LOS ANGELES/LONDON:

Taylor Swift's 12th studio album, 'The Life of a Showgirl', has exploded onto the global stage with a mixture of pop perfection, media frenzy, and controversy fit for a performer who now operates less as a singer and more as a cultural weather system.

Released on Friday, the record shattered music industry records and stirred debates about authenticity — from AI art to aesthetic alterations — cementing yet again that Swift is both a phenomenon and a lightning rod.

Within its first 24 hours, 'The Life of a Showgirl' sold a staggering 2.7 million copies in the United States alone, according to Luminate — Swift's strongest-ever opening and the second-largest in history, behind Adele's '25'.

Vinyl accounted for a jaw-dropping 1.2 million of those sales, marking the bigg

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