machine Label Group, and by extension, the masters of Swift's music from her previous six albums.
Last November, Braun's Ithaca Holdings LLC sold the master rights to Taylor Swift’s first six albums for upwards of $300 million, according to Variety. Swift posed a statement to Twitter saying she was notified that Braun had sold her masters to Shamrock Capital Content Fund, a private equity firm.
"This was the second time my music had been sold without my knowledge," she said.
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Swift has since kept her fans periodically updated on the process of re-recording, and released a first listen of her new edition of 2008 single "Love Story" in December via her friend Ryan Reynolds' Match.com ad, which featured the best/worst match of all time: Satan and the year 2020.
"Okay so while my new re-records are NOT done, my friend @VancityReynolds asked me if he could use a snippet of one for a LOLsome commercial he wrote so...here’s a sneak peak of Love Story!" Swift tweeted. "Working hard to get the music to you soon!!"
Re-recordings aside, Swift has had a busy year. She recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of her documentary, "Miss Americana," which documented her career through the years. In July, she dropped surprise hit album "Folklore," which would go on to garner five Grammy nominations for the 2021 award show, a surprise concert film in November, and another surprise album, "Evermore," in December.
Contributing: Sara M. Moniuszko
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