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“I spend a lot of time trying to plan these things,” Taylor Swift said with a smile — and with classic understatement — as she strapped on her acoustic guitar for the “surprise songs” segment of her “Eras” tour at Cardiff. , Wales. “I like to challenge myself to do different things every night (so) every show is unique.”
Considering the unprecedented level of attention the tour has attracted since it began in Glendale, Arizona, 100 shows and over a year ago, this seemed like a bold statement.
After all, almost everyone in the 67,000-capacity Principality Stadium had almost certainly already seen most of the spectacle, whether in theaters, on Disney+ or both, possibly through multiple viewings. Even the most casual observer – although there don’t appear to be any here, even the few designated driver dads presented as die-hard Swifties – will have caught key moments in media coverage or on the myriad social media feeds which proliferate around each broadcast. .
And true to form, Swift went the extra mile to make the girls (and boys) of the Welsh Valleys feel special: not only did they receive a slew of surprise songs (more on that in a moment), but she greeted them in the country’s native language. . Welsh is one of the most difficult European languages to master, but his rendition of “Shwmae, croeso i daith Eras” (“Hello, welcome to the “Eras” tour) certainly sounded authentic.
Indeed, some parts are so familiar that the audience not only sang along with the songs, they spoke as well as some of Swift’s song announcements. A few even tried to make the exact same face as Swift when she said them. When even your facial expressions have their own compilation of greatest hits, what can you do to maintain some element of the unexpected?
It turned out to be a lot. It is to Swift’s eternal credit that, despite all of the above, seeing the ‘Eras’ tour in the flesh remains a stunning, breathtaking spectacle, as fresh as the Welsh mountain air.
The surprise songs help of course. The concept of rotating different acoustic versions – one on guitar, one on piano – of songs from his catalog is a deceptively simple idea that nevertheless ensures that everyone is engaged on each date of the tour, not just to the one they’re going to (and literally invested too, via his constant stream of reissues of his latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” including exclusive recordings of those versions).
Waiting for your “Eras” date to arrive becomes a musical game of “Deal or No Deal” as fans hope there will still be plenty of your personal selection of high-value classics from the red side of the board in play by the the moment you take their place.
Cardiff definitely got a “deal”: “I Forgot That You Existed,” from “Lover,” was mixed with “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” from “Reputation,” with a hilarious version of the latter . “I can’t even say it with a straight face” belly laugh – these songs are heavily tied to the popular belief that they are about the Kanye/Kim situation that turned his world upside down in the late 2010s, even though she never recognized them as such. .
And, just when fans were pondering the significance of this intriguing combination, Swift topped it by deftly combining a pair of deep cuts, “I Hate It Here,” from “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” – a song she never played. live before – with “The Lakes”, a hymn to the English Lake District found in the deluxe version of “Folklore”.
The crowd’s delirious reaction was a tribute not only to the depth of her catalog but also to fan engagement, but Swift’s genius is in making even the most recognizable elements of this fantastic show seem special.
In fact, Cardiff could claim to be the most distinctive of the 101 shows presented so far. This was Taylor Swift’s first ever headline show in Wales – although she appeared just outside Swansea at a BBC Radio 1 festival in 2018 – and Cardiff is the only city where she hasn’t only played one night.
This is not due to a lack of demand. The streets around the Principality Stadium – usually the home of Welsh rugby – were also filled with cheering supporters, ticket holders and not, as always on the day of a Six Nations match.
Nor was it due to a lack of affinity between Swift and the Welsh – after all, she is probably the only international pop superstar to ever reference the Welsh national sport in her songs, saying: “You can find me in the pub / We’re watching the rugby” on “London Boy” and even paid homage to the original tortured Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, on the title track of his latest album.
She also spoke about her love of the “beautiful Welsh countryside” before “Betty”, while a backing dancer chimed in “Ych a fi” (which roughly translates to “disgusting”) during a joyful ” We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and counted to four in Welsh during “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”.
Swift received a lot of money in exchange for such local engagement. The prolonged ovation that follows each night’s “Champagne Problems” has become a ritual of the Eras tour, but Swift still gave the impression that she was stunned by the enthusiastic applause that followed her here and refused to die for almost four minutes. “This crowd is one for the books,” she marveled. “This is different.”
And it’s no wonder. If the tickets for the rest of the tour are proverbial gold dust, those for the one-off Cardiff date must have been diamond dust. Which meant everyone here was determined to make the most of this experience.
All around, mothers and daughters or groups of best friends in classic Swift outfits (the “22” look seems to be the era of moms of choice) were delighted. Tiny kids in cowboy hats – whichever Welsh entrepreneur who invested in pink Stetsons the last time Beyoncé left town will surely retire after tonight – exchanged friendship bracelets with girls older and cool, eager to welcome them into the Swift sorority.
There was a lot of tears – the older Swifties may have been going through emotional trauma, but, for some of the younger ones, Swift’s appearance in the same room seemed to have an effect similar to meeting “the real Santa Claus “.
But there was also enormous joy in a stadium used to welcoming Welsh ecstasy and heartbreak. Even if you think you know the twists and turns of this ensemble, nothing can quite prepare you for watching complete strangers perform spontaneous synchronized dance routines to a jubilant “Bejewelled,” or several generations of family women putting aside their concerns about foul language to yell “Fuck.” patriarchy! together during a devastating “All Too Well”.
There were too many onstage highlights to list, but take your pick from a version of “Style” that was as zesty as Swift’s lime green and orange outfit; a rendition of “Look What You Made Me Do” that rocked as hard as opening act Paramore; or a beautifully creepy presentation of “Willow”; as Swift breathed new life into even the most recognizable corners of the setlist, ensuring that each song deserves its centerpiece status.
Meanwhile, the new era – “The Department of Tortured Poets” – is already one of the strongest in the expansion. Swift smiled as she appeared to levitate above her dancers on a spinning block of glass during an intense “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me” and, with delicious irony, threw herself completely into “I Can do it with a broken heart,” complete with one preceding a silent film-style skit as her dancers persuaded her to get dressed and go back out there.
This song is about her dancing through the heartbreak of the early parts of the “Eras” tour, but, tonight, Swift’s winning smile seemed genuine, wonderfully real, right down to her pronunciation of “Diolch o galon” (“Diolch o galon” (“Diolch o galon”) Thank you from the heart” ) as she finished the set.
Cardiff was also perhaps the only show on this leg of the tour to take place indoors. The stadium’s retractable roof – designed to protect Welsh rugby from equally unpredictable local weather conditions – was closed, although it was perhaps the only day in this typically soggy British summer when it was not It’s raining outside.
This meant a more subdued closing fireworks display, but also that the entire show took place in darkness. This gave the stadium an unusually intimate atmosphere, something that Paramore – the kind of high-caliber support act that only the Eras Tour can offer – took full advantage of.
Hayley Williams made it clear she was happy to play the unusual role of warm-up rather than main attraction: “If you’re not ready at the end of these 45 minutes, we’ve failed!” – but his look of delight as the crowd roared the first chorus of “Still Into You” showed that Paramore was much more than that.
A string of high-octane hits followed, including “Aint’ It Fun,” “This Is Why” and “Misery Business” (the latter reintroduced into the set at Swift’s request), taking anyone unfamiliar with it with the band on the same journey as Williams’ T-shirt, which said: “Try it – you’ll like it.” »
The “eras” may now be so big that they practically have their own time zone, their own gross domestic product, and their own gravitational pull. But when you’re actually there, every moment, from the opening of “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince” to the climactic moment of “Karma,” remains gloriously spontaneous and, yes, unique. Don’t worry, you’ve never seen anything like this before, even if you think you have.