“Recapping the Top Five Moments from Taylor Swift’s Melbourne Tour Opener”
Taylor Swift played the biggest show of her career last night, singing and dancing with 96,000 fans at Melbourne’s Cricket Grounds. Here are some of the moments that made the night magical and a truly one-of-a-kind show for the superstar herself.
Taylor Swift has finally arrived on Australian shores — and has brought her global Eras Tour with her.
The songstress played a 44-song setlist at the Melbourne Cricket Ground last night, taking her Swifties on a journey through her musical “eras”, singing songs from her first album to her last during the three-and-a-half-hour show.
While a lot can happen in 210 minutes, there were some special standout moments for both Swift and her Swifties at the Australian opener, with the pop icon being moved to tears, sharing some easter eggs about her new album, and dropping a subtle shoutout to her NFL beau.
The NZ Herald was there for all of it.
Here are the top five things that happened at Taylor Swift’s Melbourne show, which made an already-special night even more unforgettable.
A Swiftie’s sweet exchange
Taylor Swift and a very lucky fan shared a heart-warming moment mid-concert, an experience that will probably stay with the young Swiftie for years to come.
During the Red era section of the show, the pop icon danced on to the stage decked out in an oversized white tee, black shorts and a little black hat for her 2013 hit 22. The outfit — one of 16 costume changes – was a similar ensemble to the one she wore in the song’s music video 11 years ago.
Halfway through the popular track, Swift paused her dancing and leaned over the right side of the aisle, hugging one star-struck Swiftie with a giant smile across her face. Then, the pop star took off her hat and placed it on her beloved fan’s head.
In return, the emotional mega-fan gifted the songstress a friendship bracelet, which Swift placed on her arm and wore for the next few songs. No doubt it was a special moment for both.
Friendship bracelets have become a staple at Swift’s shows across the globe, with fans handmaking beaded trinkets and handing them out at Eras Tour concerts with other Swifties.
A much-awaited sneak peek
Ever since Swift’s announcement at the Grammys, the talk of the town has been her upcoming album The Tortured Poets Department, which releases on April 19.
The star hinted at the elephant in the room during her Evermore era, and later spilled the beans on the album during her acoustic set.
“Tortured Poets is an album that I think, more than any of my albums that I’ve ever made, I needed to make it,” she admits. “It was really a lifeline for me.
“Just the things I was going through, the things I was writing about. It kind of reminded me of why songwriting is something that actually gets me through my life.”
The songstress then revealed on the screen behind her a Tortured Poets cover that “nobody has seen”.
“There’s an exclusive song on this vinyl called The Bolter so this is called The Bolter edition”, she said.
She then proceeded to sing You’re Losing Me, marking the first time the song has been played live during her tour.
The guy on the Chiefs
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll no doubt know that Swift has been dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
However, what many may have missed if they weren’t looking closely at the Melbourne gig was the subtle tribute to her NFL beau.
Swift, during her final song Karma, from her latest album Midnights, changed one of the track’s lyrics as a sweet ode to Kelce, who recently won the Super Bowl with his team.
Instead of singing “karma is the guy on the screen coming straight home to me”, Swift sang “karma is the guy on the Chiefs coming straight home to me”.
Swoon-worthy? We think yes!