Taylor Swift’s Tour Takes Over

Laura Stanton staff writer

Taylor Swift is definitely one of the most well-known and successful artists in the music industry. She released her tenth studio album, Midnights, on October 21, 2022, and then announced her sixth tour, The Eras Tour, eleven days later on November 1, 2022. With nine openers, 52 dates, and in sixteen different cities, it is destined to be the highest grossing tour in history by any artist. Swift has played thirteen shows already in five different cities and has had a sold out stadium every show.

Sophomore Katelyn Keady really likes Swift’s music, saying Swift is an extremely talented and hardworking singer/songwriter who is one of the best of this generation, and that her music is so diverse and she can do every genre so well and the way she shows her emotions in songs is brilliant.

The setlist is a little over three hours, with Swift performing songs from nine of her different “eras.” Her eras are different albums of her’s that range from her country album Fearless (Taylor’s Version) which was her second studio album released in 2008 which she then rerecorded in 2021; to her pop album 1989, her fifth studio album which she released in 2014, and her folk album, evermore, her ninth studio album which she released in 2020. Keady’s favorite “era” that Swift performs has to be either Midnights or reputation, because Keady loves the way Swift performs Midnights, but reputation is her favorite album by Swift. Swift plays 44 songs on the setlist, from nine different eras (Lover, Fearless (Taylor’s Version), evermore, reputation, Speak Now, Red (Taylor’s Version), folklore, 1989, and Midnights), including two ‘surprise songs’ that change every night. Keady said, “I think the setlist is overall good, but the fact that there’s only one song from Speak Now and no songs from her debut album, [Taylor Swift] songs is weird.” Her favorite songs that she performs on the setlist have to be “…Ready For It?” (reputation), “illicit affairs” (folklore), and “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince” (Lover).

Tickets were set to go on sale to the general public on November 18th, 2022, with a presale for CapitalOne cardholders and fans who had previously bought tickets to Lover Fest, which was originally going to be her sixth tour but got canceled due to COVID-19. However, there was an incredibly high demand for tickets, and on the first day of the presale, TicketMaster crashed due to millions of fans showing up to get tickets on the website at once, which caused the sale to the general public to be canceled, and fans were outraged. TicketMaster was sued by 26 fans for “fraud, price fixing and antitrust violations.” “I think people being upset was very valid; surge pricing is ridiculous and it shouldn’t be that hard to get tickets.” Keady said; “They could’ve not had surge pricing and maybe had less people on the pre-sale.”

As this is Swift’s biggest tour, it is predicted to be the highest grossing tour of all time, with an estimate of about $1.5 billion at the very most, which is way more than she made for the reputation Stadium Tour, which made $345 million, and surpassing Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, which grossed $853 million. Keady agrees that it will probably be the most successful tour, and said, “Because all the shows are sold out and it’s iconic, not to mention it’s three hours.”