Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl is her twelfth studio album.
The album followed The Tortured Poets Department, Swift’s eleventh studio album, which was released in 2024. The Life of a Showgirl therefore occupies the next position in her main studio-album chronology.
Swift announced the project in August 2025 and described it as a vibrant record shaped by the success of the Eras Tour and her personal life. It was recorded in 2024 while she was traveling through Europe with the tour.
The number can be confused with Swift’s re-recorded albums, live releases, compilation projects, and deluxe editions. “Twelfth studio album” refers specifically to the twelfth original studio-album project in her discography, not the total number of albums associated with her name.