The American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has headlined six concert tours to support her albums. Her tours have had a large cultural and socioeconomic impact, breaking numerous records and garnering accolades worldwide. This article delves into the history of Taylor Swift's tours and explores the reasons behind her absence from South Africa.
A Look at Taylor Swift's Concert Tours
All of Swift's studio albums have been supported by concert tours, showcasing her evolution as an artist since 2006. Her last concert tour, the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018), broke the record for the highest-grossing US tour in history.
The Eras Tour was the sixth concert tour by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Spanning 149 shows in 51 cities across five continents, the Eras Tour had a large cultural and socioeconomic impact. Swift designed the tour as a retrospective tribute to all of her studio albums and their corresponding musical "eras".
During her promotion of Midnights, on November 1, 2022, she announced the Eras Tour, which she described as "a journey through the musical eras of [her] career", on Good Morning America and through her social media accounts. Messina Touring Group, an Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) partner, was the tour's promoter.
The Eras Tour: A Detailed Overview
The Eras Tour staging is expansive, made of digital displays. Designed as a tribute to Swift's discography across her career since 2006, the Eras Tour covers all of the styles of music that are seen in her 11 studio albums, including The Tortured Poets Department, which was added in the European leg of the tour after the album's release. Attire and accessories were mostly custom-made by fashion houses Swift had worked with before, such as Atelier Versace, Roberto Cavalli, Etro, Nicole + Felicia Couture, Zuhair Murad, Elie Saab, Ashish, Alberta Ferretti, Jessica Jones, and Oscar de la Renta. Swift wore variations of some costumes at different shows, usually paired with Christian Louboutin shoes. Swift's black fedora from "22" was designed by Gladys Tamez. Fausto Puglisi, a designer for Roberto Cavalli, stated that he took an "artisanal approach to craftsmanship" while customizing the outfits, claiming "everything must be eye-catching" when designing for concerts. He incorporated Swarovski crystals in the costumes Swift wore during the Fearless, 1989, and Reputation acts, which required over 170 hours of meticulous "hand-craftsmanship by skilled artisans" to make. The sequined tulle ball gown that Murad designed for the Speak Now act required "over 350 hours of atelier handwork".
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A typical show of the Eras Tour lasted 3 hours and 15 minutes. It consisted of between 44 and 46 songs, grouped into 10 acts, representing each "musical era" of her discography. The show commenced with the Lover act. A clock on-screen counted down to show time as Dusty Springfield's "You Don't Own Me" (1964) played. Surrounded by dancers in pastel-colored, fan-like tapestry, Swift emerged from the platform at mid-stage in a bodysuit and boots. She opened the show with the chorus of "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" leading into "Cruel Summer". Accompanied by dancers, Swift performed "The Man" and "You Need to Calm Down" in a sequined blazer, through a set emulating office cubicles. She then delivered the welcome note with the dollhouse from the "Lover" music video on-screen, depicting her various album eras. She played an acoustic version of "Lover" on the guitar with her band, backup singers, and dancers, followed by a stripped-down rendition of "The Archer" alone on the ramp.
Starting from May 2024, Swift revamped the set list to include a new act with songs from her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, released on April 19, 2024. "The Archer", "Long Live", "The 1", "The Last Great American Dynasty", "'Tis the Damn Season", and "Tolerate It" were removed from their respective acts to accommodate the album. The Speak Now and Red acts were brought forward as the fourth and third acts, while the acts for Folklore and Evermore, which are considered "sister albums", merged into one.
The versatility of the show's music, visuals, and performance art was often a point of praise in its reviews. Critics also appreciated the tour's production value and artistic direction. The revamped tour, following the release of The Tortured Poets Department, continued to receive rave reviews.
The Eras Tour has broken a string of ticket sales records worldwide. In the first day of the US presale alone, the tour sold over 2.4 million tickets, the most sold by an artist in a single day, surpassing Robbie Williams, who had sold 1.6 million tickets for his Close Encounters Tour in 2005. Following the tour's launch, Swift rose to number one on Pollstar's Artist Power Index chart.
Taylor Swift's Eras Tour expected to become highest grossing tour ever
Ticket Sales and Demand
Ticket sales for the Eras Tour were handled by various ticketing agencies around the world, such as Ticketmaster, over several dates. In Mexico, ticket presale was handled by Ticketmaster's Verified Fan program; registrations ran from June 2 through June 7, followed by a general public on-sale. In Brazil, previous Lover Fest ticket holders and C6 Bank Mastercard holders gained access to presales on June 6 and 10, respectively. Tickets in Japan were sold by Lawson under their Loppi ticket system. Unlike other countries, all Japanese tickets were only sold as lottery tickets. Because reselling a ticket for more than 10% above the original price had already been illegal in New South Wales, the government investigated the ticket resale platform Viagogo after the scalping reports. On June 28, those registered with Frontier Touring Company gained access to a presale for which over four million users queued, setting a national record; tickets sold out within three hours. Ticketek stated it neutralized over 500 million bot purchase attempts during the presale. For the Singaporean shows, United Overseas Bank (UOB) cardholders in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam had presale access on July 5, 2023, with over one million users in the virtual queue. In France, TF1 reported the highest demand ever for a presale. The Paris presale opened on July 11, 2023, to over one million queued users. Ticketmaster and AXS handled the United Kingdom sale. Those who had previously pre-ordered Midnights were able to access presales from July 10 to 12. London's Wembley Stadium officials described the demand for tickets as "unprecedented" and noted that waiting times were "longer than usual". Cardiff's Principality Stadium tickets were pre-sold on July 14.
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Absence from South Africa: Theories and Fan Reactions
Taylor Swift has wrapped up her record-breaking world tour but some fans are questioning why she didn't make her way to Africa. The 35-year-old pop star closed her history-making Eras Tour in Vancouver on December 8, with over 10 million people attending149 shows across five continents.
Several factors contribute to the complexity of organizing such a large-scale tour, "The costs of shipping her sets, equipment, crew, which all need to be taken care of, paid appropriately and potentially have limited dates they can do."Unfortunately, artists can't make it everywhere and the common routes are often go-tos for routing teams. I think a combination of these factors may be the reason Taylor's Eras Tour sadly didn't make it to Africa and other nations."
People have taken to the video's comments to share their theories as to why the "Cruel Summer" hitmaker didn't make her way to Africa, with many pointing out costs and logistics. "I know she needed her rest might not have been logistically possible, but Africa always gets forgotten," one person said. "FNB in Jo burg has a 95k capacity. 5/7 continents is cool but imagine the flex to say Eras was a WORLD tour that visited 6/7 continents 7th being Antartica." The original poster responded: "i think the problem is they don't believe there's a market in africa like she doesn't know that stadium would sell out at least 3 nights in a row if she announced."
"It's the logistics," another person wrote. "As much as she wants to do tours in multiple countries, getting her tour sets shipped is not cheap. The only reason why she managed to do tour in Singapore is SG sponsored/waive a lot of things."
While some people might question whether Swift has fans in Africa, Spotify named her the #1 most-streamed female artist in South Africa, per iOL. South African Swifties have previously started petitions in hopes it would encourage the singer to bring her tour to the country. "I am a passionate fan of Taylor Swift, living in Cape Town, South Africa," the petition "Bring Taylor Swift's the eras Tour to South Africa" said. "Like many others here, I believe we should have the opportunity to see her perform live in our country. It is not only about the music but also about the experience and connection that comes with attending a concert."
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The Future of Taylor Swift's Tours
Fans worldwide are already hoping that Swift will announce another tour. Newsweek spoke to Ari Perez, an associate professor at Quinnipiac University and an avid Swiftie. The professor said he thinks Swift will be back on the road to support her next studio album, referred to in the fandom as TS12, whenever it comes out.
â(She has) a magnificent catalog. Itâs huge and in a lot of ways is really diverse,â Mall added. âThe thing about the Taylor Swift fan base is that they know so much of the catalog. Different levels of Taylorâs fandom have an opportunity of different eras.
The tour spanned 21 months, from March 2023 to December 2024. It went on for 632 days, 50 cities, and five continents. Swift sold over $2 billion in tickets across the 149 shows â double the record gross sales for any other tour in history. And the impact goes beyond the dollars and cents.
âTours that are this big in terms of their production, theyâre pretty much the same,â he continued. âThe Eras Tour has had surprises in most concerts. Then halfway through the tour, (âThe Tortured Poetsâ Departmentâ) comes out and she incorporates that into the tour.
Taylor Swift's Album Releases During the Eras Tour
Swift unveiled various musical works during the tour. A special CD edition of Midnights, subtitled The Late Night Edition, was released during the Eras Tour. It was only purchasable in-person at merchandise stands at certain shows, beginning in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on May 26, 2023. On May 5, 2023, at the first Nashville show of the tour, Swift announced her third re-recorded album, Speak Now (Taylor's Version), and its release date as July 7. A digital deluxe version of Speak Now (Taylor's Version) contained two live recordings from the tour as bonus tracks. She also premiered two music videos, both of which she wrote and directed, during the tour. On October 13, 2023, Swift released the self-produced concert film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, directed by Sam Wrench, to theaters worldwide. On February 16, 2024, at the first Melbourne show, Swift announced a second variant of The Tortured Poets Department, with a bonus track titled "The Bolter". She announced another variant of the album, with the bonus track "The Albatross" on February 23, at the first Sydney show. The fourth variant of the album, containing the bonus track "The Black Dog", was announced on March 3, at the second Singapore show of the tour. On August 20, Swift premiered the music video for "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart", a song inspired by the tour after leaving the stage at the end of the eighth show in London.
The Eras Tour had an impact on the music industry, entertainment and beyond.
Taylor Swift keeps building the legend of her Eras Tour, week after week, city by city, making every night so much longer, wilder, louder, more jubilant than it has to be. There's nothing in history to compare. This is her best tour ever, by an absurd margin.
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