Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour: It’s been a long time coming
April 3, 2023
Taylor Swift began her long awaited Eras Tour in Glendale, Arizona, on March 17. Swift broke the record for the most concert tickets sold in a single day, ever.
Returning to the stage for the first time since her 2018 Reputation Stadium Tour, Swift performed 44 songs within three hours.
Swift began her 52-date stadium tour at State Farm Stadium, which was home to the Super Bowl earlier this year. Glendale was enchanted to kick off the Eras Tour, prompting Mayor Jerry P. Weiers to officially change its name to Swift City, Arizona for 48 hours.
The two back-to-back sold out shows filled State Farm Stadium with 150,000 Swifties. The Super Bowl brought only 68,000 people into the same stadium in February.
Swift City fully embraced Taylor’s presence. Highway signs read “CUT OFF? DON’T GET BAD BLOOD. SHAKE IT OFF,” among other Taylor Swift song-related puns.
Swift opened her show with “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince,” a song from her 2019 album “Lover,” also the name of her 2020 documentary on Netflix. She started the show with the lyrics “It’s been a long time coming but/It’s you and me/That’s my whole world,” referring to the anticipation of the tour and her relationship with her dedicated fans.
After “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince,” Swift sang “Cruel Summer,” a fan favorite for its iconic bridge. It suddenly became evident that Swift crafted a tour for her fans that included favorites, radio hits and everything in between.
Swift then moved through her musical eras, past and present. She sang songs from “Lover,” “Fearless,” “evermore,”“Reputation,” “Speak Now,” “Red,” “folklore,” “1989,” “Midnights” and her self-titled album. Although she worked to highlight every era, Swift dedicated more of her performance to “Lover,” “folklore,” “evermore” and “Midnights” as she has not yet toured with these albums.
During her “Red” era, Swift performed the fan favorite full 10-minute version of “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version).”
Fans were excited to see Swift perform “Tim McGraw” from her 2006 debut self-titled album. Unfortunately, “Tim McGraw” was only played for Night One of the Eras tour. Swift will perform two surprise songs, one on piano and one on guitar, in each city. On Night One, the surprise songs were “Tim McGraw” on piano and “folklore” fan favorite “mirrorball” on guitar.
On Night Two, the surprise songs were “this is me trying” from “folklore” played on guitar and “State of Grace (Taylor’s Version)” from “Red” on piano. Swift mentioned surprise songs will be different in every city, unless she makes a mistake and then has the right to play the song again on a different night.
During her second night in Las Vegas on March 25, Swift brought out Marcus Mumford for a surprise song. The two sang “cowboy like me.”
The show features numerous costume changes from top designers representing each era in a modern light, all while paying homage to the original era.
Taylor Swift worked with Versace, Roberto Cavalli, Christian Louboutin, Etro, Nicole + Felicia, Zuhair Murad, Ashish, Alberta Ferretti, Jessica Jones and Oscar de la Renta to create several custom looks, including alternate options for each night.
These looks included references to music videos and past tours. Swift was not the only one dressing to impress. Her fans wore intricate outfits inspired by song lyrics.
“The eras tour is my version of the met gala,” one fan tweeted. “This is the biggest moment of the year.”
On stage, Swift addressed the Ticketmaster sized elephant in the room.
“Just know how much it means to me personally to say to you, welcome to the Eras tour!” she said.
“So, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that if you’re here tonight there’s a pretty good chance that you went to a considerable amount of effort to be with us tonight!”
Swift referred to the “Verified Fan” debacle on Ticketmaster when tickets first went on sale in November.
On the eve of the Eras Tour, Swift announced four new re-recordings. In true Taylor Swift fashion, there are more easter eggs and surprises to come.
Swifties are looking forward to seeing what else the Eras Tour will bring, but there is no doubt that this tour is a massive pop culture milestone.