Taylor Swift has described her Era's Tour as "the most thrilling chapter of my entire life to date".
The 152-date tour, which kicked off in Glendale, Arizona in March 2023 finally came to a close in Vancouver, Canada, last night. The shows, a 3.5 hour spectacular packed with rarities, hits, and fan favourites from Taylor's enormous back catalogue, became a cultural phenomenon, and included eight sold out nights at London's Wembley Stadium.
Last night, the 34-year-old reflected on the past 19-months. She told fans: "I just wanted to say on behalf of all of us, we will never forget you giving us that moment. The lasting legacy of this tour is that you have created such a space of joy and togetherness and love, and I couldn’t be more proud of you.
"It has been the most exciting, powerful, electrifying, intense, most challenging thing I have ever done in my entire life.
"We have got to perform for over 10 million people on this tour and tonight we get to play one last show for you tonight, in beautiful Vancouver."
Taylor closed the tour with 2022 track Karma from her Midnights album. Afterwards, she hugged all her dancers on stage as they struggled to hold back their tears.
But that wasn't the only emotional moment for TayTay and her legion of Swifties. After singing Champagne Problems from the Evermore album, she took out her earpieces to soak up the ovation, before fans took the opportunity to sing happy birthday to her ahead of her 35th birthday on Friday.
Fans also saw Taylor become sentimental ahead of a 10-minute version of her track All Too Well, as she praised fans for their traditions, passion and “the way you care about this tour – it is unparalleled”.
During a surprise last set, Swift said she “decided to go back to the beginning” with a mash-up of A Place In This World from her debut self-titled 2006 album, alongside New Romantics from her 1989 (Taylor’s Version) album – which she played on guitar.
On the piano she changed the lyrics to her 2010 track Long Live to say “it was the end of an era” instead of a decade, which was combined with New Year’s Day from the Reputation album and The Manuscript from The Tortured Poets Department. There was also a nod to the last show in We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together when a dancer told the crowd "for the last time, no".
The European leg of the tour came to an end in August before further dates in the US and Canada in October and November. It's been estimated that The Eras Tour has grossed over $1 billion, with cities hosting the tour also financially benefitting from a boost in visitors as fans checked into hotels and turned their concert trips into mini holidays.
However, the tour wasn't totally drama free. In the summer, Swift had to cancel three sold-out shows in Vienna after police uncovered an alleged plot by terrorists. The CIA’s chief later said the suspects had sought to kill “tens of thousands” of fans before the agency discovered intelligence that disrupted the planning and led to arrests.
After finishing the European leg of the tour, Swift said it was “devastating” to cancel the shows but the reason “filled me with a new sense of fear”.
There was also backlash about Taylor's use of private jets, although her team claim she has paid for the carbon emission to be offset, and closer to home, there was outrage after she was given a level of police protection usually reserved for politicians and members of the Royal family.
Earlier this week, Taylor was named Spotify’s most-played artist of the year with more than 26.6 billion streams. She also won seven awards at the MTV Video Music Awards and was nominated for six Grammy Awards.
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