Is Taylor Swift a big deal? These five words formulate the biggest question that modern man faces these weeks in the territory not only of culture and entertainment, but also of sociology, economic upheavals and even geopolitics. Starting at 8:14 p.m. this Wednesday we began to unravel the mystery at the Santiago Bernabéu (a 13-minute delay would have been nice, to preserve the totemic figure), and we must agree that The Eras Tour It is the most grandiose, overwhelming, sophisticated and superlative spectacle in memory of the Western world. It represents a master exercise in mass seduction through the fast track of hyperbole. And in these cases you can only enjoy the deployment of technology and human capital (you still have to learn, Rosalía) that for three hours and 19 minutes takes place with millimeter scenic mastery, but without the feeling that the diva spares energy or does not know well if you are in Madrid or Sebastopol.
Let’s see, the bracelets with flashing lights to the rhythm of the music were already worn by Coldplay at the Vicente Calderón back in 2012, which in terms of stage virguería is like talking about the last century. But the deployment of walkways, mobile platforms that elevate or engulf the artist, little cabins in the forest (in Cardigan and successive), neon cyclists, real and figurative pyrotechnics, reckless flares, audiovisual production or special effects (that house on fire at the end of lover) They are a scandal. And they show that at this point Pennsylvania is not just a chieftain, that too, but the supreme being of a new monotheistic religion. The fervor and shouting are immeasurable—laugh at those kids from Liverpool at Shea Stadium—except that the sound is now superb, even more so for what is typical in large venues. Nothing to do with the hell at the Bernabéu before the reform or the cruel acoustics at the Metropolitano.
Another 65,000 souls can already attest to all this, as the artist herself announced from the stage (they seemed less), surely the highest concentration of sequins and glitter that is remembered in the Iberian territory. And of girls, boys and chiques gorgeous people who will meet this year in a grandstand, and not even Florentino can compete against that reality. The most curious, and even touching, thing is that Taylor seems to be moved in all sincerity when he verifies, one more night, the dimensions of the chaos that he has caused around him. And he even has a hard time finding the words after the three minutes of closed ovation that the beautiful Champagne Problems, personally defended before the grand piano.
Because Swift is clear that he was born to reign and not abdicate the crown for many years; Just as not only pop, but the world itself, have understood that we urgently needed an incontestable leader. The heroine exhibits a beautiful voice, orders and commands without stridency throughout the night and fosters a kind of collective cloudiness beyond the fact that she is beautiful, stylish and the owner of an overwhelming wardrobe. But listening to it carefully for 45 songs and three long hours also confirms suspicions that her repertoire, already at the level of her eleventh album, does not run parallel to that supreme enthusiasm that she generates.
The section of youth albums is a pure trompe l’oeil, a catalog of successful pop without a hint of caffeine in which it is difficult to scratch beyond the empowered and unapologetic manifesto of Ready For It, those 10 minutes that seem less for All Too Wellthe throat-breaking chorus in We Are Never Getting Back Together or the imposition of the hat at the end of 22, that fell into a swiftie very young woman who was given the best little battle to share in many years with her grandchildren. And, of course, the accelerated and overwhelming tandem of Blank Space and Shake It Off, two pieces that release more vitamin D than a whole Hydroferol tablet.
The plot gaps can always be compensated for with the waste of scenic ingenuity, an operation with up to 14 dancers (attention to those giant petals that unfold at the beginning of the show) and a dozen musicians arranged in the corners of the stage but who are They grant several well-deserved moments of glory. Everything improves substantially in the section of Folklore and Evermorethose two brother LPs that are, by far, the most inspired and adult of their signer, and also incorporate a wonderful telluric choreography to Willow. But The Tortured Poets Department, His highly publicized new album leaves the door of doubt wide open.
The magic of the live performance cushions the narcotic effects of the original phonographic record, two hours that seem designed to obtain the blessings of the Colleges of Dentists. Swift relegates it to the last part of the evening and spices it up with an exquisite nuclear white staging in which not a single rotating platform is missing. (Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me) with which, in case something was missing from his resume, he would also have won at Eurovision.
Taylor won’t be that bad; but “the Taylor thing”, his power, sorority, empathy and brutal commitment to the show (even to the cabaret, before I Can Do It With A Broken Heart), yes it is. And in a montage of cyclopean dimensions, she has the great pleasure of reserving a couple of surprise songs every night, alone on voice and guitar or piano, which this time were Sparks Fly and an intersection between I Look In People’s Windows and Snow On The Beach.
There are magnificent electropop ingredients in Midnights, the era that serves to close. And during the dancing, the confetti and the fireworks, it is touching to think of all the kids who must have had to promote collections among the kids to buy the ticket and who will wake up today still shrouded in a nebula, because it is not every day that a deity comes down to the earth to tell you: “Nice to meet you. Excellent, Madrid”. But, if we want to persevere as the Greatest Muse of Our Days, we should also raise the bar of writing to the levels of its staging. And note that, in times of supposed diversity and 90,000 new songs every Friday on Spotify, seamless unanimity represents a beautiful paradox.
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