Taylor Swift is the musical gift that keeps on giving.
After already releasing two new albums, Swift has continued to treat fans with more surprises by releasing a re-recorded version of her 2008 single, “Love Story” called “Love Story (Taylor’s Version).” In a lyric video shared on her YouTube page, the singer shares clips and photographs from the Fearless era. She ends the video giving her signature hand heart with a message onscreen that read, “With love to all my fans.”
The singer-songwriter announced on Thursday’s Good Morning America that she has completed her first re-recording of her second album Fearless, first released in 2008. The re-recording will include the original tracklist but be expanded with six never-before-heard songs, which she described as “songs from the vault.” Though she teased that the album was coming soon, Swift shared a hidden message within her statement to reveal the date as April 9.
Fearless earned Swift her first Grammy wins including one for the coveted album of the year.
In an interview with Tracy Smith on CBS Sunday Morning in August 2019, the singer first confirmed that she would rerecord her songbook which includes Taylor Swift (2006), Fearless (2008), Speak Now (2010), Red (2012), 1989 (2014), and 2017’s Reputation to offset the controversial $300 million deal between Scooter Braun and Big Machine Label Group founder Scott Borchetta. Swift owns the masters to her Lover, Folklore, and Evermore albums, which were released under her new deal with Republic Records and Universal Music Group.
As fans have awaited and speculated what Swift’s re-recordings of her musical catalog would sound like, the singer first gave a brief preview of her re-recorded version of “Love Story” to a marketing campaign in December for the dating website written by Ryan Reynolds. “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! Working hard to get the music to you soon!!,” Swift had tweeted at the time.
With the release of the new rendition, Swift has proven to have kept busy this year. After surprising fans with the release of her eighth and ninth studio albums, folklore and evermore, Swift also released a Disney+ special.
Following its July 24 release, Folklore became the first album to sell a million copies in the U.S. this year. Swift also received Grammy nominations for album of the year and pop vocal album. The singer also secured song of the year and best pop solo performance nods for “cardigan,” which she wrote with Dessner. Her song “exile,” featuring Bon Iver, is also up for best pop duo/group performance. Meanwhile following its release, evermore ranked as No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Jan. 16) for three nonconsecutive weeks.
Watch the lyric video for “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” below.