Taylor Swift Mural Pops Up in Sydney Ahead of Eras Tour Shows — But Not Everyone’s a Fan
Written by djfrosty on February 19, 2024
A colorful new mural of Taylor Swift has popped up in Sydney, Australia, ahead of her four Eras Tour concerts at Accor Stadium later this week, but it seems like some fans would prefer a blank space on the wall instead.
The image — located on Crown Street in Surry Hills — features Swift in a red spaghetti-strapped top, her wavy blonde locks falling over her left shoulder as her blue eyes gaze out at the viewer. Around her neck is a sparkling “87” necklace, a nod to boyfriend Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end whose jersey number is 87. The bottom left of the mural is tagged by artist Scottie Marsh, who also shared a photo of the star’s likeness on his Instagram account, simply captioning it, “Tay Tay fever.”
While Swifties may be excited for the upcoming sold-out shows, they don’t seem to be exactly enchanted by the tribute to the 14-time Grammy winner. In the comments section of local Instagram account sydney_explained, which first shared a photo of the mural on Sunday (Feb. 18), viewers didn’t hold back on their thoughts about how well the new art did — or didn’t resemble her.
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“It’s really unflattering,” opined one person.
“Oh dear it looks like a #mafsau wife,” wrote another, joking about Australia’s version of reality show Married At First Sight.
“It looks like my cat ate a rainbow lorikeet and then threw up on the wall,” added one commenter, while someone else wrote, “Nice attempt but seriously missed the mark.”
Over on Marsh’s account, one IG user noted, “Not one of your better works.. looks a bit off.” Others who agreed it wasn’t a great representation of the globally beloved singer-songwriter said they thought the mural resembled Donald Trump and Napoleon Dynamite a bit.
But there were supporters of the new wall art, too. “Look y’all, tay tay brings so many peeps joy!” one fan commented. “Even though I love scotties more political art I think it’s nice to have murals of peeps who bring joy. As they say, let people have fun!” One even took a page from Swift’s songbook to support the artist, simply quoting the pop star’s hit “Shake It Off”: “Haters gonna hate.”
Swift is set to kick off her four-shows at Accor Stadium on Friday, Feb. 23, with Sabrina Carpenter performing as the opening act. The superstar just wrapped three sold-out shows at Melbourne’s Melbourne Cricket Ground.
“What do I even say to you after over 288,000 of you came and danced with us in the last 3 nights ??!” Swift said in a Feb. 18 Instagram message to fans who attended her Melbourne shows. “That was unforgettable. You were on another LEVEL. Thank you for the memories. I’ll revisit the ones from this weekend often.”