Taylor Swift kicked off the Eras Tour in Glendale, Arizona on March 17th and everyone was preparing for the big moment. The mayor of Glendale temporarily renamed the city to Swift City for the weekend. Flight attendants on flights destined for Glendale were welcoming Taylor Swift fans and playing her music over their intercoms. Merch lines were hours long and “the whole place was dressed to the nines.”
After so much anticipation and chaos even simply trying to get tickets, Taylor Swift still did not disappoint. The show consists of 44 songs and is over three hours long, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Bruce Springsteen, who would often play for between three and four hours. As the name suggests, the Eras Tour features songs from (nearly) every era of Taylor’s career (except her debut self-titled album, to many fans’ disappointment). She embodies each era with outfits, dances, and traditions that take fans back to all those years ago. An example is during the Fearless era, in which Taylor does her famous hand heart and twirls from early performances of “Fearless.”Some eras are more heavily featured, such as the never-before-toured albums Lover, folklore, evermore, and Midnights. On the other hand, only one song (“Enchanted”) from Taylor’s third album, Speak Now, is on the setlist. However, there is still a chance for fans to hear some songs not on the setlist.
Every night Taylor changes two of the 44 songs, a tradition fans call surprise songs where she plays these songs acoustic. The Eras Tour has one surprise song played on guitar and one on piano, with only Taylor on the stage the entire time. The first show featured “mirrorball” from folklore and “Tim McGraw” from Taylor Swift. These are opportunities for albums less featured on the setlist to be played.
Fans have made both excitement and disappointment clear on social media regarding the setlist and surprise songs. Many fans were stunned by the lack of songs from Taylor Swift and Speak Now, along with the large amount of songs from evermore. Since its release, fans have joked on social media that Taylor must hate her ninth album, evermore, due to her lack of acknowledgement of it in different appearances and online. Taylor herself mentions this during the evermore set, explaining how funny and false those claims are:
On top of that, on nights where Taylor is performing, you can open social media apps like Twitter and TikTok to find various trends and videos surrounding the tour. Many people in attendance live stream the show for fans at home. In addition, people eagerly anticipate and respond to the surprise songs. An example of this was in Las Vegas, when Taylor had Marcus Mumford as a special guest and sang “cowboy like me.” This song is intensely loved by many fans, who were outraged on social media when they discovered they would not be able to hear the song at their own show, as these tweets express:Â
Alongside the incredible live shows, part of the excitement of Taylor Swift going on tour comes with the social media interactions as a result. Waiting each night to find out what songs she’ll perform or what special guests she’ll have is a great way to build anticipation and be a part of the tour even months before the show you have tickets for.Â