Eras Tour
Taylor Swift began her two-week Eras Tour run in Toronto Thursday night (Nov. 14), and the city is going all out.
Before she hit the stage, footage circulated of her arriving with a whole police cavalcade on the Gardiner Expressway – which is normally filled with traffic during rush hour.
There were plenty of Swifties seen following the Taylor Swift Way signs throughout downtown. Only ticketholders could get near the Rogers Centre before the show – including the city’s unhoused population, who were cleared from encampments and compelled to move to shelters.
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An official Taylgate event took place at the nearby Metro Toronto Convention Centre with photo ops, silent discos and friendship bracelet making stations. A similar “Swift Station” activation offered similar experiences on Queen Street while decked out to look like a subway station.
News stations broadcast live from outside the stadium throughout the night, while Swift took the stage inside. Stories abounded about fans who tried and failed to get tickets, or who ended up getting scammed (the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre issued warnings as they were overloaded with complaints). Ticketmaster did, however, release some last minute tickets on the day of the show, though they were gone quickly.
Inside at the concert, Taylor Swift made some nods to the Canadian crowd. “Doesn’t it seem like the entire Folklore era just belongs in Canada?” she asked before launching into that section of the show. “The place that I envisioned in my mind where Folklore took place, it’s very natural, wilderness, beautiful, forests that have been there since the beginning of time. And it just kind of feels like we’re returning the Folklore era to where it belongs anyway.”
Her dancer, Kam, also added a Canadian touch during “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” with an exaggerated “Soorry aboot it!” during his line.
There are two more Eras Tour shows this weekend, on Nov. 15 and Nov. 16, before she returns to Rogers Centre next week for shows on Nov. 21, 22 and 23. – Richard Trapunski
Canadian Songwriters Earn Grammy Nominations for Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter
The 2025 Grammy nominations were announced last week, and Beyoncé leads the list — along with her Canadian collaborators.
“Texas Hold ‘Em,” co-written by three Canadians, has been nominated for two of the biggest awards, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Writers Nathan Ferraro, Lowell, and Megan Bülow all picked up nominations for Song of the Year, which is awarded to the writers and composers behind the track, as well as Best Country Song. Ferraro talked with Billboard Canada earlier this year about his Canadian writing team.
“[The collaboration] works well for us,” Ferraro told Billboard Canada. “We’re such good friends and we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. I think we all have a lot of mutual respect, so we have a lot of confidence together and that allows us to take risks.”
Lowell, meanwhile, won the inaugural Billboard Canada Non-Performing Songwriter Award this summer.
Beyoncé’s country album Cowboy Carter is also nominated for Album of the Year with Canadian Dave Hamelin (formerly of Montreal indie rock band The Stills and now a regular collaborator with 070 Shake) named in the nomination for his work as a producer and songwriter across the album.
In total, Beyoncé picked up a whopping 11 nominations for her history-making Cowboy Carter, which features a slew of Canadian contributions.
Serban Ghenea, meanwhile, racked up the highest number of Canadian nods: a grand total of five nominations, for his work with a trifecta of pop stars: Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, and Ariana Grande.
Other Canadian nominees included The Weeknd, Kaytranada, Charlotte Day Wilson, Spiritbox and Cirkut, for his work on Charli XCX’s cultural phenomenon, Brat.
Read about all the Canadian nominees here. –Rosie Long Decter
Quebec Government Pursues Action Against Ticket Resale Site Billets.ca
The Quebec government is taking action against ticket resales.
The province’s Office of Consumer Protection announced Wednesday, Nov. 13, that the Director of Penal and Criminal Prosecutions has served 26 statements of infraction to Billets.ca.
If proven guilty, each infraction could merit a fine between $2,000 and $100,000 for the company, and between $600 and $15,000 for President Éric Bussières.
The Office is accusing Billets.ca of reselling tickets at higher prices than those advertised by authorized salespersons. It also charges that the site is reselling tickets it does not possess. The infractions took place between November 2022 and September 2023.
Ticket resales have become an increasingly hot topic in the industry. Ticketmaster issued a warning in advance of Oasis’ North American tour dates going on sale, advising consumers not to trust resale sites that were already advertising tickets. The ticketing giant has also faced allegations in the past of working with resale sites.
Earlier this year, over 250 artists signed a letter titled Fix the Tix, addressing American legislators. “Predatory resellers have gone unregulated while siphoning money from the live entertainment ecosystem for their sole benefit,” the letter stated.
Quebec’s Loi sur la protection du consommateur forbids sellers from boosting prices during resales without express permission from the original authorized vendor. It also prohibits the use of technology to bypass controls on obtaining tickets. Sites like Billets.ca have often skirted these rules by acting as a broker for individual sellers, instead of selling the tickets themselves.
Quebec music association ADISQ welcomed the news.
“It’s a relief to see charges finally laid against Billets.ca and the practice of fraudulent ticket resale,” says Eve Paré, Executive Director of ADISQ, in French.
ADISQ states that it has made numerous complaints to Quebec’s Office of Consumer Protection regarding unauthorized ticket resales.
ADISQ notes that it is also eagerly awaiting the outcome of a class action lawsuit filed against Billets.ca on October 13, 2023. –RLD
The excitement began on the plane: a half-dozen girls and young women exchanging notes on outfits (“You’re doing Lover?” “I’m doing Midnights!” “I’m going as Miss Americana”), making and trading friendship bracelets and even a few headed to the country without tickets, hoping for a day-of miracle. It continued at the bars and restaurants the […]
When Toronto-based entertainment and hospitality magnate Charles Khabouth heard that Taylor Swift would be bringing her record-breaking Eras Tour to the city he’s called home for more than 50 years, he knew immediately what to do.
“I opened a bottle of Dom Perignon to celebrate,” Khabouth, the founder/CEO of INK Entertainment, which operates a series of hotels, bars and restaurants and produces live events in the city, says, laughing. “I’ve been around 43 years in this business; I’ve never seen this hype in my life around anything. We do, I don’t know, 200, 300 live shows ourselves every year. We’ve had everybody in the city from the Stones to Madonna to Prince. This got much bigger support from everybody than ever possible.”
The city of Toronto is about to play host to one of the most significant events — culturally and economically — of the past two years, as Swift and her legion of fans descend upon the city for six nights across two weekends (Nov. 14-16, 21-23), the penultimate stop on a tour that has spanned two years and five continents and changed the fortunes of several cities along the way. And Toronto — known as a savvy, cosmopolitan city in its own right, though one that has at times had to fight to be considered in the same category as cultural capitals such as New York, Los Angeles or Chicago — has risen to the occasion.
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On Nov. 4, the city of Toronto and Rogers Communications renamed Blue Jay Way — the street in front of the Rogers Centre that is usually home to its hometown Major League Baseball team and extends from Nathan Phillips Square to the venue — as Taylor Swift Way, complete with 22 ceremonial street signs that will be auctioned in support of the Daily Bread Food Bank after the run is over. (Rogers is also matching donations to the Daily Bread Food Bank up to $113,000 — a nod to Swift’s favorite number, 13.)
And that’s just the opening enchantment that the city would eventually roll out. Since then, the city has announced a poetry-inspired pre-concert initiative overseen by Toronto Poet Laureate Lillian Allen, while other announcements have included the Toronto’s Version: Taylgate ’24 event, which is expected to draw some 60,000 people; an Eras! Eras! Eras! performance by the singing group Choir! Choir! Choir!; and a 13-site scavenger hunt tied to different songs from Swift’s catalog spread across the city, among many other things. There are Eras-themed city tours, dance parties, drag and trivia nights and pop-up shops around the city, plus giveaways from a slew of businesses. Destination Toronto — the tourism bureau for Canada’s biggest city — expects some $282 million in economic impact from Swift’s two-week mini-residency, including $152 million in direct spending, 93% of which is expected to come from tourists flocking to Toronto — an astronomical uplift for the city’s local businesses.
“We’ve seen the entire city getting caught up in the action — from a Taylgate party at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to Taylor-themed hotel rooms and special menus at restaurants around the city,” says Kathy Motton, Destination Toronto’s senior manager of communications. “Major events like Taylor Swift bring visitor spending into Toronto, and that spending circulates long after visitors return home impacting a broad set of businesses. The obvious positive benefit is for hotels, restaurants and other tourism-related businesses, but that benefit also extends to businesses that are indirectly impacted by visitor spending.”
And many of those establishments have met the moment by overhauling their own properties to cater to the estimated 500,000 tourists flooding into the area.
“We’ve got so much happening on property,” says Liza McWilliams, director of marketing at the 1 Hotel Toronto, which transformed its Flora lobby lounge into the Folklore Lounge for the next two weeks, complete with a moss-covered piano, tapestries hanging on the wall with lyrics from Swift’s Folklore album and daily acoustic performances open to guests and the public. They also partnered with the Little Words Project, the original word-based friendship bracelet company, which is doing a pop-up shop in the 1 Hotel’s lobby for the first time in Canada. “I think it’s just really fun to be that much more creative and to dream up some really amazing things that kind of stay with the guests for a longer time,” McWilliams says. “Other than the [Toronto International] Film Festival, I would say we’ve never really been this specific when it comes to an actual city event.”
“This is like preparing for Toronto’s Super Bowl,” says Aaron Harrison, general manager of the Bisha Hotel, a short walk from the Rogers Centre. The Bisha also redesigned its entire lobby space (it went Reputation era), while the common spaces on each of its seven hotel floors are also getting era-themed makeovers, one suite has been entirely rebranded The Taylor (which had been running around $4,000 per night if you could snag it), and the hotel will be offering friendship bracelets, a glitter station and themed food and drinks for guests, among other things, in its Lover Lounge. “We wanted Bisha Hotel to feel like the ultimate fan headquarters,” Harrison adds.
In downtown Toronto, it’s almost more difficult to find a bar or restaurant that hasn’t leaned into Taylor-mania than one that has. (Talk about champagne problems.) The night before the shows kicked off, on Nov. 13, the iconic space needle was flashing rainbow colors in honor of Swift, and bartenders and restaurant staff were all talking about the influx of people in town for the shows. Streets are closed off, the city has dedicated websites aimed at helping both tourists and locals alike navigate the area, and Rogers spent $8 million to upgrade the 5G wireless service at the Rogers Centre ahead of the concerts.
Of the more than half-dozen people who spoke with Billboard for this story, almost all equated the preparations for the Eras Tour to those that go into the build up to TIFF — one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals, held in the city each September — but all said the Eras Tour hype went beyond even that. Some hospitality officials and locals are looking at it as a test run for the FIFA World Cup, which will stage six matches in the city in the summer of 2026, and as helping to prove that Toronto can accommodate, and with aplomb, the types of huge events that are often staged in the great cities of the world, ones that invite people to fly in from all over the globe.
There is one thing, however, that nobody is particularly looking forward to: “It’s going to be hell on earth in a sense of the traffic and the amount of people,” Khabouth says, laughing again. (He’s planning to ride his scooter through downtown “with a smile on my face” on the days of each show to avoid driving.) “But it’s a happy moment for all of us in Toronto, to have that energy, that vibe. It’s a concert that’s very positive, you’re gonna see a lot of happy faces, people excited. It’s a very good opportunity for Toronto to stand out and say, ‘Hey, we can play with the big boys.’”
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is coming to a close, with the star wrapping up her U.S. dates in Indianapolis, Indiana, over the weekend, and she took to Instagram on Monday (Nov. 4) to celebrate. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news ”Couldn’t have asked for a more magical […]
And in the end, the love Taylor Swift took from Swifties at the last-ever U.S. Eras Tour show on Sunday night (Nov. 3) in Indianapolis was more than equal to the love she gave. There were tears of joy and glitter galore, elation and wonder at being the last ones in the room as Swift brought a close to 141 shows on the tour that spanned the globe, and her career over the last 20 months.
And while Sunday’s was, by most accounts, a standard Eras show — none of the surprise guests or big announcements fans buzzed about before the gig — the 69,000-plus attendees at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on night three went home secure that they saw the same type of over-the-top musical masterpiece as the Swifties who attended the tour kick-off in March 2023.
But, also, the last Eras gig ever in the U.S.
Swift, of course, treated them to one more magical mash-up of favorites during the surprise song segment near the end of the show in the city that, like all the others, gratefully gave itself over to the sparkling, happy-to-spend Swiftie mobs. The singer, literally, strode like a Colossus over the Midwestern town better known for its thirst for professional and college sports, via a 330-foot mural of the pop icon plastered on the facade of a downtown hotel just blocks from Lucas Oil Stadium.
It was a fittingly way-larger-than-life image for a spectacle that was all-encompassing, touching everything from the mundane — the check-in clerk with a flowing weird beard manning the desk at a hotel near the stadium who had Swift’s favorite number (13) drawn on the back of his hand above one of the tour’s ubiquitous friendship bracelets — to the sublime: a burly cop with an wrist-full of colorful bracelets signing a little girl’s white Tortured Poet’s Department dress as she skipped her way into the venue.
For the final curtain before the tour finishes up for real in Canada with eight more shows later this month, as in other cities on the Eras Tour, Indianapolis rolled out the red carpet for the singer. The state capital was transformed into TaylorTown for the weekend. Everywhere Swifties went, there Taylor was.
More than 30 streets around downtown were temporarily transformed into Eras avenues, including The Man Dr., London Boy Ln., So High School St., … Ready For It? Rd., Bad Blood Blvd, and, of course, Cornelia St., which also happened to be one of Sunday night’s surprise songs.
The Indianapolis Zoo declared itself “In Our Wildest Era,” local vendors threw “Taylor” terrarium building parties and there were Tay-themed drink at bars all over town (Sun King Brewery’s ‘1,2,3 Let’s Go B*tch” Cherry Limeade Ale and an Eras Cider Box from Ash & Elm Cider Co. As well as snacks in Lucas Oil (Back to Decemberger Basked, Fearless Fries), a “Sweat Stretch Simmer” Swift-themed hot yoga class and even an “Era Sparkle Party for Voter Registration” at the Easley Winery in the lead-up to Tuesday’s (Nov. 5) presidential election, in which Swift has endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
It was all in honor of the singer whose tour created its own ecosystem, with new traditions (trading themed friendship bracelets, dressing in different Eras costumes) and a radiant joy that kept event the youngest fans staving off yawns as they danced in their light-up shoes and sequined skirts well past their bedtimes.
“The fact that you would do that for us, for me, for my band, my crew, my fellow performers. You have just completely confirmed that we chose the right 69,000 people to spend our last night with,” Swift told the capacity crowd on the third night in a row that she set attendance records at the stadium.
Check out our eight best moments from the final Eras Tour U.S.l show below.
The Shirts
When Taylor Swift first announced The Eras Tour on Nov. 1, 2022, she might not have guessed that, exactly two years later, she would still be on the career-spanning trek. Also, with just 27 dates announced on that first day, it might surprise her to learn that when the tour wraps in December, she’ll be […]
Ryan Reynolds is his pal Taylor Swift’s biggest fan! The Deadpool actor took to Instagram on Thursday (Oct. 31) to share a series of photos and videos from one of Swift’s shows at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome, which he attended with his wife Blake Lively and Rufus Wainwright. “When I’m 95 yrs old and my […]
When Taylor Swift plays Indianapolis for the ninth time in her career this weekend – performing three sold-out Eras Tour dates at the 70,000-capacity Lucas Oil Stadium – she’s returning at the very top of her game.
And Indy knows games. After all, the Midwestern capital city has hosted the Super Bowl, eight Final Fours (with a ninth set for 2026) and countless college tournaments across all sports – not to mention its 11 professional teams and a century-plus of the Indy 500 car race under its belt.
So how does a sports-forward city such as Indianapolis shift gears to welcome hundreds of thousands of Swifties to town instead of, say, 70,000 Colts fans on any given Sunday? The trio of Lucas Oil concerts were announced in August 2023, but the city’s wheels began spinning months before that.
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“We formed a local organizing committee, much like we do ahead of a major sporting event, to involve community partners to make sure that this was more than a concert,” Chris Gahl, senior VP of marketing/communications for Visit Indy, tells Billboard. “And so, over the last 18 or 20 months, a group has been meeting to think about and worry about how we welcome the anticipated 200,000 visitors and fans to our city.”
That huge swath of tourists is all coming to cheer for Swift – and while her arena is entertainment and not sports, when the music business is keeping score (like on the Billboard charts, for instance), she’s typically in the winners’ circle. On our most recent year-end charts, Swift was our overall top artist of 2023 and has ranked in the year-end top 10 in 14 of the last 16 years. She’s also tied with Drake for the most Billboard Music Awards wins of all time, picking up 39 prizes over her two decades in the industry.
And beyond the numbers, from its start in March 2023, The Eras Tour has been nothing short of an athletic feat. Swift is carrying a three-and-a-half-hour production of live singing and dancing, performing as many as four consecutive nights at a time across the world for almost 20 months. Beyond her Kansas City Chiefs star boyfriend Travis Kelce, we’ve seen professional athletes marveling at the endurance her concert must require, with Houston Texans defensive lineman J.J. Watt saying after attending opening weekend in Arizona: “She did not stop the whole time. There was no intermission. There was no halftime. There was no TV timeouts. The longest break she took was maybe three minutes for a costume change. And she was singing, dancing, entertaining the entire time — 70,000 people hanging on every single word and move she was making. … And she crushed it. And she didn’t even look tired. I was tired and I was just sitting there!”
With stats and stamina like hers, maybe Swift is a better fit for a sports town like Indy than it would appear at first glance. And to match her undefeated record, the city went especially big with signage for the Eras Tour dates – like, six-figure investment and 350-feet big – including a 34-story decal of the pop star (approved by Swift’s team) splashed across the JW Marriott, Indy’s largest hotel. They’ve also temporarily renamed 32 downtown streets after Swift songs, so visitors can take a stroll down Bad Blood Boulevard, All Too Well Way and, of course, Cornelia Street. And in a move sure to relieve fans desperate for a souvenir who don’t want to spend their entire night in a line, the adjacent Indiana Convention Center – typically home to massive fan experiences during major sporting events – has transformed its Exhibit Hall I into a pop-up merch stand, open to all Swifties from Wednesday to Saturday, no concert ticket required.
Visit Indy
And the Taylor Effect can be felt beyond the tourism board’s efforts. Local sports bars are playing their part too: The Slippery Noodle – a nearly 175-year-old bar and restaurant sitting a convenient three blocks from the stadium – is setting up a Swift-themed mocktail bar for young fans, complete with an accompanying friendship bracelet and glittery straw, as well as a “Dad’s Lounge” for any parents or partners delivering kids and spouses to the stadium and looking for a spot to chill for three and a half hours or so.
“We do have a couple of staff members that are Swifties, so I think they’ll be prepared to do some trading,” Slippery Noodle co-owner Sean Lothridge laughs to Billboard when asked whether his team will be armed with the Eras Tour’s trusty friendship bracelets. “It’s kind of something new for me. I don’t really know the Swifties as well, but I’m trying my best to learn a little bit about it.”
Over the summer, Lothridge got used to a different superstar woman drawing crowds to his bar, when a certain WNBA rookie came to town. “The Caitlin Clark effect with the Fever was tremendous,” he says, adding that fans were coming in from all over the country to go to Indiana Fever games at the nearby Gainbridge Fieldhouse. “We were getting good crowds from her fans, so she’s been a good boost for the city.”
This weekend’s concertgoers are also traveling from all over, with Gahl telling Billboard that 81% of the Indy ticket-holders are coming from outside the state of Indiana – presenting a massive opportunity to paint the sports town in a brand-new light, or introduce it to first-timers. The biggest difference between the Eras Tour weekend versus a high-stakes sporting event, Gahl notes, is that everyone should leave Lucas Oil Stadium a winner.
“You usually have two teams — sometimes four teams — that are taking sides, if you will, and advocating that their team wins,” he says. “In this case, it’s a commonality – and that is the love for the artist and her music. So whereas we’ve created different zones or restaurants or bars to align with a certain team in the past for major sporting events, this is a uniter. This is one city, one event, one weekend, all for the same artist and music, and it’s the capstone to her [U.S.] tour. So it feels like there’s even more unity and programming and everyone collecting for one common goal.”
For the next three nights, everyone entering the stadium is rooting for the same side: Team Taylor.
If you’re a certified Swiftie, don’t lose hope on finding tickets to the remaining dates of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. In June, TikTok launched the #TSTheErasTour, an interactive in-app artist experience, during which fans were encouraged to complete album-themed tasks. Fans who completed all 11 tasks received a celebratory profile frame. However, now it appears that […]
Paramore is celebrating their Eras tour trek with Taylor Swift. The band took to their Instagram page on Monday (Aug. 26) to share appreciation for Swift, posting a photo in which frontwoman Hayley Williams and the band smile alongside the pop star, who is giving a thumbs up to the camera. “Thank you for asking […]