Taylor Swift sends swifties scrambling with ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ vault teaser
Does the Easter egg clue in the clip spell 'Lust' or 'Slut' or some secret third other thing? Who knows
By Larisha Paul
Lust or Slut?? Those are the two answers most Swifties have come up with while attempting to decode the first vault teaser trailer for 1989 (Taylor’s Version). Taylor Swift shared the visual to her Instagram account with the cryptic caption: “You can tell me when the search is over… if the high was worth the pain.”
The 13-second clip shows a glimmering blue vault opening up and spitting out a collection of letters and punctuation while blue birds fly around it. It hasn’t even been a full hour since the teaser dropped and fans are already speculating that it could be hinting at a potential Sabrina Carpenter feature on one of the album’s vault tracks.
One of Carpenter’s most popular releases, ‘Because I Liked a Boy,’ contains the lyric: “Now I’m a home-wrecker, I’m a slut,” reclaiming the terms thrown at her during the great ‘Drivers License’ gossip cycle of 2021. The tone and structure of the song doesn’t differ too greatly from ‘Blank Space’, the 1989 single Swift references in her caption. Carpenter also recently joined Swift as an opener on the Latin American leg of the Eras tour. The 1989 era was famously defined by the special guests that would grace the stage during its accompanying tour.
While it’s all speculation for now, even Google is getting in on the games. A search for ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ leads fans to the official Google Search blog page where a resident Swiftie has organized an official easter egg hunt for the vault track titles and features. Swift previously launched a similar feature while promoting Red (Taylor’s Version) and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in 2021.
“Calling all Swifties! Love’s a game — and so is our latest easter egg in Search. Wanna play?” the post reads. “Search for ‘Taylor Swift’ in the Blank Space (ahem, a Search bar). Click on the blue vault and solve one of the word puzzles. It may take a second, since there are 89 puzzles to get through (a la 1989 (Taylor’s Version)) — don’t say we didn’t warn ya!”
The search is a collective group effort among Swift’s fanbase. So far, less than 10 percent of the required word puzzles have been solved, so they still have some work to do. “You’ll be helping Swifties around the world get out of the woods (or unlock the vault) as everyone collectively solves 33 million puzzles. And that’s how it works, that’s how you get the vault track titles,” the post continues. “Dying to see how this one ends? We promise that the wait isn’t gonna be forever, but the prize will definitely be worth the pain. Cause darling, we’re a Swiftie dressed like a search engine.”
At press time, Swifties have continued to inch closer to even more clues. One vault puzzle answer was revealed to be the astrological sign Sagittarius, leading fans to speculate that Nicki Minaj will be featured on the album. They have their work cut out for them, but they do have hints helping guide them. Across the different puzzles, the hints have read: ‘I Love You,’ ‘All You Had to Do Was Stay,’ ‘Karma Music Video,’ ‘Likes, Job, Whereabouts Were Studied Intently,’ and more.
Swift has been playing the long game with this re-recording in particular. During a show at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Swift announced that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) will be arriving on Oct. 27 — exactly nine years after the original dropped on Oct. 27, 2014. “The 1989 album changed my life in countless ways,” she shared in a social media post later that night. “To be perfectly honest, this is my most FAVORITE re-record I’ve ever done because the 5 From The Vault tracks are so insane. I can’t believe they were ever left behind. But not for long!”
Swift initially shared ‘Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)’ as a one-off release in September 2021, then followed with ‘This Love (Taylor’s Version) in May 2022, when it appeared in the official trailer for Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty. Both times, the singer has pivoted to other re-releases — for Red and Speak Now — effectively crushing fans who thought 1989 would finally be on the way. Now, the wait is almost over, but they still have to power through her maze of puzzles to get to the other side. They aren’t out of the woods, yet.