The Eras Tour

When Taylor Swift wrote “Death By a Thousand Cuts,” she probably didn’t mean to take it so literally. During her Saturday (April 22) Eras Tour concert, the pop star scraped her hand midway through and powered through the rest of the show with a pretty nasty-looking wound.

Fans watching the second of Swift’s three shows in Houston over the weekend quickly noticed that she was missing a chunk of skin from her left palm, which appeared to bleed on and off throughout the remainder of the performance. One Swiftie clocked that the injury must have happened in between the “Anti-Hero” singer’s quick change between “Tolerate It,” the last song in the Folkore section of the set list, and “Ready For It,” the first song in the Reputation section.

“her wrist is fine by the end of tolerate it and by the time she walks down the stage for rfi you see the blood near her palm,” one fan tweeted.

As the concert progressed, Swift could be seen with bandages wrapped around her wrist and palm. But through all of the costume changes, choreography and guitar/piano-playing the singer does throughout her three-hour set, the bandage seemed to lose its stickiness and slip off of her hand.

If she was in pain, however, Swift definitely didn’t show it. Fans online couldn’t believe how well she powered through the performance without even flinching at the visible gash on her hand, with one Swiftie tweeting, “taylor is actually better than me cuz i cut my hand like this accidentally and i literally couldn’t stop crying cuz it hurt as hell she’s literally a superhuman.”

“taylor’s dedication is unreal,” wrote another. “i cannot believe she performed with her hand THAT injured last night, without letting on that something was going on. we do not deserve her.”

Billboard has reached out to Swift’s rep for comment.

See photos and fan reactions to Taylor Swift’s painful-looking mid-show injury below:

for those wondering about taylor’s wrist here’s what happened 🧵she cut right below her palm sometime in the change btwn tolerate it – > RFI. her wrist is fine by the end of tolerate it and by the time she walks down the stage for rfi you see the blood near her palm. pic.twitter.com/8fINwsv6io— sophia (@lovr_23) April 24, 2023

taylor is actually better than me cuz i cut my hand like this accidentally and i literally couldn’t stop crying cuz it hurt as hell 😭 she’s literally a superhuman pic.twitter.com/FN6U0eCFHi— rania (@tolerateitlover) April 24, 2023

taylor’s insane bc she performed two nights with her hand hurt and missing a piece but when I get a paper cut I cancel all my plans bc it hurts too much— 🪩 eME!rald 🕰️ 🌙 HEARD MIRRORBALL LIVE🪩 (@hushmirrorball) April 24, 2023

taylor’s dedication is unreal. i cannot believe she performed with her hand THAT injured last night, without letting on that something was going on. we do not deserve her.— cadence⸆⸉ 🌲 (@notagoldrush) April 24, 2023

WHAT THE HELLLL taylor’s hand was actually so bad how did she even play guitar after this oh my beloved whoever did this TRUST you will be dealt with!!!! pic.twitter.com/TLLFeoh5uA— ali’s MIDNIGHTS (@ownedbytayla) April 23, 2023

Taylor Swift made yet another generous donation to a Florida food bank on Thursday (April 13) ahead of bringing The Eras Tour to Tampa.

In an Instagram post on Thursday, Feeding Tampa Bay announced that the “Anti-Hero” singer had made a significant contribution. “Thank you @taylorswift for being a HERO and supporting Feeding Tampa Bay’s mission to end hunger by 2025!” the nonprofit organization wrote in a caption beneath a close-up of Swift’s multi-colored tour poster. “Your generosity will place over 125,000 meals on tables!”

Swifties praised their queen for the private act of kindness in the comments section, with one writing, “Incredible human. Very humble and generous. Loves her fans and cities she goes to.” Another declared Swift “The people’s Princess.” A third Swiftie laughingly commented, “AND SHES THE MAYOR YALL,” citing Tampa Mayor Jane Castor bestowing the singer with the title of honorary mayor during her visit and giving her a key to the city.

The donations continue Swift’s recent giving streak, which started with similar gifts at food banks in both Arizona and Las Vegas along the tour route late last month.

Though Taylor is gearing up for three consecutive shows at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, the Hillsborough County superintendent tried to use the singer’s own songs to craft a public letter warning students not to miss school to attend the “AMAZING” three-hour spectacle.

The Tampa shows will also be the first time Tay hits the stage following the news that she and Joe Alwyn had officially broken up after more than six years together.

Check out Feeding Tampa Bay’s grateful shout-out to Swift for her donation below.

In Swifties’ defense, they have none for never leaving well enough alone — but it would’ve been fun, if he would’ve been the one. Fans are convinced that Taylor Swift hinted at her breakup from Joe Alwyn nearly two weeks before reports hit Saturday (April 8) when she substituted one Folklore song for another in her Eras Tour setlist, replacing “Invisible String” with “The 1.”
The switch happened at her March 31 concert in Arlington, Texas, at the midway point in her three-hour set. In switching gears from her Red era to Folklore, the pop star typically sings “Invisible String,” a folksy love song that is believed to give details of her six-year romance with Alwyn.

This time, though, instead of the track about being destined by fate for an eternity of togetherness, she sang “The 1,” which has pretty much the exact opposite message. “If you wanted me, you really should’ve showed,” Swift sings on Folklore‘s lead track. “It would’ve been fun, if you would’ve been the one.”

“You think you can just scroll and know the setlist,” she teased the crowd at the time in fan captured video. “Let it be said about the Eras Tour, we’re tricksy. We have got healthy setlist hijinks.”

At the time, that’s all it seemed to be: setlist hijinks. But flash forward to Saturday, when various publications reported the internet-shattering news that the “Anti-Hero” singer had split from Alwyn — who assisted in writing songs on Folklore and Evermore –and the song switch started to take on a lot more meaning for some fans. (Billboard reached out to both Swift’s and Alwyn’s reps for comment when news of their split broke, but have not heard back.)

“Hold on cause taylor switched from invisible string (a song about hopeful love) to the 1 (a song about past love) on the set list…,” tweeted one Swiftie after finding out about the breakup.

“i knew it as soon as she replaced invisible string with the 1,” wrote another, unsurprised by the breakup news.

Swift and the Favourite actor first started dating in 2016, and mostly kept a low profile. During their six years together, they rarely made public outings. They did, however, speak lovingly about each other in occasional interviews, and the 12-time Grammy winner opened up about falling in love with Alwyn in her Netflix documentary, Miss Americana.

See fans’ tweets about the “Invisible String” to “The 1” theory below:

hold on cause taylor switched from invisible string (a song about hopeful love) to the 1 (a song about past love) on the set list… pic.twitter.com/NPm4kMgIJs— c 💌 (@celestialswiftt) April 9, 2023

just got the swiftea. swifties are saying toe broke up bc he hasn’t been at any of the shows and taylor switched invisible string to the 1.— snotty eras tissue (@taylorsbedpost1) April 3, 2023

people saying “is this why she played the 1 instead of invisible string” and that is going to take a huge toll on my mental health pic.twitter.com/UVKGsv4YFj— yasmin (taylors version) (@misamericana) April 9, 2023

it’s throwing a wrench in my heart thinking about invisible string suddenly being replaced by the 1 on the setlist— monica (@sourvinyl) April 8, 2023

Taylor Swift has a lot of tricks up her sleeve, but fans just figured out one of them. Since the Eras Tour kicked off a few weeks ago, Swifties have been wondering how the pop star travels from backstage to the spotlight without being seen before each show — and now, a fan video has seems to have cracked the case.

One concertgoer in attendance at the trio of Eras Tour shows in Arlington, Texas, over the weekend captured the “Anti-Hero” singer’s undercover entrance in a Monday (April 3) TikTok that shows Swift apparently hiding in a fake cleaning cart filled with mops as two crew members roll her inconspicuously to her starting spot underneath the stage. At the end of the video, a door on the side of the cart opens and Swift — unmistakable in her sparkly outfit and long blonde hair — appears to stride out.

“Not Taylor Swift popping out of the janitor cart,” the fan captioned the video.

Billboard has reached out to Swift’s rep for comment.

Fans have long suspected that the cart was actually carrying the night’s headliner instead of cleaning supplies, but now, they actually have proof. The fake-out is similar to a tactic believed to be used by Harry Styles for his Love On Tour shows, in which he appears to hide in a large equipment box rolled out right before his performance begins, with him magically appearing from underneath the stage.

The “Lavender Haze” musician just finished up her third weekend of Eras Tour shows, which kicked off in March in Glendale, Ariz., and was followed by sets in Las Vegas and Arlington. She’ll take this weekend off before returning with a trio of shows in Tampa on April 13, 14 and 15 at Raymond James Stadium.

See the video of Taylor Swift popping out of her faux janitor cart below:

It’s no secret that Taylor Swift is the queen of Easter eggs. Since the early days of her career, the superstar has regularly planted clues, hints and callbacks in her music videos, live appearances, interviews and even the liner notes in her albums.

“I love to communicate through Easter eggs,” Swift said in a 2019 interview with Entertainment Weekly to help kick off her Lover era. “I think the best messages are cryptic ones. … You know, when you plan something that far in advance, you’re kind of just flexing on planning. That’s what an Easter egg really does.”

So it should come as no surprise to Swifties that The Eras Tour is no exception to their queen’s masterminded penchant for hyper-specific planning and eye for gorgeous, perfectly plotted detail — all the way down to the colors painted on her nails during tour rehearsals.

As the U.S. leg of the wildly anticipated tour kicked off, fans at the first two shows in Glendale, Ariz. — and later across the internet, thanks to #SwiftTok — paid keen attention to each of the singer’s choices on stage. From her costumes to her choreography, and even the songs she included (or didn’t) on the setlist, nearly every detail elicited wild analysis and speculation for what it all could mean.

Below, Billboard rounds up an ongoing list of Easter eggs spotted by fans as The Eras Tour makes its way across America. Read on to discover what hidden messages and surprises many a Swiftie surmises the star could be sending from the stage.

The ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ T-Shirt

During the part of setlist where Taylor revisits her Red era, she dons a T-shirt similar to the one she wears in the music video for 2012’s “22.” In the visual, the shirt spells out “Not a lot going on at the moment,” which would go on to become a famously surefire sign to Swifties around the world that their queen was, indeed, working on a major surprise. (See: the one-two punch of 2020’s Folklore and Evermore.)

However, on the opening night of the tour (March 17), Tay’s shirt rewrote the phrase to read “A lot going on at the moment” in bold block letters, with “A lot” sticking out in bright red. The next night, the shirt changed to a spoken lyric from “22”: “Who’s Taylor Swift anyway? Ew.” This time, “Ew.” was highlighted in red.

Only time will tell if Swift continues to change up the phrasing on her shirt from show to show, but one particular fan on TikTok thinks the red words will eventually lead to an anagram spelling out “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).” Either way, though, the superstar is clearly sending some sort of message.

Breaking ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’ Out Of Its Box?

Footage of Swift performing Reputation lead single “Look What You Made Me Do” piqued fans’ curiosity as multiple backup singers seeming to represent her many album eras appeared on stage trapped in giant plastic boxes.

Given the rampant online fan speculation that Speak Now could be the next re-recording the star plans to drop, special attention was paid to the backup vocalist in the box wearing a purple halter dress remarkably similar to an outfit Swift wore on her Speak Now World Tour throughout 2011 and 2012. As Taylor approaches her box, the star pounds on the glass along to the beat as the singer inside tries to get out. At first glance, the moment looks innocuously like part of the choreography, but many Swifties surmised that it could represent the pending release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), which had been entangled in legal red tape over trademark and copyright issues until earlier this week.

Interestingly, most of the other singers-as-album eras are eventually freed from their boxes, but by song’s end, the Speak Now avatar and one other singer representing a mystery era remain stuck inside theirs.

Check out fan-captured video of the moment on TikTok.

A Manicure for Her ‘Eras Era’

One day ahead of the tour, Tay shared a sneak peek at the rehearsal process on social media, coyly writing, “In my Eras era” alongside a carousel of photos from the stage. The last snap in the slideshow, though, showed off the star’s delicate manicure featuring a different shade on each finger representing a separate album era — sparkling gold for Fearless (Taylor’s Version), shiny teal for 1989, matte black for Reputation, and so on.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cp3QUrJuA0w

‘Speak Now’ or Later?

Call this one a reverse Easter egg. So far, her setlist is one for the ages — 44 songs from 10 albums over the course of three hours and fifteen minutes. But out all the fan favorites she performed at Arizona’s State Farm Arena during the first two shows, she included only a single song from 2010’s Speak Now in the form of album cut and originally planned title track “Enchanted.”

The absence of hits such as “Mine,” “Back to December,” “Dear John,” “Mean” and “The Story of Us” felt like a glaring omission, but as with everything Taylor does, the choice may have been entirely intentional. Plenty of fans theorized that the singer was purposely minimizing the attention of her third album because she could be on the precipice of releasing Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).