Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour”: A Historical Art Event and Economic Phenomenon

What Taylor Swift fans love about her is that no matter how much she steals the spotlight, the spotlight does not steal it from them. The American artist calls them “Swifties”, and jokes that she trained them to love and be loyal to her. Their attachment to it is not hypothetical and is not limited to the 450 million accounts that follow it on “Instagram”, “Twitter”, “Facebook” and “Tik Tok”. The unprecedented turnout for her American concert tour is only confirmation of this.

The singer, in her thirties, called this tour “The Eras Tour”, and wanted it to be a tribute to all her musical eras since 2006, and to her 10 albums, including the most recent album, “Midnights”. The tour quickly turned into a well-known name, a historical art event, and a social and economic phenomenon, with Swift earning $10 million per show, according to a Bloomberg report.

Swift tour by numbers

Swift’s tour kicked off in March from Arizona, and her final stop is expected to be California in August. The artist travels between 20 US states, where she performs 52 concerts in her largest concert tour during her career.

Over the course of the concerts that have been going on for 3 months, Swift is committed to a show duration of 3 and a quarter hours, and to presenting 44 songs distributed over 10 paragraphs in front of an audience of 70,000 people every night. Each of the 10 looks that symbolize Swift’s “epochs” has its own decorations, effects, and costumes.

Ever since Swift announced her mega-project last November, the crowd’s rush to buy tickets has been telling her that the event will be exceptional. The reservations website crashed due to overwhelming demand, angering the 14 million people who tried to get tickets on the first day they went on sale. The matter also caused a great uproar in the United States, whose reverberations reached courtrooms and even the Congress.

As for after dealing with the malfunction and Swift expressing her outrage over what happened, two million and 400 thousand tickets were sold within one day. A record that made her the first artist in the world to sell cards during the first day of opening the box office.

On the other hand, the public complained about the imaginary prices of the cards, some of which reached $1,500, while the average price ranged between $300 and $700. Perhaps the organizers of the show justify these high numbers, by saying that whoever goes to Taylor Swift’s concert will see one of the most expensive music shows in history. According to the circulating figures, Swift’s tour budget exceeded $100 million.

Unprecedented dazzle

As soon as the curtain was raised on the first show, which was attended by 146,000 people on its two nights, people forgot about the scandal of selling tickets and their exorbitant prices. Surrounding Swift’s tour, critics and audiences unanimously affirm that both the show and the artist stand out. The fascination of the press and the spectators does not come from the mere fact that Swift appears after an absence, with her full energy and charisma, to perform her most beautiful songs, but rather from the enormity of the production inspired by Broadway shows, which took a year and a half to prepare.

The workers spend between 2 and 3 weeks assembling the stage, which is made up of 3 separate theatres. It is equipped with moving parts and giant screens to broadcast digital content and special effects, and is complemented by fireworks, laser shows and dozens of dancers.

Nothing is usual or expected during the musical show, which critics described as imaginary; At one point, for example, Swift throws herself into a hole on the floor of the stage, then appears inside a glass swimming pool, and appears again with lightning speed in dry clothes, performing the song “Lavender Haze”. As for the “Folklore” section, the stage is occupied by a wooden hut covered with grass, and Swift appears on its roof to sing “Invisible String”.

Taylor Swift’s outfits complement the dazzle, and she changes her clothes more than 12 times during a single show. Among the most prominent designers whose looks she chose from among their collections were Versace, Ossar de la Renta, Elie Saab, Zuhair Murad, Roberto Cavalli, and others.

singing in the rain

There are many breathtaking looks at Taylor Swift’s show, but the spontaneous human moments that accompany the tour are equally exceptional. The star will never forget that night in Nashville, Tennessee, where she spent more than 3 hours singing in the rain. Despite the delay caused by the storm and the risk of slipping on the stage, it did not shorten the duration of the performance, which lasted until after 1:30 in the morning.

In Nashville as well, hearts beat at the sight of a security guard singing excitedly with Swift, even though he was turning his back on the stage. It turned out later that the young Davis Perego deliberately got a job as a security guard at Swift’s shows, so that he could see her up close.

The Swifties keep up with their beloved parties by wearing outfits inspired by her looks, and by equipping the stands with giant pictures of her. Some of them were even seen screaming in the middle of the ceremony, offering to marry her! The cheering of Swift’s lovers does not remain without echo, as she exchanges interest and fiercely defends them, as happened in Philadelphia, where she stopped singing to reprimand a guard and stop him from harassing an enthusiastic attendee. She later gave that spectator tickets to the next night’s party.

Two months after the end of Taylor Swift’s tour, a large number of those who attended her concerts began to complain that they had forgotten what happened during the show. Psychologists have explained that the excess of emotions and the time factor may stand behind the symptoms of “post-concert amnesia”. As for Taylor, she will surely remember every detail of the tour, which reaffirmed that she is a master of numbers and a difficult number in the world of music and show.