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What to know about Taylor Swift’s surprise double album drop overnight

Swift dropped ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ at midnight late Thursday. She had something else in store a couple of hours later.

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Taylor Swift at the 2024 Grammy Awards in February, where she won album of the year for “Midnights.” (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)
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As Taylor Swift accepted the Grammy Award in February for best pop vocal album for “Midnights,” she informed the audience that she had been keeping a secret for two years: She had recorded a new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” and it would be released on April 19.

When Swift said “two years,” she held up two fingers, which under normal circumstances is a regular human hand signal. However, Swift’s die-hard fans know her all too well … and when the lead-up to the record included more references to the number two, they suspected something was up.