Just before the much anticipated Eras Tour began on Friday, March 17, Taylor Swift announced the release of four new songs to her discography at exactly midnight. The songs included are Taylor’s Version edits of her classic songs “Eyes Open,” “Safe and Sound,” and “If This Was a Movie,” which she had recorded earlier in her career, the fourth and final song that was released was a track that got cut out of a more recent album, titled “All the Girls You Loved Before.” Many fans were not expecting this new set of songs as Taylor was set to open her tour that same night in Glendale, Arizona. However, the songs only raised
the anticipation of many fans. The Monday before the launch of the tour, Glendale Mayor Jerry P. Weiers decided to change the name of Glendale as a whole and to rename it for the week as “Swift City” in preparation for the swarms of fans flocking in from across the world to witness the opening night of this iconic tour. He announced that the town would be called “Swift City” until Taylor finished her weekend back to-back shows. The tour will take place in 52 stadiums across the United States and showcase 10 of her albums through a total of 44 songs that she will perform over three hours. The reviews continue to flood
in with this tour just beginning, and many state perfection. Many claims that the production level of this tour will be unlike any other as it has an estimated cost of roughly $100 million. With just a week to spare before the opening night began, residents of Glendale witnessed around 90 trucks being taken into the venue to construct the backdrop for this much-anticipated event. The night was filled with over a dozen costume changes and large scale stage changes. The catwalk itself stretched nearly the entire length of the football stadium, and Taylor had dozens of background singers and dancers with her. Not only did this show contain many costume changes and insane props, such as an entire house for her folklore set, but it also included dangerous stunts. During her “Tim McGraw” performance, Taylor could be seen by fans in the crowd diving headfirst into a trapdoor shortly before reappearing in an entirely new outfit, ready to perform “Lavender Haze.” Her performance included various songs from her entire career, from her debut album in 2006 to her most recent release, Midnights, in 2022. Of the 44 songs performed that night, two of them were acoustic, and, as it was announced shortly after, two different songs every night of the tour would be performed acoustically as well. For her first night, these two songs were “Mirrorball” and “Tim McGraw,” followed up by “State of Grace” and “This is Me Trying” on her second night in Glendale. There is no doubt that Swift has a very large following and many remember the ticket fiasco with Ticketmaster that occurred as fans were lining up to buy tickets for this tour. Swift has quite the hold on people and they are willing to go to great lengths to see their idol perform in person. The tickets are expensive, but as mentioned previously the concert is amazing and the production that is going into it costs a lot of money. Keep an eye out on social media to see what her different shows are like across the country. Releasing new songs the day her tour is supposed to start proves how dedicated she is to her work and her fans.