July 2023, Seattle, on the west coast of the United States. Gathered in Lumen Field, the American football stadium which is hosting the concert of their idol, the “swifties” – a term designating Taylor Swift fans – cause, with their exaltation, a real earthquake. Measured during the star’s show, the seismic tremors reached a magnitude of 2.3 on the Richter scale.
The American singer, whose tour The Eras Tour stops at La Défense Arena in Paris from Thursday May 9, before a stop in Lyon on June 2 and 3, is not an ordinary pop star. The object of global devotion, today it has a power and influence that go beyond the simple boundaries of music. In 2023, the American media USA Today hired a journalist responsible for exclusively covering her news, while a very serious symposium on the many facets of the singer and the power of her influence took place in February 2024 at the University of Melbourne, in Australia.
“Swiftonomics”: when the dollars flow
Born in 1989 in Pennsylvania, Taylor Swift is, according to the famous magazine ranking Forbes, the first artist to become a billionaire thanks solely to income generated by music. With her, the dollars flow and under the banner of “Swiftonomics” come together analyzes of the financial benefits enjoyed by the cities and states that host her tour. Colorado, for example, saw a $140 million increase in GDP after its passage. In Singapore, local bankers estimated the city-state’s earnings from the star’s six concerts at $400 million. In France, the General Directorate of the Treasury even shared its own analysis of “Swiftonomics” on its website: “The tours of pop superstars today transcend the simple cultural framework to assert themselves as potential exogenous shocks capable of influencing the economy. » Excuse me a little.
As the American presidential election approaches, the excitement of the Republican and Democratic leadership reveals this other area in which Taylor Swift deploys an influence that no other artist has probably ever had before her: politics. Sacred personality of the year 2023 by the magazine Times, will the star with 284 million subscribers on Instagram endorse the candidacy of Joe Biden? Keeping a cautious distance from political and religious issues early in her career, Taylor Swift made a 180-degree turn during the 2018 Senate elections, when she publicly condemned the Tennessee Republican candidate as a “Trump with a wig”.
Mobilizing young American voters
Driven by values of tolerance and respect for the rights of minorities, Taylor Swift seems closer to democratic ideas than to the violent logorrhea of Donald Trump. The mobilization of young voters being one of the keys to the election, Joe Biden’s supporters dream out loud of public support. https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/1540382753677627393 her “terror” faced with the repeal of the Roe Vs Wade amendment, which guaranteed American women the right to abort throughout the country, the star was content, until today, to call on her fans to register on the electoral lists. Posted on Instagram, his message caused a 1,226% increase in traffic on the vote.org platform.
Taylor Swift built this influence on her talents as an author, which she exercises in a confessional style. The complexity of feelings, the entry into adulthood or the failure of a love story punctuate a rich discography of eleven albums, like so many pages of the private diary that a young woman of her time offers to her fans. When she sold her label to an investment fund, she did not hesitate to re-record four of her first albums to maintain control of her creative power. Released on April 19, his latest opus, The Tortured Poets departmentbecame the most streamed album in the history of the Spotify listening platform.
The Superlatives Tour
Taylor Swift’s sixth tour, which stops in Paris on May 9, 10, 11 and 12 and June 2 and 3 in Lyon, The Eras Tour is a huge machine. In this three and a half hour show, the 180,000 spectators who go to La Défense Arena will hear more than forty songs drawn from the entire catalog of the American artist. According to the magazine Rolling Stone, The Eras Tour is already the highest-grossing tour of all time, becoming the first to reach over $1 billion in revenue.
The scenography unfolds on a huge stage, divided into three distinct groups connected by a ramp. Every square centimeter is used to project visual effects and the pop star can rise into the air at any time thanks to a hydraulic system. The assembly of the scene would require five days of installation and the drivers of the semi-trailers responsible for transporting the different elements each received, for their loyal services, a bonus of 100,000 dollars.
