The Eras Tour
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Don McLean is a Swiftie.
The iconic singer-songwriter behind “American Pie” and “Vincent” recently spoke about Taylor Swift’s extraordinary success in an interview with The Standard.
McLean, whose song “American Pie (Parts I & II)” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in 1972, is impressed by Swift’s evolution from a rising country artist to a global powerhouse.
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“She is a person who is an example of what talent and really hard work can accomplish,” McLean said, describing Swift as a “monster star, the size of the galaxy.”
McLean continued, “She’s working all of the time, and she does everything that she does better than everybody else, whether it’s a video or a performance or songwriting or records or whatever… The only thing is that she stays happy.”
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Reflecting on his own career, McLean shared, “I have a lot of interests, and they sustain me. I don’t go around thinking ‘Man, why don’t I have this?’ or ‘Why don’t I have that?’ – that is the quickest way to be unhappy I can think of.”
McLean, who has sold over 50 million records worldwide, has been honored with numerous awards, including a Grammy Hall of Fame induction for “American Pie.”
Back in 2021, Swift sent McLean a note and a bouquet of flowers after her 10-minute version of “All Too Well” surpassed his song “American Pie (Parts I & II)” as the longest song to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“What a classy artist!” McLean tweeted at the time, sharing Swift’s handwritten inscription that reads, “Don, I will never forget that I’m standing on the shoulders of giants. Your music has been so important to me. Sending love one writer of LONG SONGS to another. Your fan, Taylor.”
In the most recent interview, McLean also addressed the challenges Swift has faced in the music industry, particularly regarding the ownership of her early albums.
“The record companies are the biggest thieves on the planet. That was their business, stealing. You have to be very careful,” he said, referencing Swift’s legal battles to regain control of her discography from Scooter Braun, which led to her re-recording her first six studio albums.
At one of her recent Eras Tour shows in London, Taylor Swift met with the families of victims harmed by the deadly mass stabbing at a children’s dance class in Southport in July. In photos posted to TikTok by one mom who met the pop star with her daughters at Wembley Stadium over the weekend, […]
The latest chapter in Channing Tatum and Zoë Kravitz‘s love story involved a romantic night out at Taylor Swift‘s London Eras Tour show over the weekend.
And in a video posted by the Magic Mike star after the show, he films the Batman actress dancing along to “Shake It Off” before leaning down and kissing his fiancée on the cheek. “Date night with TSwift,” he captioned the clip posted on X Monday (Aug. 19). “The love is real and @taylorswift13 is an absolute force!”
Tatum also tweeted a selfie in which he poses with Swift’s father, Scott, and a handful of guitar picks. “Got some guitar picks I’m gonna sell for charity from big daddy Swift himself,” he wrote. “Legend he is. #swiftiesforever #tstheerastour.”
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The couple’s outing comes just over a year after Tatum attended an Eras Tour stop in Los Angeles, wearing a glitter heart around his eye and an “I’m the daddy, it’s me” T-shirt made by his 11-year-old daughter, Everly, whom he shares with his ex-wife, actress Jenna Dewan. “I was a fan of the music because I’ve listened to her forever, but I did not know she was such an unstoppable force,” the actor later raved of Swift’s concert on The Tonight Show in July.
“I kind of know her a little personally, and she’s really kind of just normal and sweet,” he added at the time, referencing his connection to Swift via Kravitz’s friendship with the pop star. “And she’ll make you, like, a dinner, and like whip it up no problem. Like, homemade Pop-Tarts. Like warm, warm Pop-Tarts. I’m like, ‘Did you just make these? How are these warm?’”
In addition to dancing with her fiancé at the three-hour-plus Wembley show, Kravitz also got to rock out to a song she helped Swift write: “Lavender Haze” from Midnights. Shortly after the album dropped in 2022, the Divergent actress revealed in an interview with GQ that she and the 14-time Grammy winner were in each other’s quarantine pods, and that Swift made her “home-cooked meals and dinner on [her] birthday” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Zoë’s sense of self is what makes her such an exciting artist, and such an incredible friend,” Swift added in the same interview. “She has this very honest inner compass, and the result is art and life without compromising who she is.”
See Tatum’s post with Kravitz and Papa Swift at the Eras Tour below.
Suki Waterhouse‘s career came full circle Saturday (Aug. 17), when she opened for the Eras Tour in London after years of being a fan — and good friend — of Taylor Swift‘s.
And the next day, the Daisy Jones and the Six alum reflected on the surreal experience, sharing a backstage photo she snapped with the 14-time Grammy winner on Instagram. “The last time I was at Wembley I was dancing my a– off at the Reputation tour!” Waterhouse wrote. “Never did I think the next time I’d be here would be opening for my favourite artist with my friends and family in the crowd 🥹”
“Thank you @taylorswift for this once in a lifetime opportunity to perform in my beloved London and for the unwavering support in my own journey as an artist,” the English musician continued. “You are the world’s biggest and brightest star, I love you so much.”
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Waterhouse also shared photos of her performing on the massive Wembley stage, plus a video of Swift talking to the crowd after the opener’s set. “I’ve been such a fan of her music for so long — she absolutely crushed it,” the “Anti-Hero” singer says, asking the tens of thousands of fans in the audience to “give it up” for her friend.
At the end of her carousel of pictures, Waterhouse added a throwback photo of her wearing a T-shirt printed with Swift’s 1989 album cover. “My nervous system will never be the same after last night,” she concluded. “Someone go tell this girl on the last slide she just opened for ERAS BABY!!! ❤️”
The “Good Looking” singer was one of five new artists added to the list of Wembley Eras Tour openers earlier this month, along with Sofia Isella and Holly Humberstone — who also performed over the weekend — as well as Maisie Peters and Raye, who will go on Aug. 19 and 20, respectively. Paramore has also been a mainstay on the European leg of Swift’s trek, taking the stage in between Waterhouse and the “Karma” artist Saturday.
“Did you guys see Suki earlier?” frontwoman Hayley Williams asked during the band’s set, before introducing their Twilight soundtrack hit “Decode” with a nod to Waterhouse’s partner, Robert Pattinson, who starred in the vampy franchise years before welcoming a baby with the model in March.
“I would like to dedicate this next song to Mr. Waterhouse,” she told the crowd. “This is the skin of a killer, Bella … This is for you, Robert.”
Hayley Williams showed vampire love for Robert Pattinson from the stage at Wembley Stadium in London.
During Paramore‘s opening set at Taylor Swift‘s Eras Tour on Saturday (Aug. 17), Williams gave a shout-out to fellow support act Suki Waterhouse’s Twilight-starring fiancé and performed the band’s 2008 track “Decode.”
“Suki killed it earlier. But I would like to dedicate this next song to Mr. Waterhouse,” Williams is heard telling the crowd in a fan-captured clip on X (formerly Twitter). “He has the skin of a killer, Bella. It’s for you, Robert.”
“Decode” was featured on the teen vampire romances soundtrack, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The Grammy-nominated song — which also appeared on Paramore’s third album, Brand New Eyes, in 2009 — reached No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
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It’s not clear if the 38-year-old actor, who shares a daughter with Waterhouse, was in attendance at Saturday night’s concert. The couple began dating in 2018 and got engaged in late 2023. Swift announced Waterhouse as one of her Eras Tour openers in London earlier this month.
“It feels like an honour to simply exist at the same time as @taylorswift, let alone be an opener for her on the biggest and best tour ever,” Waterhouse, who is close friends with Swift, wrote after the announcement. “A dream come true that I never want to wake up from. Playing at wembley stadium in my hometown!!”
Paramore’s performance of “Decode” wasn’t the only standout moment at Saturday’s Eras Tour stop. During the show, Swift delivered the tour’s live debut of Reputation‘s “I Did Something Bad” during the acoustic section of the show.
“The whole tour I’ve done 100s of songs, but I’ve not done one of my favorite ones,” teased Swift, guitar in hand in front of 92,000 people, “because I was waiting for the right crowd.”
The pop superstar’s surprise songs set also featured a piano mashup that pulled at the heartstrings: “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” from The Tortured Poets Department, and “Coney Island,” from Evermore.
Swift has two more Wembley shows (Aug. 19-20) before wrapping her run of London tour dates.
In a new live bonus track from The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift is raising eyebrows simply by capitalizing a couple of letters. On Thursday night (Aug. 15), Swift’s webstore announced the release of two new limited-edition digital versions of her latest album: One includes “The Prophecy (Long Story Short – Live From Lyon)” while […]
Everything has changed for fans at night 1 of Taylor Swift‘s latest run of Wembley Eras Tour shows: The pop star just treated the crowd to a surprise duet with longtime friend and collaborator Ed Sheeran. As captured by fan video in London, the “Anti-Hero” singer brought out her fellow pop superstar during the surprise […]
As she embarks on her new solo era, LISA of BLACKPINK is taking notes from Taylor Swift. In an interview published Monday (Aug. 12), Elle‘s latest cover star raved about the “Anti-Hero” singer’s global Eras Tour, which she saw when the trek stopped through Singapore in March. “She’s incredible!” LISA told the publication of Swift. […]
Nikki Glaser and her sister didn’t get to see Taylor Swift perform “Cruel Summer” at the pop star’s canceled Eras Tour shows in Vienna, so they had to improvise.
While stranded in an airport en route to Austria — where the pop star’s three previously scheduled shows were canceled after authorities discovered a terrorist plot targeting Ernst Happel Stadium — the comedian and her sister, Lauren Glaser, showed off their own spoof version of “Cruel Summer” while waiting for a delayed plane to Europe in a TikTok posted Wednesday (Aug. 7).
“We’re stuck at an airport gate/ On our way to Vienna on a flight that was late/ Planning outfits and singing songs/ We had no idea how things could go wrong,” they sang to the tune of Swift’s Billboard Hot 100-topping hit, taking turns with each line. “Then we get a text from our mom/ That the shows have been canceled ’cause a threat from a bomb/ And we screamed in a Hudson News / What the hell do I do with these sparkly shoes/ I dyed my hair pink for nothing, we’re f–ked!”
The comedian has previously shared that she’s a super Swiftie, revealing in an October 2023 visit to The Kelly Clarkson Show that she had spent $25,000 on tickets to the Eras Tour that year. “I just want to say that it was a conscious decision because I went to nine Eras Tour shows this year,” she told Clarkson at the time. “Like, when I’m not on tour, I go to her tour. It just fills my life up with so much joy.”
The Glaser sisters did eventually make it to Vienna, where a crowd of Swifties gathered in the streets Thursday (Aug. 8) to trade friendship bracelets and sing the 14-time Grammy winner’s songs together in place of attending the shows. At one point, Nikki joined in on the fan-led event, sharing a video on her Instagram Story of the crowd belting out “All Too Well” in unison.
“Sang All Too Well with thousands of displaced Swifties in Vienna,” she wrote, adding in another post that the other people in her group left to go shopping while she stayed behind to sing “about 7 more songs alone.”
The gathering occurred on the same day Swift had been scheduled to take the stage for the first of three back-to-back Eras shows at Ernst Happel. The performances were canceled one day prior when authorities took two teenage Austrian citizens into custody for allegedly planning to “kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue” with knives or homemade explosives. One 19-year-old suspect had previously pledged allegiance to the Islamic State after being radicalized online, according to officials.
The next day, a third suspect — an 18-year-old man — was detained in connection to the terrorist plot. Swift and her team have not yet issued a statement on the situation.
Watch Nikki and Lauren Glaser spoof “Cruel Summer” below.
In spite of Taylor Swift canceling her Eras Tour stop in Austria due to the discovery of a terrorist plot targeting the concerts, two fans were able to find a moment of joy when they got engaged in Vienna among a huge gathering of Swifties Thursday (Aug. 8). In clips captured by fellow fans who […]