Taylor Swift is a religion. More than music, more than spectacle, more than songs and lyrics, more than intricate video clips and conspiracy theories about her and her compositions, the 33-year-old Pennsylvania singer has become a creed to follow for hundreds of thousands of fans. people (a quick calculation estimates that about three million) who have processioned, only through the United States, for the 53 concerts of The Eras Tour, her sixth tour, the one that has taken her from Arizona, in March, to closing her tour of the country this Wednesday in Los Angeles, California, after six sold-out nights at the modern SoFi stadium. An evening in which thousands of voices have put on their best clothes — there is no one who does not dress up and blend in with the environment swiftieas her fans are known— to listen to 45 songs and in which the artist has given them one of those surprises that are not so much, something common in the millimeter universe of the composer and vocalist: that she will re-record one of her star albums , 1989published in 2014 (many of his songs were sold without his knowledge or consent to an investment fund), and will be released on October 27.
Swift has filled a SoFi that fell with shouts and applause since the countdown marked on the stage. Up to 70,000 people, a vast majority of them women, have come dressed in cowboy boots, t-shirts with his phrases, shiny sequined t-shirts, gold, red, purple dresses… Each one referring to one of their eras, their albums or stages, because on this tour he wanted to gather the great songs from his 10 albums and dedicate a chapter to each one. “Before, she would make a record and go on tour, another and go out again…”, the artist recounted on the immense stage of the stadium, recalling how the pandemic prevented her from promoting the seventh, lover (Among others, I had planned a visit to the Mad Cool festival in Madrid in the summer of 2020, which was cancelled). Later, she has released three more albums, “and they no longer had his own tours”. “And people told me: so, what are you going to do with them, sing all that music, which is like three hours? That is the plan, exactly that, and it will be called The Eras Tour”, he recounted, to the delight of the spectators.
The venue opened at half past four and there were already people crowded at the doors. At half past six the opening act started, Gayle and the Haim band. Minutes before starting Swift herself, almost at eight in the evening, an observant couple was queuing up to buy drinks (the small bottle of water, five euros). It was Cass and Josh, both in lilac, with feathers and sequins. Originally from New Orleans but settled in Los Angeles, they said that they had been inspired by the Mardi Gras of the southern city for their looks, which they had searched for on the internet. “It hasn’t been that complicated,” Cass said despite her full outfit, “and we’re so excited,” she confessed, even though she had already gone to the concert the night before. A few feet from them, Lauren and Sivan, both in their thirties, one wearing a lyric T-shirt, the other wearing a cowgirl hat, waited to buy something to eat. They are from Los Angeles and they had to go to the concert, they claimed. So, without having tickets, they dressed up to see Swift and stood at the gates of the stadium. In the end, they got a couple of passes online. The price of the whim: 1,700 dollars (1,550 euros) per head. “But it’s worth it. A lot”, they affirmed in chorus.
At eight there was not a free seat. Nor was anyone wearing it: the stadium was standing, with fans exchanging their homemade friendship bracelets, friendship bracelets to which Swift refers in her song You’re on your own, kidone of the best of his last album, midnights, and one of his greatest hits, but surprisingly he has almost never played on this tour. It started at nine minutes past eight with Miss Americanfrom his disk loveruntil ending at a quarter to twelve with Karma, of Midnights.
Eight past nine in the eighth month and the ninth day. No, it has not been accidental. Nothing in Swift is casual. Those are the same numbers that form the title of 1989, which is also his year of birth. If each stage, each era, each album is associated with a color or an aesthetic, 1989 it is to blue. The singer comes out dressed in a huge new blue dress (the swifties observe and comment on everything), to sing the songs on the album Speak Now; much more blue clothing than in others shows; the stadium has been dyed with blue lights from the attendees’ bracelets… until the expectation has led to the long-awaited announcement of the new album. So even the outer cover of the stadium has been dyed with the title of it. Occurs after the interpretation of New Romanticsa classic from that album and that had been reserved, with all the intention, until the last date.
Because Taylor Swift’s, more than a concert, is a millimeter show of more than three hours with music, dance, speeches, measured applause (the ovation in Champagne problems it has been eight minutes, until she has interrupted it, out of modesty or because the clock tells), almost cabaret numbers, video clips created for the precise moment, perfect transitions between albums, precious stagings with cabins, burning beds, stages that go up and down, colored guitars, bicycles on the stage, a train fuming on the huge screen behind the artist… Meanwhile, Swift sings, but she also dances, changes her clothes, plays the guitar or the piano ( the pianos: there is one full of moss, for example, and another made of wood with touches hippies) and gift emotes to fans. His vocal prowess goes hand in hand with his gestures, with each song turned into a small performance of just four minutes.
Everything is calculated, and it works out perfectly. Each song has its specific gap (the list in order can be found on Spotify without fail), its correct reception by the public, with its way of living it and its nods to particular details. They are always the same 43, although for the California concerts she has replaced one of them with another with her “best friends”, the Haim sisters, and there are two extra with which the fans place bets, since she does not usually repeat them more than twice .
Fans are key to the Swift phenomenon. In a stadium full of friends and celebrities (from Emma Stone, Becky G and Alanis Morissette to Karlie Kloss, first a friend, then an enemy and now it seems that she has reconciled with the singer), Swift wanted to especially acknowledge something that she has gone in crescendo and that it has been felt especially clearly in this last concert: that the tour —and what remains— has been an overwhelming success thanks to the community of fans. “Many people have wanted to come to these concerts for you, for the joy, the friendship, the good atmosphere that is created”, she affirmed excitedly. “It is you who are doing this tour. You make friends with the people sitting next to you. Is beautiful. For me, the most beautiful thing in the world is that you approach this tour excited, you dress like that… it is very special for me and for all of us who do it”, he stated, thanking him over and over again. As it has also been given, as soon as the Showto his entire team, among whom he has distributed bonuses about 50 million euros in total.
Swift knows how to create community, but also fortune and press. She leaves almost one headline per concert. If now it has been the return of her album, long awaited, that she will have five new songs; in Seattle it was that her followers moved with the same magnitude as a 2.3 magnitude earthquake; In Canada, which even Trudeau asked her to give concerts, in fact, she has achieved it, and now the resale of tickets in Toronto exceeds 80,000 euros per ticket. Bloomberg He calculates a profit of about 13 million dollars per concert; It is expected that the tour, which now continues through Latin America (next August 24 starts with four concerts in Mexico, then three in Buenos Aires and six in Brazil) and then makes the leap to Asia and Europe (there it will give 78 shows, including one in Madrid on May 30) and return in November to the last nine appointments in the US to close with six in Canada, raised a billion dollars. There are 110 concerts left to see if Swift’s religion spreads throughout the world, but given the fever and, above all, the number of tickets sold, it seems that there is no stopping her.
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