Taylor Swift’s Eras tour has come a long way in the 552 days since it rolled out of Tampa after three record–breaking shows.
The run, which had its first outdoor shows at Raymond James Stadium in April 2023, visited 16 more American cities, and 26 metros in Central and South America, Asia, Australia, and Europe—playing a whopping 121 more shows.
Connect the dots between all those gigs, and Swift—together with 15 backup dancers, a six-piece band and four backing vocalists—traveled just over 58,000 miles on her way back to Florida on Friday night. That’s more than twice the circumference of Earth.
A movie about the tour even earned $261.6 million at the box office and was streamed more than 4.5 million times in its first three days online. She even found time to unfurl an album of new material that moved 2.6 million album equivalent units in its first week. Three weeks later, she revamped the Eras tour setlist to include the best tunes from The Tortured Poets Department. The childless cat lady even endorsed Kamala Harris for president.
Every step of the journey has been documented at an almost unhealthy volume by news publications, blogs, and Swifties alike. Without exaggeration, Swift, now more than ever, is beyond omnipresent in popular culture.
So by the time the 34-year-old songwriter stood in front of 61,000 people at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium last night (her math onstage, not the official turnstile figure), fans wouldn’t be foolish to think that the Eras tour’s return to the U.S. was the start of a well-deserved, and perhaps predictable, victory lap.
And for the first 140 minutes of Friday night’s show—save for some nuance the threads for “Fearless” and the Reputation set—they would’ve been mostly right.
Without a doubt, Swift’s backing band, colloquially known as The Agency, is beyond well-oiled at this point. It conquered a sometimes echoey venue to make snares on “The Man” pop brighter than ever, and the intro to “Lover” is twangier and warmer than it was 17 months ago. The choreography before “Enchanted” is still so pretty, and “All Too Well” still cut deep, with Swift’s vocals robust and in shape for the last low notes of the 10-minute power ballad.
Here we are again, indeed.
As a light drizzle turned into rain during “You Belong With Me,” another familiar sight: Swift’s bangs starting to wear that damp look fans who track the tour online have come to know over the last year. She officially declared the kickoff of the Eras tour’s final leg a rain show before “I Knew You Were Trouble,” and by the time “Delicate” rolled around, our heroine’s famous feral and fabulous mop was in full effect. The aesthetic was especially dramatic as rain fell during “Don’t Blame Me,” adding to the excitement of seeing a new Reputation bodysuit make its debut.
And while the Folklore and Evermore set—complete with bring your own orbs for “Willow”—was magnificently melancholy as expected, the energy changed as the Max Martin and Shellback synth of “Style” started to fill the stadium. Fans have watched Swift bring 1989 to life since a blockbuster tour almost a decade ago (that one ended in Tampa in epic, Halloween fashion), but the songs felt more alive than ever. The blue neons were more eclectic on “Blank Space,” there was an extra swagger on “Shake It Off,” and the air could be with a knife by the time the “Bad Blood” pyro literally warmed up an already excited crowd.
Even Tom Brady was feeling en fuego.
Upon its arrival last spring, Tortured Poets got a bad shake from critics who lamented its 65-minute runtime. “Swift Could Use an Editor,” the New York Times whined.
But, in Miami she pulled the best of the new, 16-song outing into a pulverizing, powerhouse 30-minute set that included what were easily the loudest, most impassioned singalongs of the night. While ab-daddy dancer Jan Ravnik was impressive on the bed frame for “Fortnight,” the collective energy in the stadium for “Down Bad” and “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” was adrenaline-inducing. The collective release on “Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” and “Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me” was, at a base level, cathartic. Swift had once again channelled the angst and excitement of her fanbase into an album that was coming alive onstage for the first time this side of the Atlantic.
And of course, the stunning seven-song Poets era was set in motion by surprise guest Florence Welch, who rose from the stage barefoot and bathed in green light as she helped Swift deliver a haunting and hair-raising American debut of “Florida!!”
The emotions rolled into the acoustic surprise songs, too, where Swift mashed her first Top 40 hit “Tim McGraw” together with an ode to getting older, “Timeless.” Any other pent up anxiety in the stadium was dispatched by the piano on a mashup of her a sad song about loneliness and another about getting out from underneath it (“This Is Me Trying,” “Daylight”). The 10-minute treat was borderline therapy—the kind of thing that can get someone through a tough week, month, or even year. Belting out songs—49 in total last night—with more than 60,000 people will do that to anyone. For some, the experience can be life-changing.
A lot’s changed in Swift’s own atmosphere since Tampa, too. She became a billionaire six months after the RayJay shows; the only other musicians in that club are Jay-Z, Rihanna, and the late Jimmy Buffett—and none of them did it on music alone the way Swift has. Shortly after, Trav officially became a thing.
Opener Gracie Abrams encapsulated the feeling so many fans probably had as they reunited with Swift on Friday. “I desperately missed this. It feels like a big family,” she said before a performance of her and Swift’s song, “Us.”
Folks filing out of Hard Rock Stadium in the rain all went back to their own families and worlds as the clock moved towards midnight. As they woke up Saturday, the world around again seemingly has little old Swift and this tour all figured out. But something special happened in the course of what Swift told Miami was the longest tour of her life.
At a Taylor Swift show, the volume on the outside world gets turned down. The space gets filled with the chatter of moms talking to their kids and people singing along to Boygenius or Ice Spice on the PA. There are the little sounds of Ziploc bags opening so that fans of all ages can share fistfuls of homemade bracelets.
In the storm that is the Taylor verse, despite what the algorithms feed us, the superstar has cultivated a place where kindness is a feature, not a glitch. It’s hard to think of another pop culture figure that’s done the same at the scale she has.
At Tampa International Airport on Friday morning, 12 hours before showtime, friends Brenna and Diana queued up for a flight to Fort Lauderdale. Brenna saw the Eras tour in Atlanta and was compelled to be in Miami because of the new songs and that energy.
“Even if you’ve seen it before, it’s a brand new show,” Brenna told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, adding that she sees Swift as a great role model whose actions encapsulate how to navigate an increasingly complex world.
On Friday, even Swift got a little tripped up with either her monitor or the back of a dress at the top of the “But Daddy I Love Him/So High School” medley. For a few moments, she tried to fix the problem herself; as she ran out of time, she leaned into the mic and said, “I need help.”
She got it from a nearby dancer, and the crowd immediately got that scorcher of a Tortured Poets set right after. Even in a show as popular—and examined—as the Era’s tour, it’s fun to reach out. You never know what you’re gonna get, and how much better you’re going to feel when it’s over.
Taylor Swift Eras Tour Setlist—Oct. 18, 2024 (Miami, Hard Rock Stadium)
Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince (snippet)
Cruel Summer
The Man
You Need To Calm Down
Lover
Fearless
You Belong With Me
Love Story
22
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
I Knew You Were Trouble
All Too Well
Enchanted (snippet)
…Ready For It?
Delicate
Don’t Blame Me
Look What You Made Me Do
Cardigan
Betty
Champagne Problems
August
Illicit Affairs
My Tears Ricochet
Marjorie
Willow
Style
Blank Space
Shake It Off
Wildest Dreams
Bad Blood
But Daddy I Love Him/So High School
Florida!!! (w/ Florence Welch)
Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?
Down Bad/Fortnight
Fortnight
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
Tim McGraw/Timeless (acoustic)
This Is Me Trying/Daylight (piano)
Lavender Haze
Anti-Hero
Midnight Rain
Vigilante Shit
Bejeweled
Mastermind
Karma
