dyton mupawaenda
VANCOUVER. – This weekend was a bittersweet goodbye for Taylor Swift and her fans.
When she played the final notes of Karma in Vancouver on Sunday night, the Eras Tour was over, forever.
First announced in November 2022, it’s been even bigger than Swift could have wildest-dreamed – with 149 shows in 53 cities seen by 10.1 million fans.
Along the way, it hoovered up US$2bn in ticket sales, stimulated local economies and triggered seismic events.
She called it “the most exhausting, all-encompassing, but most joyful, most rewarding, most wonderful thing that has ever happened” in her life.
Writing in her recently-published tour book, Swift said the 45-song, career-spanning setlist was inspired by the decision to re-record her first six albums, which made her fall “back in love” with her past work.
She went on to play concerts in “the pouring rain, in the blazing heat, in the thickest of humidity, in the wildest of winds and in the bitter cold,” she wrote, even when she was “sick or exhausted or injured,” or working through a “broken heart”.
But the concerts were about more than the music. Fans swapped friendship bracelets and made lifelong friends with strangers. Outside the stadiums, ticketless Swifties gathered in car parks to sing along.
At one show in Munich, 40,000 people congregated on a nearby hill just to catch a glimpse of the show, almost outnumbering the fans inside the city’s former Olympic Stadium.
The conclusion of the tour leaves Swift at a crossroads. This Eras Tour will be the yardstick against which the rest of her career will be measured – and her next move will be watched closely by fans and critics alike.
So what options does she have?
“Taylor is a very future-minded thinker, so I imagine she has the next few years already completely planned out.” says Bryan West, a dedicated Taylor Swift reporter for USA Today and The Tennessean, who has seen the Eras tour 89 times.
Noting Swift’s tendency to dovetail her projects, he thinks there will be some sort of “news-making” announcement at her final show.
Most likely, this will be the reveal of Reputation (Taylor’s Version) – the latest instalment of her re-recorded album series, complete with bonus tracks from the vault.
That said, fans have been anticipating that announcement all year and the album is yet to materialise, despite numerous reports that it’s on its way.
West has some other theories, too.
“We’ve seen film crews at many of the gigs, so I’d not be shocked if she’s been shooting a documentary this entire time.
“And in her new book, she said, ‘See you next era’, so there have been reports that she’s working on new music.” – BBC
Online Reporter