by Aleena Khan

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour began March 17th, 2023 in Glendale Arizona. Swift returned to the stage after five years of not touring. Since the last Reputation Tour, Taylor Swift has released four albums and two rerecorded albums which are all featured in this Eras Tour. Swift’s show spans all the “eras” of her career. With a variety of different opening acts on her tour such as Phoebe Bridgers, Paramore, Girl in Red, and Gracie Abrams, each show will surely have a unique feel.

To start off Swift’s show, she begins with songs from the album Lover. Her opening song, “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince”, which is loved by many, started the show off with a fun and energetic feeling. Following this, Swift played “Cruel Summer” – this song began to trend on Tiktok last year after it appeared in the show The Summer I Turned Pretty on Netflix. The majority of the album, Lover, has a fun and light vibe which opened the show with a fun feeling. 

The next album Taylor began to play songs from was Fearless (Taylor’s Version). She began with a song that almost everyone knows – “You Belong With Me”. After this, she also sang a fan favorite, “Love Story”. The Fearless album was a highlight of the show since those songs are the reason she gained so much popularity. Taylor even includes a little “thank you” to these songs acknowledging they are the reason she is up on that stage performing in front of thousands.

 After the energetic beginning of her show, Swift entered the Evermore era. Evermore has some very slow, sad, acoustic-driven songs which ended this era of the concert in many tears. Songs like, “Tis’ The Damn Season”, “Willow”, “Marjorie”, and “Champagne Problems” left many in the crowd in tears. 

The next era Taylor performed was the Reputation era. Songs like “…Ready For It?” and “Delicate” add a more straight forward rock ‘n’ roll feeling to the show. The transition Taylor makes from Evermore to Reputation is drastic but effective. 

After exiting the Reputation era, Taylor launched into the Speak Now era which is rumored to be the next re-recorded album of hers. She performs one song from this era – “Enchanted”. “Enchanted” truly is the appropriate name for the song – it has a mystical feel to it that is impossible to dislike. 

Red (Taylors Version), Folklore, Taylor Swift, and 1989 were up next. The majority of these songs have a very sad feel to them which, once again, left many in the crowd in tears. While performing Taylor Swift, her self titled and debut album, she touched many fans hearts by performing “Tim McGraw” which was her very first song as well as a big country radio hit. 

Finally, Taylor’s most recent album, MIdnights, was performed as the crowd wiped away their tears and belted out every lyric to the songs. In contrast to the earlier melancholy songs, Swift ended the show with an upbeat series of singalongs. 

In addition to the the many different albums performed, Swift also had many different outfit changes throughout the night. She had a different costume for every “era”. With 16 different costume changes, the fans had no idea what would come next. 

After five years of not being on tour, Taylor Swift had many fans, including me, in awe. Her ability to get back on stage and perform after years of not touring is incredible. With many shows left, I wish Taylor Swift luck on the rest of her tour and can’t wait to see how her setlist differs.