The Eras Tour
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Taylor Swift goes back to December all the time, and the Billboard Pop Shop Podcast crew goes back to The Eras Tour all the time — or at least twice. On the latest episode, Katie & Keith talk all about hitting SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., for Night 4 of Swift’s epic Eras Tour, just […]
Monday’s surprise songs included an acoustic debut & a solo debut, with a particularly poignant “Exile” sing-along.
At long last, Taylor Swift has arrived in Los Angeles for the final stop of her U.S. tour — or so fans thought.
Earlier on Thursday, August 3 — hours before the superstar would take the stage at SoFi Stadium — she announced a second leg of North American dates for 2024. The new dates include stops in Miami, New Orleans, Indianapolis and Toronto. “Turns out it’s NOT the end of an era,” Swift wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).
And as she made perfectly clear on the first of her six-night run in L.A., slowing down is simply not in the cards. Neither is performing the same show night after night, as evidenced by the addition of two surprise songs to each set list, which Swift says is a fun way to challenge herself to dig deep into her extensive catalog — while also keeping fans on their toes, creating a sort of “gotta catch ’em all” energy.
But on Thursday, there was an even greater buzz radiating throughout the packed stadium as 70,000 fans poured in, many of whom were eagerly discussing rumors that Selena Gomez may make an appearance or that the next Taylor’s Version could be announced on this very night.
That’s the thing about the Eras Tour: it’s safe to expect the unexpected.
As it turns out, neither rumor was true. And yet, Swift’s opening night was nothing short of magical and filled with firsts, like having never performed at SoFi before or selecting a surprise song that she has never played live. And thankfully, it was all captured by a cameraman following her every move on stage, filming for something, as Swift managed to kick her power and poise into an even higher gear.
The night also included stellar opening sets from Gracie Abrams, who will join Swift on her 2024 dates, and HAIM. Of the sister trio, Swift said: “Not only are these three individuals my besties, but they’re my favorite band,” also noting it was a hometown show for the rockers.
“We have a lot to catch up on, musically speaking,” Swift said later on. “I haven’t toured in five years before the Eras Tour; This is the last city on the U.S. leg and we knew we wanted to end someplace special.”
And that is was. Below are the best moments from Swift’s opening night in L.A.
HAIM’s Not-So-Surprise Guest Appearance
Flashback to her mistakes, her rebounds, her earthquakes. In another case of life imitating art (this time, the art being lyrics to Taylor Swift‘s 2017 Reputation track “Dress”), Swifties at the Eras Tour in Seattle last weekend danced so hard, they generated enough seismic activity to rival a low-grade earthquake. The discovery was found by Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, a geology professor at Western Washington University, who measured the “Swift-quake” at Lumen Field to be equivalent to a 2.3 on the magnitude scale.
“For Taylor Swift, I collected about 10 hours of data where rhythm controlled the behavior,” Caplan-Auerbach explained to CNN Thursday (July 27). “The music, the speakers, the beat. All that energy can drive into the ground and shake it.”
The findings called back to another incident at Lumen Field in 2011, when fans watching a Seattle Seahawks game went wild over an impressive touchdown by running back Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch. The rumblings from the game showed up on the same local seismometer as the activity from the Eras show, according to Caplan-Auerbach.
“The shaking was twice as strong as ‘Beast Quake,’” she added. “It absolutely doubled it.”
Comparing activity from the Saturday (July 22) show with the Sunday (July 23) show, Caplan-Auerbach shared that there wasn’t one crowd of Swifties that was discernibly more raucous than the other. Both groups danced equally enthusiastically, the only main difference being that the second show started about half an hour later than the first due to delays.
It wasn’t just scientists who noticed the record-breaking movement at the stadium, by the way. Even Swift was impressed by all the energy she greeted with, afterward writing on Instagram, “Thank you for everything. All the cheering, screaming, jumping, dancing, singing at the top of your lungs.”
The conclusion of the Seattle shows means that Swift has just one more state to visit on the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour, which she’ll wrap up with two performances at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., followed by six concerts at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. From there, she’ll embark on months of international shows, traveling through Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia with support from Sabrina Carpenter and Paramore.
And even regardless of seismic activity, fans at the rest of those Eras Tour venues have a lot to live up to following Seattle. While onstage Sunday night, Swift doubled down on a diary entry she recalled writing during 2018’s Reputation Tour: “Seattle, Washington is the best crowd I have ever played for.”
It was quite the summer bash this past weekend in Seattle. Steps from the iconic Space Needle, foodies from all over the Pacific Northwest gathered for the city’s three-day “premier food festival.” Less than a couple miles west, Sofi Tukker, Denzel Curry, Louis the Child, PinkPantheress and dozens more musical acts performed all weekend at […]
She can’t even sing it with a straight face. Taylor Swift dusted off one of her best revenge songs at her Seattle Eras Tour show on Saturday (July 22), during which she had to take a pause to let out some maniacal laughter.
Singing “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” — which has long been rumored to be about her feud with Kanye West, now known as Ye, and Kim Kardashian — as the night’s surprise song, the 33-year-old pop star got all the way through to the bridge without stopping. Then, at the lyric “Here’s to you, ’cause forgiveness is a nice thing to do,” she paused playing completely, taking her hands off her guitar and letting out an uproarious “Ha!”
Swift then took a full 20 seconds to cackle, leaning on the microphone stand for support as the crowd at Lumen Field joined in on the laughter. “I can’t even say it with a straight face,” the singer-songwriter eventually resumed. “This is why we can’t have nice things!”
One fan video from the performance featured Swift’s mom, Andrea, singing along in the audience to the lyric, “Here’s to my momma, had to listen to all this drama,” which the “Anti-Hero” artist sings just before the big laugh.
To be clear, the laughter was all part of the performance and is even featured on the original track, released in 2017 as part of Swift’s Reputation album. But the Grammy winner did take a significantly bigger pause in the Saturday acoustic performance than she does on the recording.
While “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” is rumored to be about the rapper and his now ex-wife, it does contain what are probably the most incriminating lyrics tying the track back to their clash with Swift. “It was so nice being friends again/ There I was giving you a second chance,” she sings. “And therein lies the issue, friends don’t try to trick you/ Get you on the phone and mind-twist you.”
Ye and Swift first fell out in 2009 after the former notoriously stormed the VMAs stage upon the latter’s victory for best female video, taking the microphone and interrupting her speech to declare that Beyoncé should have won instead. Swift later penned “Innocent” about the Yeezy founder and the two reconciled, although things fell apart again in 2016 after Ye released his “Famous” single featuring the lyric: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/ Why? I made that b—- famous.”
Kardashian proceeded to leak video footage of Ye telling Swift about the song before its release over the phone, but Swift maintained she was never made aware of the second half of that lyric, which she took issue with, saying on social media that the clip was “edited and manipulated.”
Flash forward to present day, and Swift is fresh off the release of her most successful Taylor’s Version re-recorded album yet, with Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) surpassing 715,000 album unit sales in its first week. She also has two more stops on the U.S. leg of her blockbuster Eras Tour — Santa Clara and Inglewood — before she’ll take the trek global.
Meanwhile, Ye recently lost his billionaire status, with many of his brand partnerships cutting ties following his antisemitic hate speech and endorsement of “White Lives Matter” earlier this year. Kardashian filed for divorce from Ye in 2021.
Watch the moment below:
Taylor Swift gave the first live performance of her Evermore song “No Body, No Crime” with Haim during her Eras Tour stop at Seattle’s Lumen Field on Saturday (July 22). To assist with the live unveiling, the pop superstar brought out longtime friends the Haim sisters, who were featured on the studio version of the […]
Colorado Governor Jared Polis has a message for Taylor Swift ahead of her Eras Tour shows this weekend: “Welcome to Denver, it’s been waiting for you!” In a clever letter posted recently to his official Instagram account, Polis tied in dozens of Swift’s song lyrics and titles to officially greet the Grammy winner before she […]
Taylor Swift joins the list of artists who have been getting objects thrown at them over recent weeks. In a video uploaded to TikTok by fan Natasha Litle on Monday (July 10), Swift is seen walking offstage after her show at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium through the side exit, where fans were waiting in the […]
Taylor Swift was having a bit of trouble remembering her song lyrics during her Eras Tour stop in Kansas City, Mo., on Saturday (July 8).
During the acoustic section of her set at Geha Field at Arrowhead Stadium, the 33-year-old pop star hilariously forget the words — not once, but twice — to her sorrowful 2010 Speak Now track “Last Kiss.”
After effortlessly singing the first two lines of the opening verse, Swift accidentally skipped ahead to the “July ninth” portion of the second verse before pausing to acknowledge her mistake.
“Oh my God, the words… We have this rule on this tour where if I mess up a song that I have to play it again some other time on the tour so that I can avenge myself,” she explained to the crowd. “I got too excited, I got too excited. Will you allow me the honor of starting over?”
Swift then restarted the tune, getting through the first three lines without a hitch, before halting once again to second-guess herself.
“Oh my God! No, those are the right lyrics,” Tay said, repeating the opening lines. “I swear that I will not mess this up again! Oh my God! This one, I love this one. Why am I doing this to this song?”
The third time was a charm, as the songstress effortlessly delivered the Speak Now track without further interruption.
Prior to performing “Last Kiss,” Swift reminded the sold-out crowd of the date, which plays an important role in the song. “I don’t know if you noticed what the date is today, but it’s July 8th,” she said. “Soon it will be July 9th. You know what time it is, Kansas City. It’s time to play ‘Last Kiss’ and cry.”
“Last Kiss” reached No. 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2010. In the prologue included in the vinyl edition of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), the newly released re-recorded version of her third album, Swift called it “the saddest song I’ve ever written.”
Watch Swift’s performance of “Last Kiss” in Kansas City here.