In only a few months, every teenager will be saying, “Sorry, what was that, Taylor Swift just dropped her album and I need to listen,” or “Can we spend a few more minutes in the car? I have to listen to Doja Cat’s new song,” or even “Oh my god. Ariana Grande is on tour! I actually need to prepare.” No one will be seen without headphones.
If you haven’t noticed, the summer of 2025 has been jam-packed with new music releases and announcements. From “I Barely Know Her” by Sombr on Aug. 22, to “Man’s Best Friend” by Sabrina Carpenter on Aug. 29, it’s easy to say the many recent music releases have had music listeners’ calendars packed for quite some time now. And yet, we still have more to look forward to.
First of all, the one and only Taylor Swift has shocked the media once again. On Aug. 12, at 9:12 p.m., Swift announced the release of her latest album, titled “The Life of a Showgirl”. The new album, widely referred to as “TS12”, has caused waves of excitement throughout social media. Senior and swiftie Penelope Gall was thrilled to hear the news of her new album.
“I found out the second it was announced because I was obsessively watching the countdown clock on her website. I immediately ran to tell my mom and we started freaking out together,” Gall said. Gall has loved Swift’s music since the age of 7, noting songs including “Cornelia Street”, “Wonderland”, and “loml”, which she claims has “the most beautiful bridge that she has ever written.”
Gall has already been intrigued by some of the songs, including track one, titled “The Fate of Ophelia”.
“[M]ost people think that it’s a nod to Ophelia from Hamlet. I love it when she writes songs comparing her life to the lives of characters in literature and mythology, like in ‘Peter’ and ‘Cassandra’.” Gall said.
Whether her songs will be based on literature will hopefully be answered on Oct. 3, when “The Life of a Showgirl” will be available to stream.
Of course, there is more to anticipate. Sophomore Maxwell Chiappone, lover of Beyoncé, Megan Thee Stallion, and SZA, was the most excited to hear about the release of “Vie” by Doja Cat out of all the new fall music releases. One of the tracks, titled “Jealous Type”, has already been released from the album.
“I love her new song ‘Jealous Type’ from the album. I used to listen to her a lot, but I didn’t really like her rap album,” Chiappone said.
So far, only “Jealous Type” has been released from the upcoming album. The rest of the tracks have not yet been announced; however, they can be expected on Sept. 26.
Last, but certainly not least, the album “Eternal Sunshine” by Ariana Grande, which was released on March 8, 2024, is finally going on tour. This will be Grande’s first time touring since the conclusion of the Sweetener World Tour in 2019, making the announcement a big surprise.
“I thought that, since she was too busy with filming and doing press for ‘Wicked,’ that she’d skip touring. I was also surprised with how little dates she’s doing,” Chiappone said.
Ariana Grande starred in the movie adaptation of “Wicked: Part One” as Glinda, which released last year and will continue in a second part which is set to release Nov. 21.
Similar to “Wicked”, there are two parts to Grande’s new album: part one, titled “Eternal Sunshine;” and part two, titled “Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead”, with some additional deluxe versions in between. “Brighter Days Ahead” came out on March 28, and both are included in the tour.
Senior Margaret Meckes used to listen to Ariana Grande with her older sister and was delighted to hear about her latest album.
“Old Ariana Grande is some of my favorite music. ‘Dangerous Woman,’ ‘Sweetener,’ and ‘Thank You, Next’ are literally genius albums,” Meckes said. “I haven’t given ‘Eternal Sunshine’ a full listen, but I liked a couple songs on the record.”
Grande will be touring throughout 2026, from June 6 to Aug. 23 in Oakland, Los Angeles, Austin, Sunrise, Fla., Atlanta, Ga., Brooklyn, Boston, Montreal, Chicago, and London. Presale tickets are available starting Sep. 9 on arianagrande.com/tour. General sale tickets are available starting Sep. 10, and resellers are also providing tickets. That is if you can survive the treacherous ticketmaster war.
“Oh no… I think my headphones just died…” –yes, also every teenager in a few months.
