UQ's biggest
Swiftie explains
the Eras Tour

When I first heard Taylor Swift almost 15 years ago, I was 10 years old. I remember seeing Taylor’s self-titled debut album on sale and, without knowing anything about Taylor Swift, asking my mum to buy it for me. 

She did (thanks, Mum), and when I got home, I put the disc into my CD player and had a dance party for one in the living room while poring over Taylor’s lyrics in the CD booklet. 

By the time I had listened to her second and third albums, Fearless and Speak Now, analysed and memorised all of her lyrics, and watched her music videos and interviews, something had inexplicably changed within me. To me, she was a princess who had crafted an enchanted soundtrack that reflected the sparkly fairytale of her life – and I wanted to experience every part of it.

The true Swift obsession grew when I was in high school, leading up to her fourth album, Red, in 2012. I’d scrawl Taylor’s lyrics on my notebooks and post about her on Instagram and Facebook every day. 

Taylor was different to other musicians who were popular among my peers. Instead of singing about ‘throwing our hands up in the air’, she used her work to convey the inner female experience with meaningful prose about love, heartbreak, resilience, and self-discovery. 

It wasn’t cool to be a Swiftie. Sure, some of my friends liked her music, but for the most part, being a fangirl and caring so much about Taylor Swift and her love songs was met with snide remarks and perplexed eye-rolls.

But Taylor had become my idol and a guidepost for how I wanted to lead my life. I looked up to Taylor as an intelligent, confident young woman in her own lane. Despite all criticisms, she seemed to know herself, and as a young teenage girl finding her place in the world, I wanted to be just like her.

I even started writing my own songs because of her. Seeing how she expressed her emotions and processed the world through her diaristic lyrics made me want to do the same. It gave me the comfort and skill of knowing that no matter what was happening in my life, I could go home and write a song about it – just like Taylor.

I’m 25 this year, and for the past decade, I’ve often been asked why I love Taylor Swift so much. And I get it – to a non-Swiftie, the level of unbridled, unwavering support, dedication and devotion Swifties give to Taylor Swift can seem extreme.

For me, what it comes down to is no one else has given a voice to the journey of girlhood to womanhood quite like her. She bares her heart and soul in her songwriting and does prodigiously and courageously, in the face of criticism and misogyny, while telling the truth – what I think is the most important thing a songwriter can do.

We’ve all seen the headlines – the Eras Tour is the highest-grossing music tour ever, Taylor Swift causes mini economic booms wherever she goes, Santa Clara renames to Swiftie Clara and proclaims Swift as honorary mayor. Not to mention the Eras Tour film becoming the highest-grossing concert film in history.

But beyond its unparalleled commercial success, the Eras Tour holds an immense emotional richness. To truly understand why the Eras Tour is so significant, we must first understand the Taylor’s Versions. 

To summarise, when Taylor’s masters were bought out from under her in 2019, we saw her display resilience in the face of male figures within the entertainment industry attempting to control and undermine her – a challenge that has punctuated her career on numerous occasions. But, there was hope. Taylor was legally allowed to re-record her music, and by doing so, own her catalogue. Although the Taylor’s Versions were born from a painful situation, Taylor and her fans have turned these re-recordings into a joyful celebration of her life’s work.

The Taylor’s Versions have also expanded her storytelling universe. With the release of Vault Tracks, previously unreleased songs written at the time of the original album era, new lyrics allow fans to learn additional details and connect the dots to the songs we already know and love on the original albums, letting us more fully understand Taylor’s story. 

Taylor brings this expansive, magical, richly colourful universe to the stage, encapsulating the journey of her career over the past 2 decades in a riveting 3.5-hour production.

The 4 million Australians who tried to purchase Eras Tour tickets will be able to remember all too well the limbo we sat in for hours on end. There was no ordered queue – when entering the website, fans were put into a ‘lounge’ with a looping countdown. Each time it hit 0, your heart rate would jump, hands poised for the next steps. Instead, this anxiety-inducing process saw Swifties, and the family and friends they recruited to help, sit in a cycle of anticipation, excitement and let-down as the countdown re-set for hours on end. 

I feel extremely lucky and grateful to have scored tickets. My friend Aster’s cat, Moggie, may have helped.

Many Swifties, like myself, will be travelling from far and wide to get to the Melbourne and Sydney shows. Although I’m sad she won’t be coming to Brisbane, it’s incredibly exciting to think about just how many Swifties will be at each show in one giant stadium. The Melbourne Cricket Ground will actually be the biggest stadium Taylor has ever played worldwide – with upwards of 300, 000 total attendees across 3 nights.

In Sydney, I’m predicting the loudest chants of ‘Sydney!’ ever recorded during Blank Space, replicating her performance of the song on the 1989 World Tour.

I’ve been fortunate enough to watch Taylor perform live on the Red Tour and the Reputation Tour. Taylor brings an energy to her productions that no other artist has been able to achieve. When the lights go down, and the show is about to begin, the only way I can explain the excitement is a collective, overwhelming urge to scream with pure joy, not believing that the one and only Taylor Swift is actually really in front of you.

It’s a spectacle best explained using Taylor’s own words in her beloved song Fearless: “I don’t know why, but with you, I’d dance in a storm in my best dress, fearless.”

One of the most important parts of preparing for the Eras Tour is making friendship bracelets to trade with other Swifties at the show. This fan tradition originates from lyrics of Taylor’s song, You’re On Your Own Kid: “So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it, you’ve got no reason to be afraid.”

At one friendship bracelet-making session, my friends and I reflected on not having many Swiftie friends until recently and how joyful it is to have them now.

In recent years, I’ve found that my generation has had a renewed embrace of Taylor Swift. Seeing many of my high-school friends re-evaluate their stance on Taylor Swift has been heartening. I think over time, there’s been a growing recognition that a lot of previous aversion towards Taylor Swift was influenced by misogynistic narratives relentlessly perpetuated by the media. Taylor’s ability and determination to reclaim her narrative and continuously emerge triumphant is a testament to her enduring presence as a fixture in music for generations to come. 

In fact, these days, it feels like being a Swiftie will never go out of style. 

Taylor Swift image credits:

• Kevin Mazur/WireImage
• Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
• Christopher Polk/TAS/Getty Images for TAS
• Dave Hogan/Getty Images for TAS
• Amy Sussman/Getty Images
• Natasha Moustache/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
• Omar Vega/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
• Scott Legato/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management