Taylor Swift has been teasing the date "4.26" for exactly 13 days, which as fans know, is her lucky number.

But it's Swift's fans who got lucky on Friday, when the 29-year-old singer finally revealed the surprise she's been teasing with the candy-colored images that have flooded her Instagram and the countdown clock posted on her official website.

Swift returned with a new song titled "ME!" the first release marking the dawning of a bubbly new era for the star, which from its initial impressions will be full of pastel surrealism, self-empowerment and pure pop vocals.

Turns out, the cryptic posts on her Instagram are actual scenes from her new video.

Swift's visual starts with a vicious snake that transforms into dozens of dainty, pastel butterflies after slithering down a cobblestone road, possibly passing the torch from her unofficial "Reputation" mascot and quite literally paving the way for her new playful project.

After arguing in French with Panic! at the Disco's Brendon Urie, Swift broke out into musical-like sequences filled with rainbows, unicorns, magical Mary Poppins' umbrellas – sugar, spice and everything nice.

More than 418,000 loyal fans tuned in live to watch the video, which Swift co-directed with Dave Meyers.

Swift followed the release with two additional announcements – that she now owns a third cat, which will join her other two felines Meredith and Olivia in her household; and that she and Urie will perform "Me" to open the 2019 Billboard Music Awards on May 1.

In an interview with ABC's Robin Roberts on Thursday night, Swift said the song is about "embracing your individuality and really celebrating it and owning it."

She added: "I think that with a pop song, we have the ability to get a song stuck in people's heads, and I just want it to be one that makes them feel better about themselves."

Swift's previous release was "Reputation," which came out in November 2017. It was an ambitious album of icy pop music that showed her moving further away from her Nashville beginnings and towards mainstream domination with USA TODAY calling it "a fully-formed look at a singer in love and in control." She followed the release with her Reputation tour, a 53-date global trek that wrapped in November 2018.

Since the end of her tour, Swift has been busy filming the new "Cats" movie in London, where she plays the role of Bombalurina in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. All the while, her fans have been waiting for a taste of any musical efforts from a new album, colloquially dubbed #TS7 on social media.

More:The craziest Taylor Swift fan theories about her mysterious April 26 release

Leading up to Swift's midnight surprise, her fans had all sorts of theories about what could be at the other end of her countdown clock. While many guessed that April 26 would bring new music from the star, others speculated the singer was either teasing her upcoming nupitals to boyfriend Joe Alwyn, to be held on the 26th, or that she'd already gotten married and was counting down to sharing her wedding details with the world.

Swift fanned the flames earlier this week by wearing a shirt that appeared to be part of an official yet-to-be-released merchandise collection, stoking fan excitement that they could soon purchase new Swift merch themselves.

Contributing: Cydney Henderson, Andrea Mandell