Taylor Swift is dropping ‘Lover’, the title track of her new album, this Friday (August 16) ahead of the record’s full release next week. 

While accepting the inaugural Icon Award at the Teen Choice Awards 2019 last night (August 11), Swift took fans by surprise when she announced that a new song from her forthcoming record will drop at the end of the week. 

“There’s so much I’m excited about coming up in the next 12 days until my album ‘Lover’ comes out,” she told the screaming crowd. “But I wanted to tell you guys tonight that on the 16th, on Friday, I have a new song called ‘Lover’ coming out. I’m so excited.”

• READ MORE: Taylor Swift – ‘The Archer’ track review: the elegant, restrained and reflective antidote to ‘Me!’

‘Lover’ will be the fourth song she’s released from her upcoming project, following the ‘The Archer’, ‘You Need to Calm Down’ and ‘Me!’ featuring Panic at the Disco!’s Brendon Urie. The album will drop in full on August 23 via Republic Records. 

Elsewhere during her speech, Swift also took the time to address gender inequality as she voiced her support for the US women’s national soccer team and their fight for equal pay.

“It’s not [yet] resolved. […] What happened to them is unfair, it’s happening everywhere and they are heroes and icons for standing up,” she said.  

August is set to be a huge month for the pop icon. Besides releasing her highly anticipated seventh album, Swift has also been confirmed to perform at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards on August 26. This will mark the Grammy-winning singer’s first performance at the awards show since 2015. 

Swift has been nominated for 10 awards including Video of the Year and Song of the Year, for ‘You Need To Calm Down’, at the VMAs. She ties with Ariana Grande for being the artist with the most number of nominations at this year’s ceremony.

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