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Wednesday (Oct. 23) evening in New Orleans, a white SUV tentatively peeks around the corner of Chartres Street in the French Quarter. Though Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” is the song wafting from its window, the man behind the wheel is visibly uneasy as he drives his family past boozed-up revelers stumbling toward Bourbon Street.

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By Friday (Oct. 25), however, Swift’s presence in the city has made all the tables turn. SUVs sporting song titles scrawled in marker (“Getaway Car” is a popular choice) and decals of Taylor’s face clog the streets as tens of thousands of tourists descend upon the city for the first of three sold-out shows at Caesars Superdome.

Fans wearing Eras Tour merch (or unofficial t-shirts playing on the tour’s distinctive color palette) are everywhere from the Bywater (Swift ordered her Lavender Haze birthday cake from Bywater Bakery in 2022) to Frenchman Street to the Instagram-friendly Skeleton House way over by Audubon Park, which this year is themed “Terror Swift: The ScEras Tour” (sample offering: a skeleton in a yellow evermore dress clutches a guitar next to a “No Body, No Crime” sign).

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“Taylor Swift Takes Over New Orleans” trumpets a “visitor’s guide” pamphlet crafted by The Times-Picayune and NOLA.com. The infamous Bourbon Street is almost family-friendly. Aside from “Blank Space,” “You Belong With Me” and “Anti-Hero” playing on repeat, nearly every bar and restaurant is boasting tie-in programming (karaoke, trivia, look-alike contests offering the winner as much as $500) or themed drinks (Taylorita, Lavender Haze fizz, Holy Ground hurricane).

Even the city’s music hotspots, places that skew toward jazz and the blues, aren’t immune to the pop star’s impact. Over on Frenchman, d.b.a. is hosting a friendship bracelet-making station; at the Mahogany Jazz Hall on Chartres, one of the bartenders is slinging lyrical references along with sazeracs (“I knew you were trouble when you walked in,” he quips while serving a customer two cocktails); while Esplanade Studios, where Swift recorded three songs from The Tortured Poets Department (“Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me,” “Fresh Out the Slammer” and “Florida!!!”), serves as an incentive for Swifties to explore the Treme neighborhood.

Back in the French Quarter, Antoine’s Restaurant — the oldest eatery in the city and the birthplace of oysters Rockefeller – is getting in on the fun, doling out pink to-go cups and writing “Eras Tour 2024” in frosting on their signature dessert, baked Alaska.

“[Right now is] as big and as busy as Mardi Gras and that’s the busiest time of year,” says Lisa Blount, who handles publicity for Antoine’s and is married to the CEO of the fifth-generation family-run business. “In the next three days we’ll do over 3,000 guests.”

“New Orleans always enjoys a busy pre-Halloween weekend,” says Steve Pettus of Dickie Brennan’s, a New Orleans restaurant group that includes Tableau, a French-Creole spot that hosted a Swiftie “balcony bash” on Saturday. “This weekend is more than double what we have traditionally seen. The requests for reservations have not stopped. I’ve never felt so popular in my life — I have more ‘friends’ than I realized.”

“We had guests start calling over the summer asking when they could book a table, so we knew what was coming,” says Kyle Brechtel, president & CEO of Brechtel Hospitality, which hosted a Swift-themed rooftop soiree on Friday. (Thanks to on-staff Swifties, “Taylor Tenders & Seemingly Ranch” were on the menu, referencing a viral Swift-related tweet from Sept. 2023.) “[Halloween] is always a big weekend in the city, but this is a whole different level.”

A growing New Orleans’ Halloween tradition is the witches’ luncheon, where locals don black robes, pointy hats and grab brunch. While the witches were out in force earlier in the day on Friday (even belting “Cruel Summer” at a karaoke bar in the crossover spirit of the weekend), by 5:00 p.m. the witching hour had given way to the Swifting hour. Taylor Swift costumes – from the purple “Enchanted” gown to the gold-tasseled “Fearless” dress to variations on the “22” t-shirt (“A Lot of Potholes Going on at the Moment,” “A Lot to Vote on at the Moment”) – and Kansas City Chiefs jerseys became as inescapable as Mardi Gras beaded necklaces.

Fortunately, New Orleans is a city that’s used to hosting massive cultural events. Case in point: Next year’s Super Bowl will take place at Caesars Superdome on Feb. 9, bringing halftime headliner Kendrick Lamar to the same venue Swift just sold out for three nights. So even with the Eras Tour bringing an estimated extra 100,000-150,000 people to New Orleans, the city doesn’t miss a beat.

“We have a lot of practice with this,” says Walt Leger, president and CEO of New Orleans & Company, the city’s official sales and marketing organization. “We have a lot of great professionals on the public safety side who know how to coordinate traffic and other issues that may impact us when we have an influx. Our city excels at these events – we have a professional hospitality community. It’s muscle memory.”

Still, the Eras Tour hits different. “This weekend will be more foot traffic, whereas the Super Bowl is a lot of corporate events scattered around town,” Brechtel says. “I haven’t seen anything rival the impact of a Super Bowl [here] until now.”

“The Super Bowl is very much a corporate event,” Blount echoes. “Large parties, a lot of VIPs. They buy out the restaurant, things like that. This is a different type of busy.” She offers a point of comparison: “We love those weekends where it’s the Saints vs. the Dallas Cowboys. We have massive amounts of people in town, the restaurants are busy, everybody is busy. A friend of mine said, ‘You know what’s great about this? It’s like a football weekend but we’re all rooting for the same team.’”

Not everyone is fully onboard the Taylor train, however. During a Halloween-themed drag show on Wednesday, one of the performers announced they would be hosting a series of Swift-themed drag shows over the weekend and was greeted with light boos. “I know, I know, she’s ruining Halloween,” the queen declared. “I feel the same as you, but I gotta pay rent.”

Another local, after getting off her work shift and finding herself in a sea of Swifties, put it more bluntly: “I’m sick of these motherf—kers and their t-shirts.” (To be fair, if your coffee shop suddenly had a line of 150 people waiting around the block to get a themed plastic cup, you might be irked, too.) Karen-coded behavior reared its head on occasion, too — such as a pair of Swifties telling a local street musician playing blues instrumentals to sing Swift songs instead. Or a table of adults at Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop chanting Taylor’s name at the piano player, despite the pianist politely stating that song requests should come with a couple bucks (they did not tip, and their chants went unanswered).

But those brief bad blood moments were few and far between. The city is more than accustomed to tourists, and most locals were more than happy to strike up a conversation with visiting Swifties to offer food recommendations or share bits of the city’s history.

“Our city recognizes that we benefit greatly from who invest in our community by spending dollars and supporting jobs and infrastructure,” Leger says. “Data shows that in the first leg of the Eras Tour, we’re expecting an excess of $200 million in extra spending, conservatively. It’ll probably be more than that.”

Ultimately, the Taylor Swift New Orleans takeover – like the Eras Tour itself – is about something that runs deeper than dollars, though. Walking down a cobblestone street on Friday, a young woman on her smoke break stops a first-time New Orleans visitor with quiet but eager question: “Are you a Swiftie?” Putting out her cigarette, she reveals a wrist covered in friendship bracelets. “Wanna trade?”

“Everybody is walking around having a great time,” Blount says. “It’s a great positive time. In this world today, having it be happy? My God, with the election in two weeks and all the caustic things with the election, it’s so nice to see people smiling.”

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce may have been more than 1,700 miles away from each other on Sunday (Oct. 28), but that didn’t stop the singer from paying tribute to her NFL boyfriend during the third and final Eras Tour show in New Orleans. While Swift was wrapping up the penultimate run of Eras U.S. […]

The Harris campaign will continue to rock this week with another campaign event featuring prominent musical guests. According to an announcement for the When We Vote We Win event in Madison, WI on Wednesday (Oct. 30) evening, it will feature Democratic Presidential candidate current V.P. Kamala Harris, as well as appearances from Gracie Abrams, Remi […]

Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco are going down the rabbit hole this Halloween.
On Saturday (Oct. 26), the “Single Soon” singer took to social media to show off photos of her and boyfriend Blanco’s whimsical Alice in Wonderland-inspired costumes.

“Curiouser and curiouser..,” the Only Murders in the Building star captioned the gallery on Instagram.

In the snapshots, the Rare Beauty founder, 32, appears in a blonde wig and light blue dress as Alice and the music producer and songwriter, 36, is decked out in full makeup as Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter from Tim Burton’s 2010 movie adaptation of the book.

“my prosthetics r giving handsome squidward meets longlegs,” Blanco wrote in the comments section of Gomez’s post.

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The couple also shared more snapshots of their impressive fantasy outfits on their Instagram Stories. Gomez posted a clip from Disney’s 1951 animated film version of Alice in Wonderland, which closely resembled her Halloween outfit. And Blanco shared short videos from what appeared to be a Halloween party.

One of his Instagram Story posts show a video of Gomez seated at a table while the two are eating dinner. “It’s a video,” he says to Gomez, who seemingly thinks she’s posing for a photo. “Why do you always do that to me?” she replies with a smile.

The couple has been dating for more than a year now, with Gomez announcing their relationship in December and revealing that they’d been dating for six months at that point. Before upgrading to her necklace, the pop star often wore a letter “B” ring on her finger.

Before they got together, Blanco and Gomez were friends and collaborators. In 2019, they teamed up with Tainy and J Balvin for the song “I Can’t Get Enough” — as referenced in the producer’s adorable birthday post for his girlfriend this year — and Blanco worked on the pop star’s 2023 hit “Single Soon.”

“It’s crazy how your partner could just be sitting there the whole time, right in front of your eyes, and you don’t even notice,” Blanco marveled to the Wall Street Journal earlier this year. “And then you have that Clueless moment where you’re like, ‘Wait, I’m in love.’”

See Gomez and Blanco’s Alice in Wonderland Halloween costumes on Instagram below.

Adele got an emotional surprise from a fellow icon at her Las Vegas residency.
The British superstar, 36, was brought to tears after spotting Celine Dion, 56, in the crowd during her long-running show at Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Saturday (Oct. 26).

In a fan-captured video posted to X (formerly Twitter), Adele is seen performing “When We Were Young” as she encounters Dion, who was seated in a side box at the 4,100-seat venue. The moment turns emotional as Adele starts to cry while embracing Dion. The two superstars share a few words before the legendary Canadian singer holds Adele’s face and kisses her hand. Adele then waves to nearby fans before returning to the stage.

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Dion — who opened the Colosseum with her first residency in 2003 — appeared to be seated beside her sons, Nelson and Eddy Angélil, who offered comfort to their mother following the touching encounter.

This isn’t the first time Adele and Dion have crossed paths in Sin City. In 2018, Adele attended Celine’s second residency at the same venue. In an Instagram post at the time, the “My Heart Will Go On” artist expressed her appreciation after meeting Adele backstage at the performance.

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“Wasn’t able to do all my shows, but was thrilled that Adele came to one of them… I love her so much!!” Dion wrote in a since-deleted post.

Adele also shared her excitement after meeting Dion. “Queen Celine! What a show, an absolute highlight of my life, thank you so much for the attention to your crowd and insane humor. Happy New Year lady x,” the “Hello” hitmaker wrote on Instagram.

Her Weekends With Adele runs through late November. Earlier this year, Adele stated that she will take a lengthy break from music after the residency concludes in the fall.

“I just need a rest. I have spent the last seven years building a new life for myself and I want to live it now,” she told a Munich crowd in September. “I want to live my life that I’ve been building and I will miss you terribly.”

Taylor Swift served “Espresso” and more with with Sabrina Carpenter in New Orleans Saturday night (Oct. 26). Swift teased she was about to do something different for her acoustic set during her latest stop on The Eras Tour — sing someone else’s song. “It’s been stuck in my head,” she explained to the crowd at […]

Chappell Roan confronted a photographer she’d previously had an uncomfortable encounter with on the red carpet Friday (Oct. 25). Making an appearance on the carpet at the Los Angeles premiere of Netflix’s Olivia Rodrigo: Guts World Tour film, which will be streaming Oct. 28, the “Good Luck, Babe!” singer-songwriter pointed, said, “You,” and walked straight […]

When Jin named his new solo track “I’ll Be There,” he didn’t do so lightly. According to the BTS star, he genuinely wants to give his listeners comfort, starting with the lead single from his upcoming album Happy.
In a new video interview with Dolby Atmos shared exclusively with Billboard, the 31-year-old South Korean singer explains that he wrote his new song — which dropped Friday (Oct. 25) — with the hope of “providing happiness” to his fanbase. “When ARMY feel tired and lonely, I hope this song gives them strength,” Jin says in the clip.

“I have a very clear idea of what kind of emotions I want to share with our fans,” the performer continues. “I want our fans, our ARMY, to be happy.”

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The interview comes as part of Jin’s new partnership with Dolby Atmos in honor of his new solo music. The “Super Tuna” artist also filmed an alternative music video with the audio technology company — which Billboard exclusively premieres below — featuring Jin driving a convertible through swirling, colorful lights, performing “I’ll Be There” in a futuristic glass room, flirting with a few actresses on set and dancing with a group of people in an airport.

Jin also dropped a standard music video for “I’ll Be Alright” Friday, just a few weeks ahead of the Nov. 15 release of his debut solo album, Happy. In his new interview, the star revealed that — much like “I’ll Be Alright” — the songs on the six-track LP “have choruses that everyone can sing along to.”

“It’s a song that will put a smile on your face,” he added of his new single. “I hope to spread those feelings to my fans because they give me so much energy, laughter and joy.”

Jin’s album will make him the final member of BTS to release a solo LP, following previous projects from Jung Kook, Jimin, V, SUGA, RM and J-Hope. The group’s full-band activities are currently on pause as five of the members finish their mandatory military service, which Jin was the first to complete in June followed by RM earlier this month.

Watch Jin’s interview with Dolby Atmos above, and check out his alternative music video for “I’ll Be There” below.

Chappell Roan is ready to continue the pink pony club fun. The star took to Instagram on Friday (Oct. 25) to tease a potential single called “She Gets the Job Done” alongside a series of Polaroid photos of herself rocking her own merch. “This is a clue. Just let that sink in,” she captioned the […]

On today’s (Oct. 23) episode of the Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century podcast, we reach No. 7 of our list with a producer-turned-rapper-turned-all-consuming-celebrity, who has been unavoidable in pop culture for the last two decades — often for his artistic brilliance, sometimes for his business ventures or personal life, and particularly in recent […]