Taylor Swift began her highly anticipated tour on Friday, April 17th in the city of Glendale, Arizona, renamed “Swift City” for two days only during her visit. Taylor was accompanied by opening acts Paramore and GAYLE. Once Swift took the stage, she began her three-hour-long tour with a magical entrance that echoed lyrics of past songs, with her ultimately appearing on stage to sing “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince”, a track from her 2019 album, Lover. Following this performance, she performed “Cruel Summer” for the first time.
The tour played a few songs per album at a time, but not in order by album release date. She began with Lover and followed with Fearless, Evermore, Reputation, Speak Now, Red, Folklore, 1989, and ended with Midnights.
SPOILER – Below is her setlist, listed in order by Taylor for each era:
Lover: Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince, Cruel Summer, The Man, You Need To Calm Down, Lover (acoustic), The Archer
Fearless: Fearless, You Belong With Me, Love Story
Evermore: ‘tis the damn season, willow, marjorie, champagne problems (piano), tolerate it
Reputation: …Ready For It?, Delicate, Don’t Blame Me, Look What You Made Me Do
Speak Now: Enchanted
Red: 22, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, I Knew You Were Trouble, All Too Well (10 min version)
Folklore: seven (spoken), invisible string, betty, the last great american dynasty, august, illicit affairs, my tears ricochet, cardigan
1989: Style, Blank Space, Shake It Off, Wildest Dreams, Bad Blood
Folklore First Night Surprise Song: Mirrorball (acoustic)
Debut First Night Surprise Song: Tim McGraw (piano)
Folklore Second Night Surprise Song: this is me trying
Red Second Night Surprise Song: State of Grace
Midnights: Lavender Haze, Anti-Hero, Midnight Rain, Vigilante Sh*t, Bejeweled, Mastermind, Karma
Throughout her three hour and eleven minute concert, she played a whopping total of 44 songs. This setlist is expected to play at every concert during her tour, with the exception of two surprise songs that will not be repeated twice.
Now, moving on to my personal favorite moments from her first weekend.
- Taylor diving INTO THE stage
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After Taylor’s performance of “Mirrorball”, she unexpectedly dove into an opening on the stage. Once she dove in, the stage screen shows Taylor swimming underwater until she reaches the front of the stage. Once she reaches the front, she disappears and a huge wave moves into the large screen before she reappears in a new outfit to perform “Lavender Haze”.
- THE FEARLESS SPIN
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If the big rush of nostalgia wasn’t enough with her singing songs from each era, there was Taylor singing “Fearless”, spinning around as she played guitar like she once did on her Fearless Tour back in 2009 at the age of 18. For reference, watch this Tik Tok.
- ADDRESSING EVERMORE
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It has been a recurring joke between Swiftie’s that Taylor hates Evermore, the sister album to Folklore. This assumption has been made from times where Taylor hasn’t promoted Evermore as much as other albums, talked about it enough, or the time where she didn’t celebrate the anniversary of its release via Instagram as she has done with other albums. On the second night, she told the crowd that Evermore is an album she absolutely loves despite what some of her fans say on Tik Tok, which sent the crowd into cheering and laughter. See that moment here.
Overall, the first night of The Eras Tour was a success and it’s only going to get better. With her last tour being in 2018, Taylor gave it her all, and fans packed the stadium in their glittery eras-themed outfits after surviving the great Ticketmaster war. With more than 69,000 people in attendance that first night, Taylor broke Madonna’s 1987 record of 63,000 for the highest-attended concert by a female artist and is expected to gross $624-728 million from the US leg and could break the record for the all-time highest-grossing tour, according to Pollstar.
After playing her second night in Glendale, Taylor is set to resume her tour with her next show in Las Vegas, Nevada on Friday, March 24th.