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Taylor Swift fans are celebrating the opening night of the pop superstar’s highly-anticipated Eras tour.
During the career-spanning concert at Glendale, Ariz.’s State Farm Stadium on Friday (March 17), Swift performed a whopping 44 songs from her 10 studio albums. The stadium trek marks Swift’s first proper tour in five years, thanks primarily to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Now THAT is how you put on a show, taylor swift you are insane,” one fan tweeted alongside a photo collage of Swift’s numerous outfit changes during the show.
The 3-hour-and-15-minute show found Swift traveling through each of her eras one by one, showcasing the four original studio albums — Lover, Folklore, Evermore and Midnights — she’s recorded since her 2018 Reputation tour. The singer also performed her beloved hits, including “You Belong With Me” and “Shake It Off.” Read Billboard‘s “13 Best Moments” from the tour’s opening night here.
Swifties took to social media before, during and after the Eras tour launch on Friday, sharing dazzling photos and majestic videos of the concert’s impressive production. “The aesthetics of #TSTheErasTour are INSANE,” a fan wrote on Twitter alongside snapshots of the spectacular set-pieces. Another Swiftie added, “That was the show that just kept giving oh my GOD.”
Some attendees even wondered if the experience was real or a figment of their imagination. “Good morning i think last night i was at a taylor swift concert, was i? #TSTheErasTour,” they tweeted.
The Eras tour continues on Saturday (March 18) with a second show in Glendale, Ariz., which has temporarily been renamed Swift City in honor of the artist’s arrival. Support on the trek features a rotating cast of opening acts, including Paramore, beabadoobee, Phoebe Bridgers, girl in red, Muna, Haim, Gayle, Gracie Abrams and Owenn.
See some of the best fan reactions to the opening night of Swift’s Eras tour below.
TAYLOR SINGING FEARLESS WITH HER FULL BAND. THE SAME BAND WHO PERFORMED IT WITH HER SINCE 2008. AND THE FIRST TIME IT’S BEEN ON A TOUR SETLIST IN 12 YEARS. I AM UNWELL pic.twitter.com/o7AQqtPYag— 𝒻𝑜𝓁𝓀𝓁𝑜𝓇𝑒 | fan account (@cardigan_swift) March 18, 2023
That was the show that just kept giving oh my GOD— sonya 3/18 SEC P ROW 1 SEAT 12 (@TisTheDamnPhD) March 18, 2023
Anyone else’s teenage daughter wake up this morning reciting a full recap of Taylor Swift’s opening tour show in Arizona, complete with wardrobe and set design details? Anyone….— Kevin Maher (@KMaherNews12) March 18, 2023
good morning i think last night i was at a taylor swift concert, was i? #TSTheErasTour— laura.🪩 🌌tampa n1 seattle n2 (@redintodaylight) March 18, 2023
TAYLOR SWIFT IS INSANE BRO SHE LITERALLY SANG 44 SONGS ON ERAS TOUR— b (@balk1ss) March 18, 2023
https://twitter.com/hashtag/TSTheErasTour?src=hashtag_click
As if Taylor Swift beginning her long-awaited The Eras Tour wasn’t exciting enough, the superstar added to the hype on Friday (March 17) by releasing four new tracks.
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“In celebration of The Eras Tour I’m releasing 4 previously unreleased songs tonight at midnight,” she revealed on her Instagram Stories a day prior. The four tracks include re-recordings of Swift’s dual contributions to the 2012 soundtrack to The Hunger Games — “Eyes Open” and “Safe & Sound” featuring Joy Williams and John Paul White — as well as “If This Was a Movie (Taylor’s Version)” and never-before-heard song “All of the Girls You Loved Before.”
The Eras Tour is set to begin on Friday (March 17) with back-to-back shows in Glendale, Ariz., which has temporarily been renamed Swift City in honor of Swift’s imminent arrival. Support on the tour will come via a rotating cast of opening acts including Paramore, beabadoobee, Phoebe Bridgers, girl in red, Muna, Haim, Gayle, Gracie Abrams and Owenn.
Since the Reputation tour wrapped in 2018, Swift has released four original studio albums — Lover, 2020’s Folklore and Evermore, and Midnights — as well as two re-recorded albums, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version), both in 2021.
Listen to the four new songs below.
Taylor Swift‘s much-buzzed-about The Eras Tour is set to begin on Friday (March 17) with back-to-back shows in Glendale, Ariz., and the superstar gave fans a little peek into her rehearsals.
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The “Anti-Hero” singer took to social media to share a series of photos of herself rehearsing her set onstage, dressed in olive-colored cargos, a black crop top and, of course, a red lip. “In my Eras era,” she captioned the post, which also included a photo of her multi-colored nails, which seems like each fingernail represents one of her 10 studio albums.
Swift also shared a sweet picture to her Instagram Stories of a hand-made “All Access” credential she made for her father. “D.O.H. Pass (Dad of Headliner),” the pass reads, as Swift jokingly wrote underneath, “We are a small family business.”
Her dad, wearing his new pass, then teamed up with Swift’s mom to put crystals on their famous daughter’s Fearless-inspired guitar “with super glue and a free afternoon.” Check out the multi-Grammy winner’s recap of her last rehearsal day on her Instagram Stories before they disappear here.
Earlier in the day, the “Blank Space” superstar surprised Swifties by announcing that she would be dropping four new songs ahead of her tour kickoff. “In celebration of The Eras Tour I’m releasing 4 previously unreleased songs tonight at midnight,” she revealed on her Instagram Stories. The four tracks include re-recordings of Swift’s dual contributions to the 2012 soundtrack to The Hunger Games — “Eyes Open” and “Safe & Sound” featuring Joy Williams and John Paul White — as well as “If This Was a Movie (Taylor’s Version)” and never-before-heard song “All of the Girls You Loved Before.”
Austin Butler has made his case to appear on Taylor Swift‘s next rerecording.
Butler took part in W Magazine‘s Lyrical Improv segment, in which actors do a dramatic reading of a popular song. The Elvis star was given Swift’s 2012 hit, “Red,” and he turned the song into a devastating tale of heartbreak, adding to the already emotional lyrics with his low-toned voice and perfectly timed pauses.
“Losing him was blue, like I’d never known / Missing him was dark gray, all alone / Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met / But loving him was red,” he read in the chorus.
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“Was that alright?” he asked with a laugh when he completed the task.
Swift unveiled the Taylor’s Version of her Red album in 2021, and immediately debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 605,000 equivalent album units, and the 10-minute version of “All Too Well” shot to the top of the Hot 100 chart. “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (The Short Film)” was up for song of the year and won best music video at the 2023 Grammys.
Watch Butler’s rendition of “Red” below.
Taylor Swift‘s The Eras Tour is kicking off in less than two weeks, and the pop star’s close friend, model Gigi Hadid, is already preparing to have a major lack of composure when Swift performs live and in person.
“I’m a psychopath at a Taylor show,” Hadid said on the Tuesday (March 7) episode of E! News, while promoting the new season of her Next in Fashion reality competition. “I go nuts. I’m not cool at all. I’m like the most embarrassing friend.”
As a close friend of the “Lavender Haze” singer, Hadid was likely not one of the many fans trying to score tickets to the pop star’s The Eras Tour, the demand of which crashed Ticketmaster servers and resulted in an investigation of the ticket company by the United States Senate to see if it has abused its power over the live music industry. But Swift will surely hook Hadid up. “I’ll make it to a few,” the model said of the upcoming concerts. “I try to make it to as many as I can.”
And as for attire, Hadid likes to stay comfy to have room to dance the night away. “I like to boogie, so I’m usually in jeans and T-shirt. I’ll rep some Taylor merch if I get some,” she added.
Swift’s Eras Tour is scheduled to kick off March 18, starting with a pair of dates at Glendale, Ariz.’s State Farm Stadium. HAIM, Paramore, Beabadoobee, GAYLE, Muna, Gracie Abrams, Phoebe Bridgers, Girl in Red and Owenn are among the acts Swift has asked to join her on the trek, which marks the pop star’s biggest tour to date.
For the third consecutive quarter, Sony Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing Group took their usual No. 1 spots on Billboard’s Publishers Quarterly ranking for the last quarter of 2022.
Sony topped the Top Radio Airplay ranking, while UMPG had the biggest share of Hot 100 songs.
Harry Styles and Kid Harpoon (birth name: Thomas Edward Percy Hull) were the top Radio Airplay songwriters, thanks to their collaboration on “As It Was” and two other hits from Styles’ 2022 album, Harry’s House — which Kid Harpoon also produced — that ranked in the quarter. Both songwriters are published by UMG.
Despite that duo’s strong showing, the No. 1 Radio Airplay song for the quarter was Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit.” Five writers are credited, including Lacy as Steve Thomas Lacy Moya, Brittany Foushee, Diana “Wynter” Gordon, Matthew Castellanos, and John Carroll Kirby. The top 10 publishers that have a share in that song are: Sony, UMPG, Warner Chappell and Kobalt.
On the Hot 100 ranking, Taylor Swift, also published by UMG, was the top songwriter and scored the No. 1 song for the quarter, “Anti-Hero.” Thirteen songs from her album midnights, placed in the ranking; Swift co-wrote 12 of them and is the sole author of “Vigilante Shit.” Both Sony and UMPG have stakes in “Anti-Hero.”
Sony’s No. 1 showing on the Top Radio Airplay publishers ranking actually represents its seventh consecutive quarter and 40th time overall at the top of that chart. Its market share slipped to 28.89% from 31.60% in the third quarter of 2022, but its song count was up one, with the publisher placing 64 tunes on the ranking.
On the Hot 100 publishers ranking, Sony’s market share fell more than 7 percentage points, from 29.79% in the third quarter to 22.71% in the fourth, and its song count followed suit, dropping from 64 to 58. That said, the publisher is on a bit of a hot streak when it comes to the Country Radio Airplay publisher ranking: it took the No. 1 spot for the second consecutive quarter, improving its 27.60% third-quarter market share to 28.93%.
UMPG has emerged as a powerhouse in the Hot 100 publisher rankings. For the three consecutive quarters that it finished No.1, its market share has remained above 30% — a feat last achieved by Sony on the Top Radio Airplay chart in 2014.
UMPG’s quarter-to-quarter market share grew from 30.75% to 31.63%, and its song count rose from 60 to 63. The publisher also grew its market share in the Radio Airplay ranking from 23.98% in the third quarter to 25.66% — almost 10 percentage points over No. 3 publisher, Warner Chappell Music, despite a song count that fell from 56 to 52 in the fourth quarter.
On the Radio Airplay ranking, Warner Chappell, Kobalt, and BMG once again held the No. 3 through No. 5 spots, respectively, although Warner Chappell’s quarter-to-quarter market share grew 13.60% to 15.73%. Its song count fell, however, from 48 to 46 tunes.
Kobalt held on to its No. 4 berth despite a significant drop in song placements from the third quarter, from 43 to 34, and a market-share decline from 13.21% to 10.38%. Fifth-ranked BMG eked out a .05 percentage point gain from 3.12% to 3.17%, as a result of boosting its song count from nine to 11.
The success of David Guetta & Bebe Rexha’s “I’m Good (Blue),” the No. 6 song on the quarter’s top radio chart, resulted in a newcomer making the top 10: the Italian collection society S.I.A.E. Direzione Generale, which is credited as one of the song’s publishers by the Harry Fox Agency. As a result, S.I.A.E. ranked No. 7 on Radio Airplay, with a 1.38% market share, and No. 9 on the Hot 100 publisher ranking with a 1.24% share.
The remainder of the Top Radio Airplay top 10 consists of Concord at No. 6 with 2.19% share, up from the prior quarter’s 1.48% share when it ranked No. 8; at No. 8 for the fourth quarter was Higpnosis, with a 1.29% share, down from the prior quarter’s 1.77% when it ranked No. 6; Downtown held steady at No. 9 with 1.28%, down from 1.59% in the third quarter, and Big Machine at No. 10 with 1.25%.
Christmas music made its usual strong showing in the fourth quarter Hot 100 publisher ranking, vaulting St. Nicholas Music to No. 5 in the ranking with a 6.17% market share, thanks to “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,” “Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer,” all of which were written by Johnny Marks. Brenda Lee’s recording of “Rockin’” was the quarter’s No. 6 Hot 100 song.
The holiday season also boosted Dean Kay’s Demi Music to the No. 7 slot on the Hot 100 publisher ranking, solely on the strength of Andy Williams’ “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year,” which gave Desi a 1.91% market share for the quarter. A single song — OneRepublic’s “I Ain’t Worried” — also put Downtown in the No. 8 spot.
Forbes revealed this week its list of the world’s 10 highest-paid entertainers, who, combined, made more than $1.3 billion last year.
Topping the list are Genesis and Sting, who made $230 million and $210 million, respectively, thanks to selling their music. Genesis topped 2022 with a $300 million music rights sale to Concord Music Group in September, while Sting also made $300 million before fees by selling his entire musical catalog, both solo and with The Police, to Universal Music Group in February.
Among the other major artists on the list was Taylor Swift, who came in at No. 9 with $92 million. According to Forbes, income streams from physical record sales, streaming, digital downloads, licensing and sync were the primary source of the superstar’s major income last year.
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Bad Bunny came in at No. 10 with $88 million, and the Puerto Rican rapper can attribute much of his financial success to his massive Último Tour Del Mundo and The World’s Hottest Tour, plus endorsements from Corona, Cheetos and Adidas.
In December 2022, Swift was named in Forbes’ list of the world’s 100 most powerful women, ranking at No. 79. The success of Midnights and her re-recorded albums Red (Taylor’s Version) and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) were highlighted, along with her political influence and November’s Eras Tour ticket sale meltdown.
See the full list of the world’s highest-paid entertainers here.
Once again, Taylor Swift had fans meeting her at midnight on Friday (Feb. 10) for a new release — this time, a remix of Midnights album opener “Lavender Haze.”
The remix of the violet-hued love song comes just two weeks after Swift dropped the dreamy “Lavender Haze” music video, which she directed and co-starred alongside the sultry model and trans activist Laith Ashley. “This one really helped me conceptualize the world and mood of Midnights, like a sultry sleepless 70’s fever dream. Hope you like it,” Swift said of the inspiration behind the music video.
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The original song, which was co-written by Swift, Jack Antonoff, actress Zoë Kravitz, Mark Anthony Spears, Jahaan Akil Sweet & Sam Dew, opens the 12-time Grammy winner’s 10th studio album, Midnights. With the album, Swift made one of the most historic weeks in the 64-year history of the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, as she became the first artist to claim the survey’s entire top 10 in a single frame. “Lavender Haze” clocked in at No. 2, just behind lead single “Anti-Hero.”
Listen to the remix of “Lavender Haze” below.
Paramore joined Zane Lowe for an interview on Apple Music 1 this week, where the band discussed their return to music with their new album This Is Why.
Frontwoman Hayley Williams revealed that one of the songs on the record, “Running Out of Time,” was actually inspired by none other than Taylor Swift. “I remember when we were 19 and I was closer with Taylor Swift at that point because we both lived in Nashville, and we’re both experiencing our own versions of real success for the first time,” she recalled. “I went over to hang out. She’s a really good cook, by the way. She’s a really good cook. She has taught me how to make stuff that I did not retain at all.”
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Williams continued by remembering that Swift had a “little closet” where she kept gifts that she could send to people as a thank you, birthdays or holidays. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, my life is so not together,’” she shared. “I was like, ‘I can barely remember to send someone a card or flowers.’ There are still Christmas gifts at my house that I have not sent to my friends just sitting there in the back of my closet. Two of the people I was supposed to give a gift to, I was like, ‘Sorry, I forgot to put [the gifts] in my suitcase so you still don’t get a gift.’ I wish that I was the person that felt like I had all my s— together and I was like, ‘Oh, I had some extra time, so I’m just popping by with some flowers.’ That kind of a thing, that is my idealized self.”
In January, Paramore appeared on Billboard‘s digital cover, where the trio discussed their return as a band. “At this point, I don’t understand how we’re still doing it,” Williams shared. “Because it just feels like against all odds every single time — which, honestly, I feel like we’re the most annoying band in the world because it’s always like, ‘Oh, we overcame this, and now we’re making this album.’”
The National is gearing up to release their ninth studio album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein on April 28, and the band’s Bryce Dessner sat down with Hanuman Welch for ALT CTRL Radio on Apple Music 1 this week to discuss the project.
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Most notably, Taylor Swift is featured on The National’s “Alcott,” which will be included on the forthcoming album. The National previously worked with Swift on Evermore‘s “Coney Island,” and Bryce’s brother Aaron Dessner frequently collaborates with the 11-time Grammy winner. “We’re all big fans of Taylor, and she’s been really generous with us, inviting us to be part of ‘Coney Island,’” Bryce shared. “And obviously my brother’s worked with her a lot, and I’ve done a bunch of orchestration for her albums.”
He continued, “‘Alcott’ is a song that she co-wrote with Matt [Berninger], where she co-wrote the lyrics. It’s really amazing to hear her, the way she was able to take what Matt had done and then reinvent the song, and it’s really a special song.”
As for the inspiration behind The National’s literary album title, Bryce explained that Berninger came up with the name, after the frontman went through a pause in creativity. “I think he was just blocked about what he wanted to sing about, lyrics weren’t coming,” he shared. “And typically in the past, he’ll pick up favorite books, and so apparently he picked up Frankenstein, the [Mary] Shelley book — people know the film and some people don’t realize it’s based on a book — and that helped him get out of his, somehow opened a door for him. I’m not sure why, maybe thinking about monsters or something. But, it helped open the flood gates and in the later stages of the album, he started writing really quickly.”
Listen to the full interview on-demand on Apple Music here.