6 Best Moments From Night 6 of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour at LA’s SoFi Stadium

Credit where credit is due: Swift knows how to work a crowd into a frenzy. Just prior to performing her two surprise songs, the singer took a moment to rev up the crowd for an announcement that had been widely rumored: that the next “Taylor’s Version” release would be her 2013 all-pop breakthrough, 1989.

“The last time that I was so pleasantly surprised by some stuff that you guys did was when I announced that I was going to be re-recording my first six albums, and that is something that I expected to be just a ‘me’ thing, just a personal thing. Since I was a teenager, I wanted to own my music,” Swift began, eliciting a roar of excitement from the crowd. “And the way to do it was to re-record my albums and call them ‘Taylor’s Version.’ The way that you have embraced that, and the way that you have celebrated that, you really decided that it was your fight too and that you were 100% behind me and if I cared about it, you cared about it. I will never stop thanking you for that. It was so generous of you to care about something that I cared about.

“And so now here we are on the last night of the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour in the eighth month of the year on the ninth day [of the month]. You might have noticed there are some new outfits in the show,” she continued, tipping her hat to the succession of previously-unseen blue costumes she donned starting with her performance of “Enchanted” and leading all the way up to the big announcement. “And there’s something that I’ve been planning for a really, really, really, ridiculously embarrassingly long time. And I think instead of just telling you about it, I think I just should sort of show you something.”

Cue the wind-whipped 1989 (Taylor’s Version) logo, beamed larger than life on the stadium screens along with its official release date: October 27. Judging by the deafening roar of the crowd, we could be looking at the biggest-selling Taylor’s Version album to date when the set drops this fall.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Swift gave $100,000 bonuses to each one of the roughly 50 truck drivers on her tour, in addition to bonuses in unknown amounts to other crew members, including band members, dancers, caterers and lighting and sound technicians. On Wednesday night, the star paid further tribute to those unsung staffers by delivering an impassioned onstage shoutout near the top of the show.

“This has been the most extraordinary, fun, wonderful, magical experience of my entire life being on this tour with these people on this stage, and I just was hoping that for a second, we could think about the fact that there are hundreds of people on this tour,” Swift said. “My amazing crew members, the people who loaded the stage…[who have come] across the country away from their families to put on this show for us. So I would like to take a moment, if we could all please applaud the Eras Tour crew.”

The audience, it goes without saying, obliged.

Haim is a fairly recent addition to the Eras Tour, with the sister trio having jumped aboard as openers beginning with the shows at Lumen Field in Seattle, followed by Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara and, yes, all six nights at SoFi. Joining Swift for another delicious rendition of “No Body, No Crime” on Wednesday, Este, Daniella and Alana made the most of the moment and enjoyed a crackling onstage chemistry with the pop megastar, who called the siblings her “besties” earlier in the show (yes, they’re really friends). The playful energy exhibited by the foursome during Swift’s set on Wednesday brought a welcome looseness to the otherwise tightly-choreographed show.

The Wednesday night audience seemed determined to one-up the nearly eight-minute standing ovation Swift received the night prior — and I suspect they may have succeeded, as this standing “O” (which again followed her performance of “Champagne Problems”) seemed to stretch on even longer. Once again, Swift mugged like a pro throughout, looking around in astonishment, taking out her in-ears and, at one point, sitting at the piano and burying her head in her arms.

“Boy, I’m never gonna forget that you just did that,” said Swift later as she tried to break through the noise. “I’m never gonna forget it. Thank you. That was crazy. That’s such a — what are you doing? People have emotions. You’re playing with them right now. I love you so much.”

Following Swift’s earth-shaking 1989 (Taylor’s Version) reveal, she launched into the first of the night’s two surprise songs: an acoustic-guitar rendition of the synth-driven banger “New Romantics,” which appeared as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of 1989. Notably, “Romantics” was also the lone 1989 track Swift hadn’t yet performed on the Eras Tour, making for a nice bookend to the Taylor’s Version announcement that directly preceded it.

For her second surprise song of the night, Swift took to the piano to perform a gorgeous rendition of “New Year’s Day” — the final track on Reputation and, notably, one that Swift has rarely performed live (on a somber note, the song, which boasts the lyric “Please don’t ever become a stranger,” has also long been rumored to be about Swift’s now-ex, Joe Alwyn). Coming on the heels of the frenzied 1989 (Taylor’s Version) announcement, the performance marked a much-needed energy break for the crowd. Indeed, a noticeable hush descended over the stadium as the 70,000-strong audience drank in lyrics that seemed to speak to the moment: “Hold on to the memories/They will hold on to you.”

Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince
Cruel Summer
The Man
You Need to Calm Down
Lover
The Archer
Fearless
You Belong With Me
Love Story
No Body, No Crime (with Haim)
Willow
Marjorie
Champagne Problems
Tolerate It
…Ready for It?
Delicate
Don’t Blame Me
Look What You Made Me Do
Enchanted
Long Live
22
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
I Knew You Were Trouble
All Too Well (10-Minute Version)
The 1
Betty
The Last Great American Dynasty
August
Illicit Affairs
My Tears Ricochet
Cardigan
Style
Blank Space
Shake It Off
Wildest Dreams
Bad Blood
New Romantics (acoustic)
New Year’s Day (acoustic)
Lavender Haze
Anti-Hero
Midnight Rain
Vigilante Shit
Bejeweled
Mastermind
Karma