Koi Fish Coincidence? I Don’t Think So
Taylor Swift Hints at Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
February 14, 2023
Artist Taylor Swift won the Music Video of the Year Grammy for ‘All Too Well: Short Film’ Feb. 5. Soon before, she released the music video for Lavender Haze, the first track of her most recent album Midnights Jan. 27 at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
Within less than 24 hours of the video ‘Swifties’ were able to use both the Lavender Haze music video and the two other released Midnights music videos (Anti-Hero and Bejewled) to piece together Easter eggs (hints and references hidden in media) Swift has been dropping. As well as Swift’s outfit for the Grammy’s which was purple themed. These Easter eggs have left fans speculating that Swift’s next announcement will be Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).
Swift is notorious for being a mastermind when it comes to dropping Easter eggs, and her recent actions prove her to be one of the most smart and successful musicians of all time.
The Lavender Haze video begins showing different angles of Swift lying in bed and the room she’s in, one specific clip showing a vinyl titled Mastermind the 13th track on the album. The video itself has an ongoing theme of the color purple, which is the color associated with Speak Now since it’s the color of the dress on the cover. Later scenes show Swift in what appears to be a vintage styled living room, watching the weather forecast which states that the forecast for 12:00 a.m. (midnight) is rain, hinting to the sixth album track Midnight Rain. By the halfway point of the video, koi fish become a prominent theme that will continue to appear until the closing clip. With any other artist this wouldn’t be a big deal, but fans have been able to connect the koi fish to a guitar Swift performed with on her Speak Now tour which was blue with koi fish around the sound hole. The koi fish are obviously no coincidence considering the fact that the guitar itself was used in the Anti-Hero music video and koi fish are integrated into the design of the palace seen in the Bejeweled music video.
The Bejeweled music video has hinted at the possibility of Speak Now (Taylor’s version) more than anything else Swift has recently put out. The intro scene of the video contains a background instrumental version of Enchanted, the ninth track on Speak Now. In the same scene, the character playing the evil step-mother in Swift’s Cinderella inspired video says “speak not.” The most obvious clues in the videos are ones correlating with purple and the number three. When Swift is in the elevator the camera shows 13 buttons, with the 13th button centered at the top, and almost each button is a different color. Many were able to quickly see that each button’s color correlated to the color of an album cover in chronological order. For example, the 1 button is light teal, a color seen on the cover of her debut album, while the 7th button is pink, a dominant color on the cover of Swift’s seventh album, Lover. The only colors that were repeated were the colors yellow which were the 2nd and 10th buttons standing for Fearless, red on buttons 4 and 11 standing for Red and purple on buttons 3 and 13 standing for Speak Now. Swift has already re-released both Fearless and Red. Swift even presses the purple 3 button in the video. A scene towards the end of the video displays Swift sitting on the hour hand of a clock that is at the time of 3:00.
Obviously plenty of clues are hinting at the re-release of Speak Now. Re-releasing Speak Now would be the third re-release out of Swift’s first six albums that were sold to Scooter Braun through her past record label, Big Machine Records in 2019. In other words, re-releasing Speak Now under the title Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) would mean she owns that album, and the money gained from it would contribute to her and not Braun. Swift fans are excited for the possibility of an upcoming re-release, especially considering the fact that “The Eras Tour,” her first tour since Reputation, will take place this year. Swift is expected to perform songs from current and past albums, hence the title, and re-releasing Speak Now would go hand- in-hand with the eras theme.