Swift’s seventh studio album was her first release with Republic Records, after leaving Big Machine in November 2018. Fans began speculating about the album as early as February 2019, and Swift alluded to this in a speech at the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards the next month, saying that fans “will be the first to know” about new music.

Swift indirectly announced the record when she posted a thirteen-day countdown to social media, which was also featured on billboards in cities like New York and London. After posting the countdown, Swift posted new pictures to social media every day leading up to the release of the lead single, “ME!,” featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco on April 26th.

Acting as an elaborate Easter egg hunt, Swift hid hints about the album title, song titles, and lyrics throughout the music video.

Swift announced the album and its August 23rd release date officially on June 13th during an Instagram livestream, as well as announcing the second single, “You Need To Calm Down.”

The full album tracklist was allegedly leaked by iTunes on August 14, two days before the title track “Lover” was officially released. Two days later, Taylor Swift officially announced the tracklist in multiple Instagram posts, confirming what the leak had already revealed two days earlier.

After just one day on sale, Lover became the top-selling 2019 album in the U.S., selling 450,000 copies in its first day alone. It later topped the Billboard 200 chart, with 867,000 total units in a week, becoming her sixth #1 album, having the biggest U.S. sales week since that of her 2017 project reputation, and earning the second-biggest streaming week for a female artist, behind Ariana Grande’s thank u, next. On September 27th, 2019, the album was certified platinum.