Taylor Swift Announces Re-Recorded ‘Fearless’ Album With New Songs
Taylor Swift announced the first of her re-recorded albums in an appearance on Good Morning America Thursday. The 26-track album, titled Fearless: Taylor’s Version, will feature re-recordings of songs from Swift’s 2008 Grammy-winning sophomore album Fearless, plus six never-before-released songs that were written by Swift between the ages of 13 and 16.
The album’s cover, also revealed on Good Morning America, shows Swift recreating her pose from the original Fearless album art in sepia tone.
EXCLUSIVE: @taylorswift13 is dropping a new re-recorded version of her song “Love Story” at midnight! She tells @GMA she has re-recorded her entire “Fearless” album and gives us a sneak peek at the new cover! ?? #TaylorSwiftOnGMA https://t.co/UQUu2QuE6O pic.twitter.com/8ZvZBmvgiR
— Good Morning America ?? (@GMA) February 11, 2021
Swift will release the new rendition of her hit song “Love Story” as the album’s first single, dropping Thursday night at midnight. A snippet of the re-recorded track was originally heard in a Match commercial produced by Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort Productions.
While Swift has not officially announced a release date for Fearless: Taylor’s Version, she unveiled a written statement on Twitter that included a hidden message with capital letters, spelling out “April Ninth.”
I’m thrilled to tell you that my new version of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is done and will be with you soon. It has 26 songs including 6 never before released songs from the vault. Love Story (Taylor’s Version) will be out tonight. Pre-order now at https://t.co/NqBDS6cGFl ?? pic.twitter.com/Vjyy2gA72O
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) February 11, 2021
Swift first announced that she would be re-recording her first six albums in August 2019 following the multi-million-dollar acquisition of her original masters by Scooter Braun. Braun assumed ownership of Swift’s original recordings after his company Ithaca Holdings acquired Big Machine Label Group, the record label that released every Swift album through 2017’s Reputation. Swift has repeatedly alleged that neither Braun nor Scott Borchetta, Big Machine’s founder and the man who signed her to the label as a teenager, have given her a fair opportunity to acquire ownership of her masters, hence why she’s chosen to re-record her first six albums.
In November 2020, Variety reported that Braun had sold the Swift catalog to Shamrock Holdings, a private equity company, as part of a package deal said to be worth $300 million.