Taylor Swift fans spot 'emotional' detail in her 1989 Taylor's Version album cover

10 August 2023, 16:43

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By Katie Louise Smith

One of Taylor's diary entries about why she changed her original 1989 cover has now gone viral.

1989 warriors, our time has finally arrived! Taylor Swift has officially announced that 1989 (Taylor's Version) is on the way and the stunning new album cover has now been revealed.

Echoing the summery blue vibes of the original album, with the iconic seagulls featured in the background and the Polaroid-style photo shoot, the 1989 (Taylor's Version) is surprisingly different to the original. It's also Taylor's first ever album cover that features her smiling.

Fans are now pointing out just how significant it is that Taylor's face – and smile – is in full view on the new album cover, and it all leads back to a diary entry from 2014 that she shared as part of her deluxe version of Lover.

READ MORE: Taylor Swift re-recordings: All the release dates of the Taylor’s Version albums in order

Originally, the album cover that Taylor had chosen for 1989 was not the one we all know and love. The first cover that Taylor chose for the album featured a clearer crop of her face, with her classic red lip and her smile on full display.

However, in one of her old diary entries, Taylor wrote down how she eventually came to realise that she wasn't quite vibing with that chosen photo, so she changed it.

"Last night, I had this vivid dream where the photo I'd chosen for the album cover wasn't good enough, intriguing enough, artful enough," she writes. "I looked at it and felt nothing. The team pulled up this new scanned file of the Polaroids we had taken during the shoot"

"I saw it within 10 seconds. The shot. The cover. It's a polaroid of me sitting against a beige wall with a blue seagull sweat shirt on. You can see my red lips, but the photo cuts off my eyes."

"For some reason unknown to me, it's the most intriguing photo I've ever seen. I think it's the mystery of not seeing my eyes. Maybe it just looks effortlessly cool."

The photo she eventually chose for the album cover ended up being photo 13 from the shoot.

‼️ | “1989 (Taylor's Version)” album cover is a MAJOR glo up.Originally, she didn't like her smile on the original album cover for “1989”. pic.twitter.com/KCHxu70cIq

May 30, 2014: Taylor’s journal entry from The RED Tour in Asia. She just played her first show in Shanghai 🇨🇳 and is ready for Tokyo 🇯🇵. It was also the night she first saw the album cover for “1989.” #Lover pic.twitter.com/3qJeKy9yYJ

Now that the new Taylor's Version cover embraces all the details about the original 1989 cover that Taylor wasn't keen on, fans are even more obsessed with it.

"The original cover was meant to look 'effortlessly cool' but for Taylor’s Version, almost 10 years later, she just looks so happy and carefree and there’s just something so beautiful about that to me," one fan wrote.

Several others echoed the sentiment, noting how much they love the vibes of the new cover.

🎶| "1989 (Taylor's Version)" is @TaylorSwift13's first cover with a smile pic.twitter.com/PnmgKb0eo3

TAYLOR SMILING ON THE 1989 TV COVER WHEN SHE DECIDED AGAINST THIS ONE ORIGINALLY BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T LIKE HER SMILE pic.twitter.com/ppJv7zNt7y

her smile in the 1989 (taylor's version) cover....... pic.twitter.com/cNIor7WUYe

the original cover was meant to look “effortlessly cool” but for Taylor’s Version, almost 10 years later, she just looks so happy and carefree and there’s just something so beautiful about that to me 🥲 #1989TaylorsVersion pic.twitter.com/jSZH6xNgxY

I’m literally crying tears over this album cover. In 2014 Taylor talked about how the original was chosen because it didn’t indicate any type of emotion for the listener to feel. She’s got a straight face and her eyes are hidden. But on the new cover she looks so happy and free pic.twitter.com/JQqkFffpq6

It means everything that Taylor looks so happy in this photo, especially after she didn’t use the photo of her smiling for the original 1989 cover because she didn’t like it. I’m so incredibly proud of her 🩵 pic.twitter.com/Vpdwh4yBdm

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