When Taylor Swift showed up on the 2024 Grammy Awards red carpet Sunday night, she wore a long white gown with black gloves. But the standout accessory was her glittery black choker, adorned with a functional clock, set to midnight.
As Swift is known to include Easter eggs, aka hidden nods to upcoming releases, in her fashion, Swifties took to social media to speculate that the clock could signify an impending announcement for her “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” album, which has been feverishly anticipated as a follow-up to October’s “1989″ re-release.
In a TikTok shared by E! News, Swift is seen backstage asking her publicist Tree Paine “do you need to set my watch?” while Paine responds “Nope. It’s already perfect. Midnight.” confirming the clock’s time being set purposefully.
Some fans also pointed out Swift’s black fan, which resembles the one used in the music video for her “Reputation” lead single “Look What You Made Me Do.”
Earlier Sunday, the mega-star changed her profile photos across all her social media platforms to a black and white photo, which aligns with the grayscale iconography of “Reputation” upon its 2017 release.
🚨| Taylor Swift panics to ensure her clock necklace is perfectly set to midnights before entering the 2024 #GRAMMYs
"Do you need to set my watch?" pic.twitter.com/PIMbGx54vJ
— The Eras Tour (@tswifterastour) February 5, 2024
Swift’s official site also “crashed” earlier Sunday, as the site showed what appeared to be an error message with the first line saying “Error 321 Backend fetch failed,” which is a reference to a communication error that would appear on fax machines with a poor telephone line connection.
In “Look What You Made Me Do,” Swift says, “I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now.”
Host Trevor Noah even got in on it, jokingly teasing the album saying in his monologue “It was the times, the worst of crimes,” a lyric from “Getaway Car,” another song from “Reputation.”
Though this all could be a simple reference to “Midnights,” Swift’s most recent album, which is tied to six Grammy nominations Sunday night, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Record of the Year.
But Swifties are hoping for more, of course, as they beg for Swift’s next chapter.
Taylor’s necklace is a clock POINTING TO MIDNIGHT 👀 REPUTATION TV ERA INCOMING? #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/FIzIyvUnl9
— Taylor Swift Updates (@SwiftNYC) February 5, 2024
