‘She’s been working on her squats!’
Taylor Swift suffered a rare onstage mishap as she nearly fell off her chair during a steamy performance on her The Eras Tour in Tokyo on Wednesday. The star, 34, who will race back to the US at the weekend for the Super Bowl to support Travis Kelce, was performing a racy rendition of hit Vigilante S**t – which sees her squat with her legs open before slowly descending onto a chair,
However, the star, clad in a midnight blue leotard, misjudged the chair’s position and was seen stumbling before regaining her composure. Fans quickly took to social media to laud the star for avoiding catastrophe onstage, writing: ‘she’s been doing her squats bc i would’ve fallen right on my a**’ Another penned: ‘Her thighs probably so strong that she could sit like that without the chair for the whole song.’
Taylor resumed the Eras Tour while taking the stage for her first of four sold-out shows at the Tokyo Dome on Wednesday night. While performing a number of her greatest hits in front of 55,000 fans, the pop star appeared in good spirits with a sparkly guitar in her hands and Swifties singing along to every song. While she just arrived in Asia earlier this week, following her attendance at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, where she won made history for winning album of the year for the fourth time, the Cardigan hitmaker is reportedly set to make a mad dash to Las Vegas to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, face off against the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl on Sunday. For her surprise songs, which are two different tracks that she performs, one on the piano, and the other on the guitar, the 14-time Grammy winner thrilled the crowd with Holy Ground and Dear Reader.
While performing her Evermore set, she revealed that she had been working on her upcoming new album The Tortured Poets Department ‘since right after’ she ‘turned in Midnights.’ ‘I’ve been working on it for about two years, I worked on it throughout the US tour. And when it was perfect, in my opinion, when it was good enough for you, I finished it,’ the performer teased. ‘I’m so so so excited that soon you’ll get to hear it and we’ll get to experience that together.’ She continued: ‘I’m over the moon that you guys care about my music. It still blows my mind.’ Additionally, the Cats actress revealed that she nearly announced her upcoming record in Tokyo.
As she spoke to the crowd, she recalled having a ‘plan’ that if she was ‘lucky enough’ to ‘win one thing’ at this year’s Grammys, she would ‘announce Tortured Poets.’
‘And, it ended up happening,’ she gushed. ‘My back-up plan was I going to do it tonight in Tokyo.’ Last week, the Japanese embassy confirmed that Swift would be able to see her ‘guy on the Chiefs’ play at the Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday, February 11 at 6:30pm ET. In a statement released today, the Embassy of Japan in Washington DC said that if Swift hops on to a plane immediately after the concert, she will ‘comfortably’ reach Las Vegas.
The statement, which incorporated three of Swift’s album names, added that she could easily ‘wow Japanese audiences and make it to Las Vegas.’ The statement read: ‘The Embassy of Japan in the United States is aware of recent media reports concerning the steps Taylor Swift will need to take to travel from Tokyo after her concert on February 10 to Las Vegas in time to watch the Kansas City Chiefs play in Super Bowl LVIII. Despite the 12-hour flight and 17-hour time difference, the Embassy can confidently Speak Now to say that if she departs Tokyo in the evening after her concert, she should comfortably arrive in Las Vegas before the Super Bowl begins.
‘We know that many people in Japan are excited to see Taylor Swift’s Eras Tours and we wanted to confirm that anyone concerned can be Fearless in knowing that this talented performer can wow Japanese audiences and still make it to Las Vegas to support the Chiefs when they take the field for the Super Bowl wearing Red.’
This marks her first concert since announced a surprise new album during her acceptance speech at the Grammys on Sunday at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
While announcing the exciting news, she told fans that she had a ‘surprise for them.’ ‘I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I have been keeping from you for the last two years, which is that my brand-new album comes out April 19th,’ she teased. Swift continued: ‘It’s called The Tortured Poet’s Department. I’m going to go and post the cover right now backstage.’ Keeping true to her word minutes later Taylor – who also earned her fourth Album Of The Year at the show – shared the racy cover for her upcoming 11th studio album, which saw her laying on a bed in black underwear and a sheer black top, and caused her Instagram page to temporarily go down.
Swift started out her speech by sharing that it was her 13th award – a number she considers lucky.
She also posted a photo of a handwritten note that read: ‘And so I enter into evidence / My tarnished coat of arms / My muses, acquired like bruises / My talismans and charms / The tick, tick, tick of love bombs / My veins of pitch black ink / All’s fair in love and poetry…’ She signed off the text with: ‘Sincerely, The Chairman of the Tortured Poets Department.’ The album announcement received over 7 million likes in just an hour. Her last album Midnights was released in 2022, marking her tenth original studio album.