Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour touches down in Toronto with a cathartic, communal concert on a spectacle scale

The last song of warm-up music that played before Taylor Swift took the stage on Thursday for the first of six sold-out concerts at Rogers Centre in Toronto was Dusty Springfield’s 1964 version of the defiant You Don’t Own Me. The song was written by two men, but Springfield was an artist who took charge of her own career and confronted the music industry sexism of the era. She didn’t just sing “Don’t try to change me in any way,” she practised what she preached.

And Swift? She doesn’t just practise empowerment, she has perfected it.

Famously, after a dispute with her original record label, she re-recorded her early albums in order to gain control of her past work. She calls her own shots, her current Eras Tour became the first in history to gross over US$1.04 billion, and I have a suspicion she tells her football-playing boyfriend, Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, what hats to wear in public.

Nobody owns her. But with fans in Canada paying thousands of dollars on the resale market for a seat at Swift’s November dates in Toronto and Vancouver shows in December, perhaps the Swifties feel they can at least rent her for three hours.

That is the length of her concerts. Thursday’s was a tsunami of fierce balladry, exhausting emotion, relationship-based pop and melodic, midtempo communion. The show wasn’t as ultra spectacular as, say, recent tours by the Weeknd and Beyoncé. Swift, though, sparkled with sequins and an effervescence matched by costumed fans in giddy, shouty spirit. (As well, more than a few men in the audience wore Kelce jerseys.)

The concert was divided into themes representing the eras and albums of a career that began with the release of her self-titled debut LP in 2006. The eras weren’t arranged chronologically; the show began with five songs from the 2019 album Loversincluding The Man (“I’m so sick of running as fast as I can, wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man, and I’m so sick of them coming at me again …”) and You Need to Calm Down (“Say it in the street, that’s a knockout/ But you say it in a tweet, that’s a cop-out”).

Swift’s voice was bright and clear; her singing, unsophisticated but in fine pitch. And she was singing, which is more than can be said for many a pop star and rock act these days.

Taking in a career-spanning show from Swift, one notices the lack of what might be called blockbuster hits. That she doesn’t really have them is fairly remarkable for one of the most dominant pop artists ever to put mouth to microphone. Yes, she has notched a dozen No. 1 singles, but they don’t rule the charts very long. Since 1977, starting with Debby Boone’s You Light Up My Life45 singles have topped the Billboard Hot 100 for at least 10 weeks. Swift has none of those songs.

With her, it’s depth, as indicated by more than 160 Top 40 songs and by album sales. Streaming? So far in 2024, Swift was the most streamed artist in every month. Unless Mariah Carey has a big December, look for the Shake it Off singer to run the table. Her fans devour her music whole – they sang along to most all of the nearly 50 songs (or parts of songs) performed at Rogers Centre.

At one point, Swift asked how many in attendance had been to an Eras Tour show before. The big applause was no surprise. The tour began way back on March 17, 2023, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. A concert film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tourwas released more than a year ago. It feels like the rest of the world has seen the movie, and Canada is still reading the book.

One didn’t even need to attend the concert on Thursday to realize something was up. Police horses outside were decked out with giant Swiftie friendship bracelets around their necks. A streetcar driver called out city landmarks as if he were running a tour bus. Fans were lined up for blocks to attend a pre-show Taylgate ′24 party near Rogers Centre. Was this a concert, or is a convention in town?

The show, which included a solo acoustic set on piano and acoustic guitar, ended with bursts of confetti and fireworks. Sure, why not. But the evening was just as much about catharsis, community and a safe place as it was about music and razzle-dazzle. I saw complete strangers bonding all night, beaming smiles all around.

On Saturday, Halifax indie musician Rich Aucoin plays Toronto’s Longboat Hall, capacity 400. After more than 15 years, he’s winding down his interactive shows that involve confetti, singalongs and dancing together beneath a giant coloured parachute. Swift is doing the exact same thing as Aucoin, just on a bigger scale. Her friendship bracelets aren’t a gimmick, they’re the whole point.

Taylor Swift plays Toronto’s Rogers Centre on Nov. 15, 16, 21, 22, 23; Vancouver’s BC Place, Dec. 6 to 8.