Lhe “swifties” count the days… and maybe even the hours, minutes and seconds! The tornado Taylor Swift is preparing to sweep across Europe with her monumental tour, “The Eras Tour”, the first four dates of which are being held in Paris, from Thursday May 9 to Sunday May 12, at La Défense Arena. But one question haunts fans of the biggest pop star of the moment: will she keep up the “surprise songs”? ? And above all, in what form? Deciphering a phenomenon, which says a lot about the madness that surrounds the singer and her stage performances.
Before getting to the heart of the matter, it is appropriate to describe “The Eras Tour”, whose profits could reach 2 billion dollars, surpassing the final tour of Elton John’s career, considered until now to be the most lucrative of all time. In these monumental concerts, the 34-year-old American performs more than forty pieces, looking back on her entire career… which began twenty years ago.
READ ALSO Box office, earthquake, Grammy Awards… The completely crazy figures of the Taylor Swift phenomenonWhere artists and groups play their compositions as they see fit on stage, here the titles are performed album by album, era by era, hence the name “Eras”. Of all the records created by Taylor Swift, only her first, very country, is not part of the show. Which doesn’t mean that she won’t play an extract from it.
A special moment with the spectators
This is where the “surprise songs”, or surprise songs in good French, come in, played in the last quarter of the concert. “It’s something she’s been doing for several tours now: she always gives her fans an acoustic moment,” explains Morgane Giulani, a big fan and specialist of the singer.
@katherinezaino That feeling>>> #SwiftTok #swiftie #taylorswift ♬ original sound – katherine
“At that point, we don’t know what song we’re going to have, it’s usually rarer pieces, that she hasn’t sung for a long time. She will be alone with her guitar or her piano. These are privileged moments, which she takes advantage of to get closer to the spectators further away towards the back of the stage. It’s a lottery but it’s quite exciting,” the author of Taylor Swift: the rebel who became an icon*. It is also an opportunity, for the person who composes everything she performs, to bring guests on stage from time to time. But also to announce new releases such as a music video, an album reissue or the release of a limited edition vinyl.
It feels like she’s sending us messages.Morgane Giulani, author and big fan of Taylor Swift
Depending on what she will play, her admirers will fuel a lot of speculation. “We have the impression that she is sending us messages,” explains the writer. “In general, her music is really zooms on very particular moments of her life, when she plays a certain piece, we can see a clue, a way of saying: “Well here, at this moment, I feel like this, like that, etc.” I think it also fuels a parasocial relationship. »
Excel tables, bets, an app…
At the start of the “Eras Tour”, on March 17, 2023 in Glendale, Arizona, the artist stated a rule: never play the same surprise twice during his journey through American stadiums. A principle that has set its followers in turmoil. Date after date, some have taken it upon themselves to list all the songs heard on this occasion, and those which have not yet been heard. Excel tables are thus created to compile all this valuable data. Bets were organized… And even a paid application was launched.
With “Swift Alert” – that’s its name – it is possible to receive a live notification on your phone every time surprise melodies are about to be played, no matter where you are on the screen. the planet. Once opened, the app sends the user to the live concert on YouTube or TikTok, captured more or less legally by spectators at the heart of the show. Thousands of fans then connect, listen and discuss.
“It’s the best spent 1.99 euros of my life,” laughs Émilie, a “swiftie” for over ten years. Each time, it was the opportunity to listen in real time to things that she had not or rarely played on stage. There’s also a cool surprise effect and it’s a real game to discover what she’s playing from the first notes. »
A small activity that carries a risk: coming across a piece that Émilie and her loved ones were hoping to hear during the many concerts they will attend all over Europe in the months to come. The fan easily admits to having already had tears in her eyes. “When a song that we love too much has been played, we say “I lost such and such a title”,” explains the enthusiast, who has still not recovered from the fact that Taylor Swift chose Singapore and not Paris to perform. Mirrorball”, one of his favorite ballads.
But there’s worse: coming across “surprise songs” that no one knows. “In Japan, they weren’t spoiled for example, with a really obscure selection…” comments the thirty-year-old, who has tickets for three of the four Paris dates.
Taylor Swift decided to revolutionize her “surprise songs”
So, what to expect for Paris? At the start of 2024, “Taytay” – as she is nicknamed – reset the counters for the famous “surprise songs”. A revolution that hid another: the prolific designer then made it known that she wanted to be more flexible on the famous rule that she imposed on herself.
“I’ve been thinking, I want to be as creative as possible during my acoustic set. I don’t want to limit anything and I don’t want to just be like, “Oh, if I’ve already played a song, I can’t play it again.” So from now on, I no longer want to remove colors from my paint palette,” she told her audience on February 18, in Melbourne. However, since this announcement, none of the 34 pieces performed since the start of the year have been played twice.
“Paris”, “Begin Again”
If the goal remains to surprise your audience, there is also a certain logic. “On April 29, which is a date mentioned in one of her songs, she played “High Infidelity”. Everyone guessed that she was going to do it on this occasion, and that’s what happened,” recalls Émilie. Following this reasoning, she, like Morgane, is certain that their idol will offer “Paris”, contained in the album Midnightbut also “Begin Again”, the video for which was filmed in the streets of the capital, during his Parisian concerts.
There remains an unknown, and not the least: what about The Tortured Poets Department, the American’s eleventh album, released just a few days ago? In a teasing video where the star confides her eagerness to come and play in Paris, we can see her rehearsing on a stage which clearly reveals the initials of the album. It doesn’t take much to convince the devotees that “TTPD” will be part of the next concerts…
Will Taylor Swift add an “era” to her already very generous list of songs, will her latest productions include the famous acoustic sequence? Will she, again, change the rules of this meeting? The swifties are clearly not at the end of their surprises…
“Taylor Swift: the rebel who became an icon”by Morgane Giuliani, Talent Sport, May 2024, 128 pages, 15.90 euros.
