The stadium lights dim and you can faintly see the silhouette of the unique key-shaped stage. In a feat of prolonged suspense, you see the billowing floral parachutes and you know the last show has started. The tour of all tours. The “Eras Tour.”
After spanning two whole years, Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” officially ended on December 8 in Vancouver, Canada. Needless to say, the last performance of the night proved to be a bittersweet goodbye for everyone.
Whether you’re a ‘Swiftie’ or not, you can’t deny the socio-cultural impact that the “Eras Tour” had in recent years. From multiple sets and costumes that accurately reflect each era of Swift’s musical career, fans were in for multiple joys as they watched the three and a half hour long tour.
A lot can happen in two years, from set list changes, outfits, and everyone’s favorite surprise songs. But just how much has the “Eras Tour” changed from when it first started?
Set list changes
Following the release of her newest album, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD), in April of 2024, Swift changed her set list for the tour in order to perform songs from her new album.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore watching the TTPD set from glitchy live streams and seeing Taylor Swift go all “Female Rage: The Musical,” but in order to fit in some of these songs, some sacrifices had to be made.
Which means goodbye to six of the songs, and minor—major-ish—cuts to many of the other eras. Perhaps the deepest cut was her taking off “Long Live,” one of two of the songs in her “Speak Now” era. Complete with the koi fish guitar, it was the perfect anthem for her tour as a whole.
Costume/Outfits
The “Lover” house, the “folklore” cabin, the “evermore” forest, the visual sets for each of her eras are phenomenal. But it’s not only the sets that make the tour so visually appealing, but Swift’s costumes and outfits as well. Each of the eras had a specific color palette for her outfits, with multiple variations of the costume in color and style, which Swift changes from show to show.
Only one era kept its original costume for most of the tour. From the first show in Glendale, Arizona to her last show of the European leg in London, her “reputation” outfit has stayed the same with red snakes adorning her black bodysuit.
However, Swift debuted a new “reputation” bodysuit for the era in Miami, this time with gold snakes. Many Swifties found this highly suspicious in hopes of her announcing the next rerecording, yet to no avail.
Contrary to the “reputation” era, 1989’s costume sets had the fun and vibrant pop colors that match the era so well. Because of the versatility of colors, her sparkly outfit was easily mixed and matched with various combinations of the rainbow.
Surprise songs
It’s not an “Eras Tour” unless there’s songs from every era, right? That’s what the acoustic section is for, a section where she plays a few “surprise songs” (not on her set list) on her guitar and piano, which is different each night.
Out of 274 songs, the combination of songs are endless and I admit, as the tour went on, I would periodically search up the surprise songs she sang on different nights, especially when she started doing mashups. Like snowflakes, each and every show on her tour is unique because of this section.
For the last night in Vancouver, Swift sang a mashup of “A Place in This World” x “New Romantics” on her guitar. On the piano, a mashup of “Long Live” x “New Years Day” x “The Manuscript”, which in my opinion, is most fitting to close her tour. As the last notes of these songs were played, signified the final goodbye.
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From trading friendship bracelets, to fan chants, to wondering which surprise song you’ll get for the night, Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” will forever be remembered in pop culture history. As Swift sang on closing night, “it was the end of an era, but the start of an age.”
