Home ›› 19 Mar 2023 ›› Show Biz

Taylor Swift launches Eras tour with 44 songs in 3hr

TBP Desk
19 Mar 2023 00:00:00 | Update: 18 Mar 2023 23:24:19
Taylor Swift launches Eras tour with 44 songs in 3hr

It’s been five years since Taylor Swift last went on tour, during which time she’s released four albums, including the Grammy Award-winning Folklore, reports BBC.

Her live absence - enforced by the pandemic - was clearly a source of frustration, because her first show back was a three-hour, fifteen-minute extravaganza, including 44 songs from across her career.

“I can’t even go into how much I’ve missed you,” Swift told fans, as she took to the stage for the opening night of her Eras tour. The star had promised the show would be “a journey through all of my musical eras” and the appetite for tickets was so great that it caused Ticketmaster’s systems to fall over.

Despite that, the tour broke the record for the most concert tickets sold by an artist in a single day, at 2.4 million.

About 80,000 of those fans attended the first show at Arizona’s State Farm Stadium, where they were treated to a trawl through Swift’s hugely varied back catalogue.

The set was split into sections, one for each of her 10 albums, tracing her journey from country ingénue to chart-topping pop star to lockdown-era folk singer (albeit with a mixed-up chronology).

She opened with Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince, a cherished fan favourite from 2019’s Lover album, before segueing into the dreamy pop of Cruel Summer.

The only criticism, from fans and reviewers alike, was that Swift’s third album Speak Now was given short shrift, with only one song on the setlist (the understated ballad Enchanted, performed in a ballgown, pictured above).

Rumours are already circulating that the Speak Now section will be expanded during the tour, with Swift expected to release a re-recorded version of the album as part of her ongoing campaign to regain control of her masters.

For now, the 52-date tour is restricted to the US. It is not known whether the extravagant production will come to the rest of the world - but fans are living in hope.

×