It’s been years since I put pen to paper creatively. I hope you’ll spare 2-3 minutes to read about someone I could write theses about: Taylor Swift. I know I am one of millions who can say this and honestly mean it: listening to her music has changed my life.
So many of us have a personal, intimate relationship with Taylor’s music, because it feels torn directly from the pages of a diary. It was honest and protagonist-driven in a time when most female vocalists were writing, singing, and performing for men. Brittney and Christina were hot. Talented, absolutely. And they helped pave the way for a young woman to be successful. But Taylor was singing to and for us; not for men. She encouraged a generation of young women to feel deeply and articulate clearly. She famously said, “sorry, was I loud? In my own house that I bought with the songs that I wrote, about my own life?” She challenged misogyny, clad in sparkles that she wore, not for the male gaze, but just for her own enjoyment. She empowered us to do the same.
The Eras Tour was a culmination of her music – celebrating, one Era (or album, or moment in the girl-to-woman shift) at a time. It was also an absolutely colossal undertaking that even I have to pause to wrap my brain around.
The show itself was 3.5 hours long. Think about that. When is the last time you worked at high physical intensity for THREE AND A HALF HOURS.
She toured, with a few breaks, for 632 days. What that means in my experience of the passing of time:
The tour was announced on November 1, 2022. I was about 9 weeks pregnant at the time. Tickets went on sale on November 18, and I was lucky enough to secure two tickets to opening weekend in Glendale, AZ in March of 2023. I would have been 32 weeks pregnant at the show. I (gut-wrenchingly) sold those tickets (for face value, I might add) because my pregnancy was ravaged by hyperemesis-gravidarum and I could not travel. A full year and change later in July 2024, I finally saw her live in Amsterdam (N3). And her last show was last night, December 8, 2024. It should be noted, that my child, with whom I was just barely pregnant when she announced the tour, is now a year and a half old. He’s speaking, walking, eating – learning to be a person. When the tour was announced, he didn’t even have lungs yet. A full body and many skills later for my young son, she’s JUST NOW finished touring.
When I think Taylor Swift, there are literally hundreds of memories that flood my mind. In no particular order, here are a few:
“You Belong With Me” takes me back to the boy I was enraptured with who was only interested in a particular, very-not-me type.
“Shake It Off” was a favorite in my car drive home from my first big girl job, where a colleague was not very nice or welcoming.
“Lover,” newly released at the time, played in the background when my oldest was born.
“Breathe” got me through a mental health crisis, when I tried (unsuccessfully) to take my life.
“Illicit Affairs” reminds me of several questionable choices I made as a young woman.
“I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” brings pep to persevering through absolute heartbreak. Heartbreak comes in many forms, but for me, I think of the babies I miscarried and how I masked in the days after.
“Long Live” brings me to tears almost every time I hear it, and even now, goosebumps punctuate my forearms. It makes me stop in my tracks and pause to appreciate the splendor of RIGHT NOW, acknowledging that things will never be exactly as they are, ever again.
And now, on the other side of the most fantastic tour in human record (I’m not biased!), we see the Taylor Ripple Effect: A generation of young women who are inspired by other young women artists who are speaking directly to them.
I am thankful that we have something so colossal to look back on, and I can’t wait to see what she does next and who she inspires and elevates in the process (but please, honey, put your feet up for a spell or two).