Taylor Swift fans are waiting with bated breath for her highly anticipated new album "The Tortured Poet's Department" to drop Friday.
In Chicago, Swifties have the chance to get a little something extra leading up to the release -- but they don't know exactly what it is.
"I think it's going to be Easter eggs for a music video that's coming out," said Whitney Hansen, who came to watch a giant mural with a massive QR code get painted on the side of a building Tuesday afternoon. "I think she's going to release a music video at like 3 a.m. Friday."
Hansen and other Swift fans say the mural, located at 25 W. Grand Ave. in Chicago's River North neighborhood, contains clues about the album release. It's filled with the letters "TTPD," and the number 13 -- clues TODAY.com describes as "telltale signs" that the mural and QR code are meant for Swifties.
"We've got the three 'TTPDs,' followed by four '13's,'" said Dani Filip Bermudez, another Swift fan who came to see and hopefully decode the message. "If you do Taylor math, you add up the threes and ones, and you get 16, which is today's date. But I'm still waiting for more."
Later Tuesday night, the singer released a cryptic video on her Instagram page, titled "TTPD Timetable." The video showed clocks pointed at two o'clock, typewriters inside an office labeled "The Tortured Poets Department," and a corkboard pointing to Friday as the album's release day. The corkboard also showed the number 14 through tally marks.
While crews worked to finish the mural Tuesday, about a dozen people were lined up to try and scan the QR code -- but a large construction lift had blocked the view. By Wednesday afternoon, the mural appeared to be done -- or at least not blocked.
And as the week went on, the QR code's destination kept changing.
When scanned Tuesday, the QR code led to a YouTube short on Taylor Swift's page with the message "Error 321." By Thursday morning, it led to a different YouTube short.
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"A letter from the department," the caption in the latest video read, accompanied by a red heart. A typewriter is shown with the sound of a clock ticking in the background. The typewriter then types the letter "T."
A similar mysterious note appeared on Swift's website in February, hours before she had announced "The Tortured Poet's Department" at the 2024 Grammy Awards. It read:
"Error 321 Backend fetch failed
Backend fetch failed
hneriergrd
DPT: 321
Varnish cache server"
The jumbled “hneriergrd” turned out to be an anagram for “red herring.” And “DPT: 321,” read backward, hinted at the new album’s title, “The Tortured Poets Department.”
Dressed in a white and grey Taylor Swift sweatshirt, Kristen Blevins on Tuesday stood on the sidewalk in front of the mural, working to decode what the new message could mean, and its connection to the prior puzzle.
"It's a really good secret that she's kept," Blevins said. "The red herring is something that like, confuses you or distracts you. I think this could be the conclusion of that."
So what exactly will happen when the clock strikes two? Or a different time? For now, Swifties will have to wait.
