The roar of the crowd was almost deafening, a wave of applause and cheers so sustained that it rivaled the energy of her own record-shattering Eras Tour. As Taylor Swift settled into her chair on “The Tonight Show,” it was clear this wasn’t just another promotional stop. It was a victory lap. Glowing, confident, and visibly joyous, the global superstar proceeded to give one of the most open and revealing interviews of her career, touching on everything from the “miserable” pain of her past work to the intimate, secret details of her engagement to Travis Kelce.

This, she explained, is the era of the “showgirl.” It’s a stark, intentional contrast to the artist who gave the world “The Tortured Poets Department.” She candidly describes the period of writing that album as one where the “name didn’t lie,” a time when she was “just, like, miserable.” That last album, she said, highlighted the facets of her personality that are “earnest and stoic and raw,” defined by “pain and just excruciating, um, detail.”

But the woman on the stage now is a different person, or at least, a different facet. Her new number-one album, “Life of a Showgirl,” is a celebration of the “other aspects of a person’s personality,” she explained. “Where you’re, like, funny and feisty and, like, having a blast and flirty and sort of tongue-in-cheek.” The album, a “surprise” she had been keeping secret for a year, finally feels perfectly aligned with her reality. “I feel exactly the same way as I did when I wrote and recorded these songs,” she beamed. “It’s the most well-matched era.”

A significant part of that “well-matched” life is now sparkling on her left hand. Flashing a stunning, custom-designed ring, Swift didn’t just confirm her engagement; she shared the deeply personal story behind it. The ring, which she admits to looking at “constantly,” is secondary to the man who gave it to her. “He’s just my favorite person I’ve ever met,” she said, the emotion clear in her voice. “The fact that this is the person that I get to hang out with every day forever is just like… that’s the whole thing of it.”

The proposal itself was a masterclass in planning, using her own album announcement as the perfect cover. Swift had planned to announce her album title on Travis’s “New Heights” podcast. What she didn’t know was that he was using the podcast as a “distraction, sort of ruse.” She found it odd that he had “fully, like, just blackout drapes on every single window of the whole house,” but chalked it up to him being “so serious” about his podcasting.

After the recording, she noticed he was “walking around sort of nervous,” complaining his heart was racing. “I’ve never seen this dude nervous, ever,” she recalled thinking. “He’s professionally not a nervous person.” He suggested they go to the backyard for a glass of wine, a normal request. It was only when she stepped outside that she “realized exactly why all of the windows were curtained and why he was nervous.” He had transformed the entire backyard into a “secret garden oasis,” the “best possible case scenario” for a proposal.

But her personal joy isn’t the only triumph she’s celebrating. The interview also marked a massive professional victory: finally, unequivocally, controlling all of her masters. The battle was long and public, and she revealed the true emotional toll it took on her. For years, she confessed, “I’d get so sad” whenever she would hear her old songs or see her old music videos. “I had to sort of create this protective layer of… ‘Don’t really look at it. Don’t get sad. Don’t let it ruin your day.’ Because you don’t own it. You never will.”

To reclaim her life’s work, she “had to reroute my entire absorption system of my own work,” first by re-recording, and now by finally owning the originals. She’s aware that contract negotiations are not typically public conversations, but she felt it was crucial. “I just wanted them to, like, know that this is a thing,” she said of her message to young artists. “And if you do care about it, negotiate to have it.” The fact that her fans rallied behind her, a topic far removed from catchy choruses, “means the world to me.”

With the serious topics covered, the interview shifted to a playful game of “That’s So True,” where Fallon read rumors and Taylor had to confirm the one true story.

First, was the rumor that she joked in her wedding speech for Selena Gomez, “you beat me to the altar.” This was emphatically false. Swift was horrified at the idea. “Nobody wants you to be like, ‘Hey, I know this is your wedding day, but…’” she joked. She confirmed she did make a speech, but made a point “not to mention anything” about her own engagement. Instead, she lovingly teased Gomez about their 2008 fashion, a time of “aggressively colorful skinny jeans” and “tiny little vest[s].”

What about turning down the Super Bowl halftime show because the NFL wouldn’t let her own the performance footage? Also false. The truth is far more personal. “I am in love with a guy who does that sport on that actual field,” she stated simply. She described his sport as “violent chess” and “gladiators without swords,” a “very dangerous” high-pressure job. “The whole season, I am locked in on what that man is doing on the field,” she said. She can’t imagine being focused on her own “choreo” while he’s “putting his life on the line.”

The true rumor? That her close friend, Ed Sheeran, learned about her engagement on Instagram. “I have a perfect explanation!” she laughed. “He doesn’t have a phone!” She explained the delightfully eccentric process of contacting him: “You have to e-mail him. And then if you want to set up a FaceTime, he has to find an iPad. They have to give it to him like he’s a child.” In the whirlwind of her engagement, she simply forgot to send the email. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, we forgot to call Ed!’”

From her new “feisty” album to her “favorite person” and her hard-won professional freedom, the interview painted a portrait of a woman who has, in her words, rerouted her entire system. She’s no longer just the “poet” documenting her misery; she’s the “showgirl” living in her joy, and she’s inviting the world to celebrate with her.