Taylor Swift Eras Tour, Edinburgh Murrayfield Stadium
Verdict: A show with substance
Greeted by a multicolored sea of sequins, stetson hats, sparkly face paint and cowgirl boots, Taylor Swift brought her record-breaking Eras tour to Britain in spectacular fashion on Friday.
In the first of 15 UK shows spanning the summer, the American megastar wowed the 72,990 Swifties, most of them women, who had gathered in a windy but sunny Edinburgh.
“You make me feel so powerful,” she told her fans, shortly after emerging from under the stage, dressed in a sequined leotard.
The epic that followed throughout his career and lasted more than three hours was divided into ten acts, or “epochs,” with each act dedicated to one of the Pennsylvania-born singer’s studio LPs.
I saw Taylor, 34, on the Red tour in 2014, the 1989 show the following year, and the Reputation tour in 2018. This was bigger, better, bolder. Made with a six-piece band, four backup singers, 16 dancers, three sets and a variety of digital effects, it felt like a cross between a futuristic rock concert and a Broadway blockbuster. With bells on.
But Swift’s great trick is her ability to combine theatrical spectacle with substance. Her training in the storytelling tradition of country music has given her the ability to convey her emotions in vivid, relatable songs that connect with her fans.
He sang 47 of them here, and most were accompanied by perfect songs. Even a ten-minute lyrical version of the ballad All Too Well, from a 2012 Red re-recording, received the sing-along treatment.
The show opened under a bright blue sky with 2019 album Lover; his first appearance is a nod, perhaps, to the Lover Fest tour that had to be canceled during the pandemic. The album’s waltz title track, strummed on a sky-blue guitar, was an early highlight.
We then returned to the country-pop of 2008’s Fearless (the eras were not shown chronologically) before the decibel level went up a notch with the sassy Red and his smart pop hits. I Knew You Were Trouble would have raised the roof if Murrayfield had one.
The mood changed with each act. For Reputation, one of Swift’s weakest albums, it was dark and moody. Her two pandemic releases, Folklore and Evermore, were grouped, as dusk fell, into a pastoral-sounding ‘Folk-more’ single act and, in Cardigan and Betty, two of her best-crafted character sketches. her. Champagne Problems, sung in the singer-songwriter’s style at the piano, was preceded by long memories of confinement. “We never knew if we would ever do this concert again,” she said.
By the time we reached the 1989 era, with its fun and feel-good hits Style, Blank Space and Shake It Off, the songs had become happy screamers.
Swift’s two most recent LPs, Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department, appeared later, but even a setlist as well-planned as this one left some room for spontaneity, and an ‘unplugged’ section towards the end of the show saw to Taylor alone. The guitar and then the piano sing spontaneous songs, including ‘Tis The Damn Season and Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve.
It’s easy to get lost in the Swiftiverse: the speculation surrounding lyrics about her exes; the different color codes of each album; the £1.5 billion this tour is expected to generate. But all the background noise fades away the moment this brilliant artist takes the stage.
With two more gigs in Edinburgh tonight and tomorrow, and more gigs in Liverpool, Cardiff and London, those lucky enough to have tickets will see a show that will span and define an era. With Taylor at the peak of his powers, it’s the musical event of the year.