It doesn’t take a sharp-eyed swiftie to notice Taylor Swift’s obsession with the number 13. Ever since the multi-Grammy Award-winning artist started dominating the music industry with her self-titled debut album in 2006, she’s found pretty much every opportunity imaginable to sneak the unlucky number into her music. 

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The hallmark of her obsession can be found sprinkled all throughout her career, including on her 10th original studio album, Midnights, which, despite its title, contains 13 tracks instead of 12; an album, mind you, that helped Swift become the first artist in history to dominate the entire top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 all by herself. 

Over the years, fans have become increasingly privy to Swift’s fascination with the number 13, especially after Swift caused The Exorcist: Believer to change its theatrical release date so that she could release her record-breaking Eras Tour film on Friday, Oct. 13. Swifties know by now to keep an eye out for the unlucky number because Swift has a reputation – no pun intended – for slipping it into music videos, acceptance speeches, and basically any place she can sneak in an Easter Egg.

But why is Swift so obsessed with the unlucky number 13? It turns out she has more than a few reasons.

The real reason Taylor Swift is obsessed with the number 13

When first starting out, Swift was known for drawing the number 13 on the back of her hand in big bold writing. For years, fans got used to seeing it. While on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in the late 2000s, she explained that it was her lucky number “for a lot of reasons. It’s really weird.”

The superstition only lasted the first few years of her career, and eventually Swift stopped the practice, but when pressed by Leno to explain what the big deal with 13 was, she explained that it was more than just an unlucky lucky number.

“Okay, I was born on the 13th. I turned 13 on Friday the 13th. My first album went gold in 13 weeks. Also, my first song that ever went number one, it had a 13-second intro. I didn’t even do that on purpose. And every time I’ve ever won an award at an award show I’ve either been seated in either the 13th row or row M, which is the 13th letter.

And when I won the Horizon Award at the CMA Awards. The producer came up to me when I was sound-checking and said ‘alright we’re going to go in 13 seconds. There are so many numbers!” 

“You want to know something really weird too?” she added. “The first time that I ever played on The Tonight Show? [It] was the 13th of February 2007.”

Imagine what fun she’ll have when she wins her 13th Grammy? We can already smell the bombshell announcement looming on the horizon. We can only hold our breath with anticipation. After all, she’s only one Grammy away.

Her album Midnights may not have been a contender for the 2023 Grammys but there’s no doubt it’ll score at least one award in 2024. Perhaps we’ll get a Reputation re-record announcement when the time comes? Until then, we shall hold ourselves over by trying to find as many number 13s in the wild as possible. Ready, break!