Spoiler warning for the Taylor Swift Eras concert that started on March 17th in Glendale, Arizona and will end on August 9th in Inglewood, California.

On March 17th, Taylor Swift began her Eras Tour in the city of Glendale, Arizona. A total of 140,000 people,70,000 people a night, attended the concert in Glendale breaking the record for most attended concert of a female artist. Swift has not headlined a tour in five years, since her Reputation Tour, so to say that this was a big deal would be an understatement. 

The city of Glendale, Arizona went to great measures to prepare for Swift’s arrival. The mayor of Glendale, Jerry Weiers, officially announced that Glendale’s new city name for a week would be “Swift City” to welcome Taylor and her team to Glendale. ”Swift City” also had a lot of fun photo opportunities for fans, including a giant sign right next to the stadium that said “Welcome to Swift City.” 

There were many opportunities to buy merchandise, as well as buy food and drinks. Swifties, Taylor’s name for her fans, traded friendship bracelets before the show to interact with other fans. The show opened with the artist Gayle and the band Paramore. Paramore played a couple of their hit songs, Still Into You and Ain’t It Fun, which was a fun way to start off the night. 

Around 7:55 p.m, a timer came up on the screen signifying that Taylor would be coming out in two minutes. Fans rushed to their seats, and the screaming began. Swift’s dancers started coming out onto the stage wearing giant, cape-like pieces on their backs. All of a sudden, one of the capes lifted up, and Swift was standing in the middle of the stage singing Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince, one of her songs from her seventh studio album Lover. 

After the release of her documentary Miss Americana, Swift opening with Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince was the obvious way to start off the show. The first lyric she sang was “It’s been a long time coming, but it’s you and me, that’s my whole world,” signifying that although it has been a long time since she has toured, at the end of the day, all she needs is the support and love from her fans. 

Swift then announced that this tour, she was going to be going album by album, performing a certain amount of songs from each. In between each album, she was going to be having costume changes to fit the era she was performing, and these were done flawlessly. She started first with her album Lover, which she had never played live due to COVID. From Lover, she went onto Fearless and shortly after, Evermore. She played five songs from Evermore, before moving on to her sixth studio album Reputation.

Hearing Swift play songs from every single one of her albums one by one was something that she had never done before and was extremely special. As someone who has watched her grow as an artist since her second album Fearless, it felt as though I was living through my childhood through this concert. 

Four albums later, and she still had six more to go. Enchanted was the only song she played from her album Speak Now. 

She played a couple songs off her album Red, including the ten minute version of All Too Well. Swift had not released the ten minute version for nine years before releasing it when Red (Taylor’s Version) came out, so watching her perform such a passionate song about a situation that completely broke her made me so proud. Swift then went backstage and came out in a cabin to perform some of her songs from Folklore. 

The show had already been going on for two and a half hours, and she had three more eras to sing. She played songs from her first pop album 1989, as well as a surprise acoustic song that she chooses every night she performs. For opening night, she performed her first ever single Tim McGraw from her self titled debut album. The meaning behind this choice came from this being her first song she put out to the first night of her headlining tour. For her to come full circle with herself and her fans created an atmosphere that had everyone teary eyed, including myself. 

Swift closed the show with six songs from her most recent album Midnights, including her number one hit Anti-Hero. The show was a whopping three hours and thirteen minutes long. Considering that she had so much unfinished music to perform, the length felt perfect, so she could get everything in. However, I would have liked to hear songs like You’re On Your Own Kid from Midnights and Getaway Car from Reputation. 

My feet hurt and my voice was sore, but the three hours and thirteen minutes of hearing four never played before albums live was definitely worth it. This was the first show of the tour, but with the flawless performance Swift put on, no one would ever know. The dancers, costumes, set, backup singers, and band all did an amazing job of complementing Taylor as she gave an incredible show and interactive experience for her fans. 

Although there was some difficulty for fans of getting tickets, this concert is truly something magical. Swift has a way of interacting with her fans that is unlike any other. There is not one bad seat in the house, from the floor to the nose-bleeds. The show that Swift puts on is worth every single penny, regardless of where you are in the stadium.