Swifties flock to Target stores for midnight ‘Showgirl’ release

Like all of the other customers hanging out at Edina’s Target store at midnight on Thursday, Jamie Schaffer and her 13-year-old daughter, Emilia, were there for a special reason: to be among the first people in Minnesota to get their hands on Taylor Swift’s new album.

They were also on a not-so-special mission.

“We need toilet paper, too,” Jamie said with a shrug.

The Schaffers were among 100 or so patrons who lined up at the electronics counter at the back of the store for the midnight release of Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl,” officially out Friday.

By midday Friday, the record will undoubtedly be the No. 1 streaming album in the world on its way to becoming the biggest LP of 2025. At 12:01 a.m., though, 15-year-old Ellie Niezgodski of Chaska — first in line in Edina — was one of the only people in the Central Time Zone to own the record.

“It’s gorgeous,” Niezgodski said of her LP’s cover, which shows Swift in a bejeweled, gold-hued, Las Vegas showgirl-style outfit. (There are at least a dozen different album covers in circulation.)

Edina’s Target was one of two stores in the Twin Cities and 500 around the country to stay open more than two hours late for the occasion. As with several of her past albums, Swift made a deal with the Minneapolis retail chain to sell exclusive vinyl and CD copies of the new record.

“She’s pretty special to us,” Daigle said of the 35-year-old singer.

Another mom, Vanessa Goodwin, was one of many in line negotiating with her daughter, Harper, over how late she could stay up to listen to the record despite having school in the morning.

“It’s a special enough occasion for her, I think it’s worth it,” Goodwin said.

Dads were there, too. And no, none of them were complaining.

“I used to do this for Pearl Jam records and know how fun an experience it can be,” said Chris Connaker of Robbinsdale.

“The Life of a Showgirl” hit streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music at midnight Eastern Time, so Minnesotans got to listen to it starting at 11 p.m. Thursday. It will be available in other stores at opening time Friday, including Twin Cities indie stores like the Electric Fetus and Down in the Valley, which are getting their own limited-edition versions.

Only Target stores had the so-called “Summertime Spritz Pink Shimmer”-colored vinyl pressing of “Showgirl.” Surely a color as fancy as that warranted the $34.99 price tag. The retail chain also sold CD versions of the record with one of three posters for $14.99. Many fans bought both formats.

Anticipation for “The Life of a Showgirl,” Swift’s 12th album, was heightened by a few more factors than just the usual Swiftie mania.

No singles from it were released ahead of time, so fans did not quite know what to expect. One big clue, though, was Swift’s choice of producers, Swedish duo Max Martin and Shellback, with whom she worked on three of her best-loved albums of the 2010s, “Red,” “1989” and “Reputation.” Fans also were excited to learn “Espresso” hitmaker Sabrina Carpenter is a featured guest on the title track.

Those details — along with Swift’s hyper-documented romance and engagement to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — indicated that she had moved away from the more downbeat, introspective tone of 2024’s “The Tortured Poets Department” and 2022’s “Midnights.”

“It reminds me of ‘1989,’ how poppy it is, but it’s also still lyrically complex like ‘Tortured Poets,’” said Ally Deitermann, a University of Minnesota student, who was lightly dancing through the aisles with her friend, Ellen Mullen.

One mega-fan, Whitney Wilson of Medina, went out to the Target parking lot to have plenty of room to stream the new album while wearing a fancy orange cocktail dress akin to the “Showgirl” artwork.

“It’s definitely one to dance to,” she cheered.

Also celebrating her 29th birthday, Wilson was headed to the airport after Target to catch a 5:15 a.m. flight to New York City, where she planned to meet up with other Swifties under the album’s giant Times Square billboard and then head to a movie theater to see “Taylor Swift: Life of a Showgirl.”

The promotional film for the record — showing on multiple screens in many theaters across Minnesota starting at 3 p.m. Friday — is also already shaping up to be a hit, with Variety reporting a $35 million-$40 million opening weekend at the box office.