Taylor Swift Releases 'Patient Zero' Single, Announces Album Encore With Four New Tracks

Taylor Swift announced a new single, "Patient Zero," on Tuesday, September 23, 2026, set to release on Friday, September 25. The announcement came less than 24 hours after she revealed an expanded version of her 2025 album "The Life of a Showgirl," titled "The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore," which includes four additional songs: "Patient Zero," "Cleveland!," "Pink Clouding," and "Babylon."

Swift promoted the announcement through a countdown clock on her website and cryptic hints, including a pretaped sketch at the Emmy Awards where she referenced "encore" through coded phrases. In an Instagram statement, Swift credited the overwhelming response to her original 2025 album—which achieved the biggest first week sales in history—as inspiration for the new material. She explained that she traveled to Sweden with collaborators Max Martin and Shellback to celebrate, and while there, spontaneously wrote additional songs out of gratitude for fan support.

"About a year ago, you guys did a truly unfathomable thing," Swift wrote. "You gave The Life of a Showgirl the biggest first week for an album in history... there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs."

The expanded album brings the total track count to 16 songs and marks Swift's first new music since her wedding to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in July 2026. The single is available in three CD variants—standard, acoustic, and piano versions—each priced at $3.99 for preorder on her website. The announcement also noted that Swift will receive the inaugural MTV VMA Artist Director Honors on September 28, 2026.

Some social media users criticized the cover art for excessive photo editing upon release, though the project represents a continuation of the original album's visual aesthetic created by photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. The release is available on streaming services, with Apple Music listing tracks as two separate discs and Spotify displaying all 16 in a single running order.