Taylor Swift wraps her record-breaking Eras Tour in Vancouver
It’s taken a whopping 632 days to complete and generated billions of dollars as it travelled the globe, but now Taylor Swift’s Eras tour is finally over.
Kicking off in Glendale, Arizona, on 17 March last year and finishing in Vancouver, British Columbia on 8 December, it was perhaps bigger than even Swift could ever have dreamed.
Made up of 149 shows, each running for around three hours, the elaborate performance featured multiple costume changes and a set list of more than 40 songs.
Spanning five continents, the tour has become the highest-grossing of all time and the second most attended, seen by 10.1 million fans worldwide (it was narrowly pipped to the post by Coldplay, with 10.3 million expected to attend their 175 shows).
Swift during a Vancouver show. Pic: AP
Serenaded with Happy Birthday by the Vancouver crowd ahead of her 35th birthday next week, an emotional Swift called it “the adventure of a lifetime” and “the most thrilling chapter of my entire life to date”.
The show has been a cultural touchstone, attended by fans, celebrities including Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts and Adam Sandler and even the UK’s own prime minister (which later led to questions over government intervention in Swift’s security escort for the shows).
Even the PM went to the Era’s tour – although he was later criticised for it. Pic: Keir Starmer/X
And her gigs have been eventful.
During the tour, the singer-songwriter has re-released multiple albums (and one double-feature of new material), donated to foodbanks in every city she visited, and proved an economic angel boosting the local economies of each city she passed through, earning her own economic term – “Swiftenomics“.
In Scotland, fans even triggered an earthquake.
Taylor Swift fans outside Wembley Stadium in August
Her first London shows saw her make headlines worldwide after bringing out her American football player boyfriend Travis Kelce for a surprise appearance.
She went on to make history as the first solo artist to perform at Wembley Stadium eight times on a single tour.
But her return to London two months later came after a difficult few weeks for the star. In July, three young girls died during a stabbing at a dance class inspired by her music in Southport.
Swift said she was “completely in shock” at the “horror” of what happened.
Then, just days later, all three of Swift’s shows in Vienna were cancelled over a suspected terrorist plot, in which the suspects had sought to kill “tens of thousands” of fans.
Pic: AP
Read more:
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‘The power of connection’
The penultimate Canadian show was attended by fellow singer and Vancouver resident Michael Buble, who called it an “unforgettable night”.
“When I tell you I witnessed something last night that I’ve never experienced before and frankly, may never experience again,” he told his four million Instagram followers.
Paying tribute to Swift’s “kindhearted” family, Buble dubbed her a “truly an incredible entertainer,” calling her “power of connection” with her fans “a testament to Taylor’s incredible talents”.
Pic: AP
‘Exciting, powerful, electrifying, intense’
Wrapping her final show, Swift told the audience: “It has been the most exciting, powerful, electrifying, intense, most challenging thing I have ever done in my entire life.
“We have got to perform for over 10 million people on this tour and tonight we get to play one last show for you tonight, in beautiful Vancouver.”
Swift was named Spotify’s most-played artist of the year with more than 26.6 billion streams earlier this week, and she won seven awards at the MTV Video Music Awards and was nominated for six Grammy Awards.
And while there was no big announcement to mark the end of the tour (as is often Swift’s way at key moments in her career), she’s still topping the UK album charts as The Tortured Poets Department soared back up this week after a new anthology version was released.
The Eras Tour may be over, but Swift, it seems, is only just getting started.
This is the highest stakes diplomacy via social media.
The American president just posted on his Truth Social platform: “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding.
“He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers.
“Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Israel-Iran live: Trump says US knows where Iran’s supreme leader is ‘hiding’
It was followed minutes later by “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
In real-time, we are witnessing Donald Trump’s extreme version of maximum pressure diplomacy.
He’d probably call it the ‘art of the deal’, but bunker busters are the tool, and it comes with such huge consequences, intended and unintended, known and unknown.
Read more:
The bunker buster bomb which could destroy Iran’s nuclear ambitions
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Nuclear sites targeted in Iran
There is intentional ambiguity in the president’s messaging. His assumption is that he can apply his ‘art of the deal’ strategy to a deeply ideological geopolitical challenge.
It’s all playing out publicly. Overnight, the New York Times, via two of its best-sourced reporters, had been told that Mr Trump is weighing whether to use B-2 aircraft to drop bunker-busting bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.
Meanwhile, Axios was reporting that a meeting is possible between Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.
The reporting came just as Mr Trump warned “everyone in Tehran to evacuate”. The nuclear sites being threatened with bunker busters are not in Tehran, but Trump’s words are designed to stoke tension, to confuse and to apply intense pressure.
His actions are too. He left the G7 in Canada early and asked his teams to gather in the White House Situation Room.
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Trump: ‘I want an end, not a ceasefire’
This is a game of smoke, mirrors, brinkmanship and – maybe – bluff. In Tehran, what’s left of the leadership is watching and reading closely as they consider what’s next.
Maybe the Supreme Leader and his regime’s days are numbered. Things remain very unpredictable.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
From history, though, regime change, even when it comes with a plan – and there is certainly not one here, spells civil war and from that comes a refugee crisis.
These are truly tense and chaotic times.
World
Ukraine war: 14 killed as Russian missile and drone attacks strike Kyiv – including American citizen
Russian missile and drone attacks have killed 14 people in Kyiv overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.
A 62-year-old US citizen who suffered shrapnel wounds is among the dead.
At least 99 others were wounded in strikes that hollowed out a residential building and destroyed dozens of apartments.
Pic: AP
Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble.
Images show a firefighter was among those hurt, with injured residents evacuated from their homes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “one of the most terrifying attacks on Kyiv” – and said Russian forces had fired 440 drones and 32 missiles as civilians slept in their homes.
“[Putin] wants the war to go on,” he said. “It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it.”
Pic: AP
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said 27 locations across the capital have been hit – including educational institutions and critical infrastructure.
He claimed the attack, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, was one of the largest on the capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Drones swarmed over the city, with an air raid alert remaining in force for seven hours.
One person was killed and 17 others injured as a result of separate Russian drone strikes in the port city of Odesa.
Pic: Reuters
It comes as the G7 summit in Canada continues, which Ukraine’s leader is expected to attend.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold talks with Donald Trump – but the president has announced he is unexpectedly returning to Washington because of tensions in the Middle East.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says Moscow’s decision to attack Kyiv during the summit is a signal of disrespect to the US.
Moscow has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks, and says the attacks are in retaliation for a Ukrainian operation that targeted warplanes in airbases deep within Russian territory.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says fires broke out in two of the city’s districts as a result of debris from drones shot down by the nation’s air defences.
Read more from Sky News:
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US-UK trade deal is ‘done’, Donald Trump says
Pic: AP
On X, Ukraine’s foreign ministry wrote: “Russia’s campaign of terror against civilians continues. Its war against Ukraine escalates with increased brutality.
“The only way to stop Russia is tighter pressure – through sanctions, more defence support for Ukraine, and limiting Russia’s ability to keep sowing war.”
Olena Lapyshnak, who lived in one of the destroyed buildings, said: “It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life. I can only curse the Russians, that’s all I can say. They shouldn’t exist in this world.”
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