Two hours have passed and the secret behind Taylor Swift’s mysterious QR mural in Chicago has been unraveled — at least one of them.
At midnight on Friday, Swift released her highly anticipated new album “The Tortured Poet’s Department” — but fans already knew it was coming. However, after the first 16 songs were made available, a countdown clock appeared on its website indicating that something else would be arriving at 2 a.m. ET.
Shortly after the clock struck two, Swift announced that it was in fact a “secret double album”, with a total of 31 tracks.
“I had written so much tortured poetry over the past 2 years and I wanted to share it all with you, so here is the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 more songs. And now the story is no longer mine …it’s all yours,” Swift captioned the announcement on Instagram.
A few days before the album’s release, a giant mural with a QR code containing clues about the album appeared on the side of a building in River North.
“I think it’s going to be Easter eggs for a music video that’s going to come out,” said Whitney Hansen, who came to see the mural Tuesday afternoon. “I think she’s going to release a music video around 3 a.m. Friday.”
Even though it wasn’t a surprise music video, Hansen wasn’t that far off.
As crews worked to finish the mural Tuesday, about a dozen people lined up to try to scan the QR code — but a large construction elevator had blocked the view. As of Wednesday afternoon, the mural appeared to be finished — or at least not blocked.
And throughout the week, the destination of the QR code continued to change.
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When scanned on Tuesday, the QR code led to a YouTube short on Taylor Swift’s page with the message “Error 321.” Thursday morning led to another short film on YouTube.
“A letter from the ministry,” reads the caption of the latest video, accompanied by a red heart. A typewriter is shown with the sound of a clock in the background. The typewriter then types the letter “T”.
After that, Swift’s brains at the Chicago mural began putting the pieces together.
“It fits into a puzzle that connects other cities around the world and gives you clues,” said Chelsea Kindred, at the Chicago mural. “The other letters around the word spelled out ‘For a fortnight’.”
On Thursday at 2 p.m., Swift announced on Instagram that her first single from the album would be the song titled “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone.
As of 5 a.m. Friday, the video to which the mural’s QR code led had not changed. But that doesn’t mean another surprise couldn’t be on the way.
“I feel like she cares a lot about her fans and keeping us around and making it fun for us,” said fan April Burns. “And I think this is a really good example of that.”
NBC Chicago
