Analysis | Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour opener: A complete recap of all 44 songs

At Friday’s opening night show, Swift provided an answer to the nearly 70,000 people at State Farm Stadium: She will play Three hours (technically, about 3 hours and 10 minutes, as he split his albums into shorter segments and played either full-length or condensed versions of more than 40 songs.)

Here’s a full recap of the setlist for the show, which really lived up to the hype after it was due. A complete Ticketmaster meltdown.

“The Lover” Era (2019)

1) “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince”

Although it was an album cut that didn’t get much attention among fans, it has an ideal opening line for the first song: “It’s been a long time coming.” Back-up dancers carried giant pastel-colored parachutes and all floated in a circle before lifting the fabric to reveal a soft center stage, where she wore many glittering bodysuits and bejeweled knee-high dresses. He was wearing shoes. evening course.

This upbeat pop track was poised to be a summertime smash in 2020 until you knew it. Fans have been obsessed with it ever since, though it never became a radio single and Swift has never performed it live. A glance around the stadium revealed several people weeping openly.

Swift casually slips into a business-professional sequin jacket as the set transforms into a messy office space, Like a music videoas she sang about how people would take her more seriously if she were a friend.

4) “You need to calm down”

This Single and Music Video, celebrating gay rights and ignoring haters, was somewhat controversial and led to debate about whether Swift focused too much on herself in a song that was an ally. was supposed to be. But Swift still delivered some lines, including the much-discussed lyric, “Shad never made nobody less gay!”

The audience roared as Swift strutted with her guitar and explained to the crowd that she was about to embark on an adventure 17 years into her career — and while there would be plenty of breakup material, it was a “good old one.” – Fashion’s Love Song.”

Swift slowly walked down an enormous catwalk that took her into the middle of the stadium for the final song of the era, a low-key ballad with lyrics about her insecurities.

“Fearless” era (2008)

As gold sparks rained down, Swift quickly pivoted to her breakout country album, donning a gold dress and shoes that defined her style in her early Nashville days.

8) “You’re With Me”

It was a pandemic when Swift broke out one of her first country singles to become an international hit. The crowd really lost it for the iconic tale of a high school love triangle, especially with the signature lyric: “She wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts / She’s the happy captain and I’m on the bleachers.”

His involvement was a given. Swift’s career-making song from a time when she romanticized the idea of ​​happily-ever-after love stories closed the concert’s second stage.

“Evermore” Era (2020)

10) “Damn Season”

The Swifties have a lot to contend with that “Evermore” is the “forgotten child” — it never got the same attention as its sister Pandemic album (and Grammy Album of the Year winner) “Folklore.” But Swift jokingly insisted on stage that “Evermore” is “an album that I absolutely love despite what some of you might say on TikTok.” She changed into a burnt orange-gold fall gown, kicking things off with a song about hooking up with an ex over the holidays.

Swift throws him an emerald cape. “Dancing Witch” version The album’s opening track, Back Up, is surrounded by dancers with glowing orbs.

She slows things down with a sentimental song about her late grandmother, Marjorie Finley, an opera singer, who Swift frequently invokes in interviews when asked if singing runs in her family.

13) “Champagne Problems”

TikTok users are begging Swift to add her to the setlist so they can hear the stadium crowd sing their favorite line: “She would have made such a lovely bride, what a shame in her head.” Sitting on a moss-covered piano, he encouraged them.

A very soul-crushing song about being in love with someone who only puts up with you, Swift showed off some acting chops as she sang the song and danced beside a table of one of her backup dancers. sat down, and looked devastated as he acted as if he wanted nothing. Be done with it.

Age of Fame (2017)

15) ” … ready for it?”

Swift released after “Reputation”. The biggest reaction of his career, Her “battle” with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, who called Swift a “snake.” At the time, people were shocked by her photo on the album’s rollout, in which Swift was glowing and crazy and wearing black lipstick. It was somewhat divisive at the time, but many fans have decided that the album—which opens with this bass-heavy track—is one of their best. Of course, Swift wore a pair featuring slithering snake legs.

Fans were eager to hear this sleeper hit because of one of his many inexplicable inside jokes with the singer; At one point in the song, when she pauses, people like to shout, “1, 2, 3, let’s b——!” In fact, they shouted it here.

17) “Don’t Blame Me”

This is a powerhouse where Swift showcases her voice in a way that shuts down critics who still insist she can’t sing.

18) “Look What You Made Me Do”

Music video for this single It was basically a mini Eras tour—Swift dressed up as different looks and made fun of what people were saying about her. This time, a somewhat creepy screen showed dozens of Swift and backup dancers dressed like her stuck in boxes.

“Speak Now” era (2010)

Swift conspiracy theorist, speak up — why did she only include one song from her third album? And just one album cut? Swift stuck with a very glitzy and dramatic look by donning an elaborate ball gown for the night’s shortest stint.

Swift had just turned 33, but she recalled being “happy, free, confused and lonely all at once” in her early 20s. He wore a twist on his famous t-shirt from the music video that read “Not much going on at the moment.”

21) “We’re Never Getting Back Together”

Let Swift deliver two words at the end of a bridge of words spoken by one of her dancers that she and her beloved never got back together: “Like, ever.”

22) “I Knew You Were Troubled”

Swift only played a condensed version of it, but looking back on her musical career, the tour must include her first dubstep song.

23) “Everything’s Alright (10 Minute Version)”

Swift is re-recording her first six albums after a dispute with her former Nashville record label, and this includes an updated version of the critical and fan favorite “All to Well.” Although Swift — who changed into a dramatic red jacket — has performed live a couple of times before, including on SNL, hearing about 70,000 people scream “You break me like a promise again.” Calling, so the name was something else to be brutally honest.

The Age of “Folk Tales” (2020)

24) “Invisible Wire”

Dressed in an ethereal pink gown, Swift was sprawled atop a small cabin. This dreamy song about her cottage cover album and the relief of finding her soulmate was the perfect scene to kick off the show’s segment.

Swift noted that her albums are usually “incredibly autobiographical” so it’s fun to create “folklore” characters — and that includes her favorite genre songs, where she sings about men. It teaches how to apologize for bad behavior.

26) “The Last Great American Family”

Backup dancers were out in full force for this story, as was the ballroom scene in “Bridgerton.” Based on the life of Rebekah HarknessThe heiress who drives her neighbors crazy by hosting wild parties at her waterfront mansion in Rhode Island.

It was a real scream – with the audience, a song about a couple of young people flying in the summer – complicated by the fact that the boy already has a girlfriend. As a result straight…

28) “Illegal Matters”

… a painful song from a woman who is tired of being a mistress. Swift fell to the floor at the end of it.

29) “My Tears Ricochet”

Perhaps the most poignant moment of the night came during one of the slowest and most melancholy tracks, “Folklore.”

Swift peeled herself off the floor and returned to the small cabin for this piano-based song about finding comfort in a relationship, while images of fireflies lit up above the big screen.

The “1989” Era (2014)

This was when Swift really became a pop megastar, and this is the song where the singer gave her best catwalk performance on the 1989 tour — only then, This was the moment She will invite her famous friends on stage with her.

Back-up dancers rode around on bicycles and pretended to wreck a car with golf clubs in the smash hit, which Swift wrote as a satire on how she’s been shunned by the media. (A “crazy” boy as a crazy “nightmare like a crazy dream”.)

Swift’s biggest global hit, it was just one big dance party with practically the entire crew on stage.

The wistful ballad definitely had the most PG-13 rated video on the big screen, briefly showing a couple tangled in a few sheets.

Suspiciously known about. His one-time frenemy Katy PerrySwift had a lot of fun running around the stage as random streams of fire erupted around the stadium.

This dark intro is actually on “Folklore,” and Swift pulls out an acoustic guitar to play it. She said she’ll play a new song at that point in the setlist every night of the tour — unless she messes up and wants to try it again in another city.

The “Taylor Swift” Era (2006)

Finally, a return to her self-titled debut album – or “Debate,” as the kids call it – and her first big hit on country radio.

The “Midnight” Era (2022)

For the last and most recent round, Swift did a trick where she pretended to dive into the middle of the stage and then swim back to the front of the house. As the audience marveled at her, backup dancers kicked out the clouds and Swift re-emerged in her sparkly outfit under a purple fur coat as the synth-pop beat on her latest single began.

As the real Swift danced around the stage, a fake Swift towered over her on screen, threatening to destroy the city. (Fitting Often with duplicated lyrics“Sometimes it feels like everyone’s a sexy babe, and I’m a monster on the hill.”)

Back-up dancers moved with umbrellas for a very literal interpretation of the sassy midtempo song where Swift reflects on a relationship that’s gone sour because one person was too nice and the other wanted drama.

The audience went nuts over Swift’s participation. In a chair dancein a song about her beloved’s struggle to get revenge on someone who wronged her.

“I polish very well!” Swift sings brightly, and for a show that already featured tons of sequins and glitter, the song offered another explosion of gem and diamond imagery on the big screen.

Swift doesn’t like to be called “calculating,” but on this uptempo track she takes credit for her work, asking with a wink: “What if none of this was accidental?” To drive this idea home, the bottom of the stage was turned into a checkerboard.

Swift closed things out with her favorite subject besides revenge: karma. She piled a sequin fringe jacket over her bedazzled outfit as she sang gleefully about how “Karma’s a cat on my lap because it loves me”, before fireworks exploded and the ceiling A confetti shot fell on the fans. were losing their minds.