Be careful, an earthquake of still unknown intensity could shake the Paris region next Thursday. That day, Taylor Swift will take up residence at La Défense Arena as part of her global tour, The Eras Tour. For four evenings, the ground in the Ile-de-France business district risks shaking, literally… In July, during a concert by the pop star in Seattle, a seismologist measured vibrations equivalent to a magnitude 2 earthquake, 3 on the Richter scale caused by the telluric fervor of his fans, the “swifties”. An example of the passions unleashed by Taylor Swift, crowned personality of the year in 2023 by the magazine Time.
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After traveling through the United States, Latin America and Asia, “Tay Tay” chose Paris to kick off its European shows. An event. His first Parisian concert dates back to 2011 in a half-filled Zénith, and his last world tour had simply snubbed France. Because the most influential artist of her generation took time to conquer a French audience not very sensitive to the country aesthetic of her first albums. It also appears too smooth with its “ girl next door », far from the sophistication of Beyoncé, the stylistic daring of Billie Eilish or the sulphurous aura of Madonna. Taylor Swift will have to wait until 2022 to rank one of her albums (Midnights) number one in sales in our country! “France is clearly a priority”, the singer declared in 2019 Parisian, on the sidelines of a private concert at the Olympia. Five years later, it is a hit. The 180,000 seats for his four concerts at La Défense Arena were sold out in barely an hour! Ditto for his two performances, on June 2 and 3, at Groupama Stadium in Lyon.
An XXL show
It’s the tour of all records. The Eras Tour has already generated $1 billion in revenue and is expected to reach $2 billion. The most lucrative tour in the history of the United States ahead of Elton John’s Farewell Tour. Record length also, with a show lasting three and a half hours and a stage setup that requires five days of installation (compared to a day or two for any other pop star). On the menu, “a musical journey through musical eras” of her career. Forty-five songs taken from her first ten albums (and undoubtedly a few titles from the last, released in April), illustrating the artistic mutations of the singer who began her career at 16 as a country singer in the bars of Nashville, to then operate a pop turn in 2014 with the album 1989. His early fans cry betrayal. It persists and wins the support of both the public and the critics. Taylor Swift nourishes her music with sharp electro, rap and R’n’B, but also refined and contemplative folk with her albums Folklore And Evermorereleased in 2020. A shift confirmed with The Tortured Poets Department, his latest opus with elegiac climates, far from his aura of a mainstream star accustomed to filling stadiums. This art of reinvention, Taylor Swift theorized in her song Mirrorballthen in interview: “Women artists have had to reinvent themselves twenty times more than men. You must constantly find new facets of yourself that will shine for others. others. »
In the fall of 2023, The Eras Tour passes through South America. Here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on November 20. (© LTD / BACKGRID USA/BESTIMAGE)
“A good girl”
That’s his mantra. In the documentary Miss Americana (Netflix), the native of Reading (Pennsylvania) returns to the “moral code” who has guided her since her earliest childhood: “I needed to be seen as a good person. My belief system was simple: do the right thing, do it well. » Through archive videos, we discover a 12-year-old girl full of confidence in front of the camera, aware of her talent and her destiny recorded in her diary: “My life, my career, my dream, my reality. » Or the problems inherent to any star of his stature… We are not obliged to adhere to the Taylorist narrative, but the facts speak for it. Undisputed champion of charitable works, she puts her notoriety at the service of her convictions (against Trump, homophobia, guns, sexism…) and remains faithful to her image as a more comfortable, no-fuss icon in overalls than in gala attire, who takes on her kilos in the face of the dictates of beauty (“It’s better to look fat than to look sick”). A good girl, except for this detail: Tay Tay was recently voted “the most polluting celebrity in the world”, due to her passion for traveling in a private jet.
Self-made woman
Her fans nicknamed her “ capitalist queen “. At 34, Taylor Swift can boast of being the first artist to become a billionaire solely thanks to the income generated by her music. Her last masterstroke dates back to three years ago, when she decided to return to the studio to re-record her first four albums (enriched with previously unreleased material) and thus recover her royalties after the sale of her historic label to an investment fund. Last November, the reissue of his opus 1989 has sold 2 million copies in the United States! As for his new album, it has accumulated 300 million plays on Spotify in twenty-four hours. A record “historical”, tweeted the Swedish streaming giant. Taylor Swift makes a lot of money, but she spills it into the American economy. The United States Federal Reserve even speaks of a “Taylor Swift factor” linked to the financial benefits generated by The Eras Tour. According to the media Travelpulse, its economic impact on the country’s tourism sector would be $5 billion. The state of Colorado saw a $140 million increase in GDP after the Swift tornado. Nothing very surprising… On average, a swiftie spends $1,300 to attend a concert of their idol (plane ticket, accommodation, merchandise, etc.). For example, 30% of the public present at La Défense Arena comes from abroad, including 20% from the United States.
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Songwriting
This is the price of her extraordinary success, Taylor Swift has experienced her share of criticism – on her countless lovers, her keen sense of marketing, her inability to compose striking titles… Not forgetting the insults uttered by Kanye West who , in his song famous (2016), treated it as “bitch” (bitch). But if there is one point on which she should not be attacked, it is her talent as an author. Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn learned this the hard way after telling Los Angeles Times : “Taylor Swift doesn’t write her songs. » Scathing response from the artist on X: “You don’t have to like my songs, but it’s completely disgusting to discredit my writing, WOW. » And to conclude: “PS I wrote this tweet by myself. » Within the hour, the sarcastic Damon Albarn presented his sincere apologies. Taylor’s writing, which is the subject of a course at Harvard, is his secret weapon. A pen steeped since childhood in the great tradition of country music: poetic conciseness, sentimental and cash lyrics, sense of metaphor, narrative inventiveness… “I wouldn’t be here today if I didn’t write my songs,” says Taylor Swift, whose discography reads like the diary of a young woman who has become a global star. Although she has signed a handful of committed titles, love remains her obsession. Despite her romance with American football star Travis Kelce, her new album examines all the stages of emotional mourning (denial, anger, depression, acceptance). Nothing very original, but her sense of self-deprecation avoids tearful pathos, especially when she tells her ex-sweetheart the British actor Joe Alwyn: “You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith […], we are just modern idiots. »
“Swifties”, fans of Taylor Swift, before her concert in Sydney, Australia, on February 23. (© LTD /LISA MAREE WILLIAMS/GETTY IMAGES/AFP)
Trump’s nightmare
For a long time, the singer was content to be “America’s little darling”. Smiling and above all apolitical. The situation changes in 2017. Taylor Swift wins her case against a DJ for sexual assault, but emerges bloodless from this legal battle “dehumanizing”. That’s the trigger. She will now put her notoriety at the service of her convictions, despite the warnings of her close guard. In Miss Americanawe see his father calling out to him: “For twelve years, we didn’t get involved in politics and religion! » No matter the risks to her safety, her career, she wants to be “on the right side of history”. The press imagined Taylor Swift as “ crypto-republican”; during the 2018 senatorial elections, she discovered a passion that took down the Republican candidate from Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn, a “Trump with a wig”. First commitment, first failure, but she did it again in 2020 by publicly supporting Joe Biden during the presidential election. “America has a chance to begin the healing process it so desperately needs,” declares the singer, who accuses Trump of having “fueled the fire of white supremacists throughout his presidency.” Four years later, her role is being scrutinized with a question: Can Taylor Swift swing the presidential election? Biden’s team dreams of it and is increasing its appeals to rally the pop star. For its part, the “magasphere” (Donald Trump’s supporters rallying around his slogan “ Make America Great Again “) target “the traitor” with deepfakes and conspiracy theories – “she’s a Pentagon agent, she practices black magic”… In response, Taylor Swift invited her 272 million Instagram subscribers in September to register to vote. Within twenty-four hours, the Vote.org site saw a 1,226% increase in traffic. March 5, the day of Super Tuesday », where a large number of states vote in the primaries, she came up with a new message: “I wanted to remind you to vote for the people who best represent YOU. » Needless to say, Taylor Swift’s political beliefs are known to everyone…
