She is the female A-list version of Marmite, you either love Taylor Swift or you hate her. I am definitely part of the former and seeing her Red Tour in London this week just reaffirmed my weakness for a country love song with a hint of sassiness.
It was just one of her five dates at London’s O2, and it was clear to see why Taylor Swift has matched the success of other huge artists such as Katy Perry and Rihanna. The timing of the show was particularly significant, on the cusp of Valentine’s Day, considering how Taylor’s many male conquests are spoken about just as much as her number one singles! For the sake of the festivities here’s a quick summary of the most impressive phases of her love life to date…
Joe Jonas– (June- October 2008) He broke up with her in a 27 second answer phone message. Enough said.
Taylor Lautner– (August – December 2009) AKA ‘Taylor Squared’. I can only imagine that their relationship was exactly how they act in the movie Valentine’s Day. Also, here’s a little piece of Taylor Trivia. After their breakup she wrote “Back to December”, which is her only song written as an apology to someone, in contrast to her more familiar complaints about the male species.
Jake Gyllenhaal– (October 2010- January 2011) I’m only slightly jealous and completely confused as to why this one didn’t work out, but Taylor will never be able to watch his nude scene in ‘Love and Other Drugs’ quite the same, poor girl.
John Mayer- (December 2009- April 2010) As the male song writing equivalent to Taylor it’s unsurprising this didn’t last, but we got two epic albums out of that breakup proving that every cloud has a silver lining and a heart wrenching ballad!
Harry Styles– (December 2012-January 2013) potentially the most famous breakup of last year and the story behind “I Knew You Were Trouble”, but what did she really expect? He’s Harry Styles.
It’s understandable why so many people claim to dislike her considering the contents of her little black book, but it certainly paves the way for an impressive arena tour. As a proud pop fanatic I have been to dozens of concerts and the Red Tour was definitely one of the best I’ve experienced. Despite frequent intervals where Taylor spoke about writing her songs and what they mean to her, which might have annoyed some people, the show was fast paced and contained an amazing set list of her hit songs. Several costume changes, an intimate B-stage and singing on a moving plinth 30 feet above the crowd demonstrated exactly why Taylor Swift has sold out 84 shows worldwide for this tour. A particular highlight of the show is when another singer joins the songstress on stage and Taylor has had a different star each night of her show, including Ed Sheeran and Danny O’Donoghue from The Script during her London Dates. Brit award winner Emeli Sande joined the star on stage the night I went and the duo sang a version of ‘Next To Me’ perhaps emphasising further her position amongst renowned artists across the world at the moment.
Even though Taylor is often scrutinised for her “bubblegum” image to appeal to younger fans, everyone I went to the concert with was over 19. We still left there wearing tour t-shirts (well, my student loan has to be spent somehow) and talking about how one person could write that many catchy love songs. Taylor once claimed that “If you’re horrible to me, I’m going to write a song about it, and you won’t like it. That’s how I operate”. It’s impossible to not be slightly wooed by this “Big Sister” image, as The Guardian called her when reviewing the Red Tour, due to the confident and abrupt way in which she writes about the people in her life and, of course, has a song for every teenage emotion that exists. To conclude, if you are in the mood to procrastinate whilst in denial about uni work and are somehow still undecided about Taylor Swift, watch her Saturday Night Monologue song. She can sing, she will name and shame anyone in a catchy hit song and she put on one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. I’m sold.
Image Sources:
1: own photo
2: http://blog.eventful.com/concert-tours/taylor-swift-a-never-ever-ending-love-story/