Taylor Swift Eras Tour in Edinburgh review: Singer is at the peak of her powers as she kicks off her first UK show in spectacular style, writes ADRIAN THRILLS
Taylor Swift Eras tour, Murrayfield Stadium Edinburgh
Verdict: A spectacle with substance
Welcomed by a multicolored sea of sequins, stesons, glittery face paint and cowboy boots, Taylor Swift brought her record-breaking Eras tour to Britain spectacular fashion on Friday.
To play the first of 15 UK shows that will stretch across the summerthe American megastar wowed the 72,990 Swifties, most of them female, who gathered in a windy but sunny Edinburgh.
Welcomed by a multicolored sea of sequins, stesons, glittery face paint and cowgirl boots, Taylor Swift brought her record-breaking Eras tour to Britain on Friday
In the first of 15 UK shows that will stretch across the summer, the US megastar wowed the 72,990 Swifties at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium
“You make me feel so powerful,” she told fans: shortly after he emerged from under the stagedressed in a spangly leotard.
The career-spanning, three-hour-plus epic that followed was divided into ten acts, or “eras,” with each act devoted to one of the Pennsylvania-born singer’s studio LPs.
I saw Taylor, 34, at the 2014 Red tour, the 1989 show and the 2018 Reputation trek. This was bigger, better and bolder. Staged with a six-piece band, four backup singers, sixteen dancers, three stages and an array of digital effects, it felt like a cross between a futuristic rock concert and a Broadway blockbuster. With bells on.
But Swift’s big trick is her talent for combining theatrical spectacle with substance. Her training in the storytelling tradition of country music has given her the ability to convey her emotions in vibrant, relatable songs that resonate with her fans.
She sang 47 of them here, and most of them were accompanied by word-perfect sing-alongs. Even a ten-minute lyrical version of the ballad All Too Well, taken from a 2012 Red recording, got the sing-along treatment.
The show opened under clear blue skies with 2019’s Lover album – the early close is perhaps a nod to the Lover Fest tour she had to cancel during the pandemic. The album’s waltz title track, strummed on a sky-blue guitar, was an early highlight.
We then went back to the country pop of 2008’s Fearless (eras not shown chronologically) before the decibel level kicked up a notch with the brash Red and its whip-smart pop hits. I Knew You Were Trouble would have raised the roof if Murrayfield had one.
But Swift’s big trick is her talent for combining theatrical spectacle with substance
As she sang The Man, she changed into a black and gold sequin blazer dress and knee-high boots
The mood changed with every action. For Reputation, one of Swift’s weaker albums, it was dark and moody. Her two pandemic releases, Folklore and Evermore, were bundled into one ‘Folk-more’ act at dusk with a pastoral feel and, in Cardigan and Betty, two of her most refined character sketches. Champagne Problems, sung in singer-songwriter style at the piano, was preceded by long lockdown memories. “We never knew if we would ever do this concert again,” she said.
By the time we reached the 1989 era, with its fun feel-good hits Style, Blank Space and Shake It Off, the sing-alongs had become happy sing-alongs.
Swift’s two most recent LPs, Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department, arrived late, but even a setlist as tightly planned as this one allowed for some room for spontaneity, and in an ‘unplugged’ section towards the end of the show Taylor played solo. guitar and then piano singing spontaneous songs, including ‘Tis The Damn Season and Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve.
It’s easy to get lost in the Swiftiverse: the speculation surrounding lyrics about her exes; the different color codes for each album; the £1.5 billion this tour is expected to make. But all the background noise disappears as soon as this brilliant artist takes the stage.
With two more performances in Edinburgh tonight and tomorrow, and more concerts in Liverpool, Cardiff and London, those lucky enough to have tickets will see a show that is both era-spanning and era-defining. With Taylor at the peak of her powers, this is the music event of the year.
