Image source, Getty Images
- Author, Marc Sauvage
- Role, Music correspondent
Taylor Swift kicked off the European leg of her record-breaking Eras tour in France with a revamped setlist.
The star cut several songs and restructured the concert to feature music from his latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.
Fan favorites including The Archer and The 1 were dropped in favor of new songs like Fortnight and Down Bad.
The star also showed off several new outfits, including a sparkly red bodysuit for the opening portion of the show and a black dress with silver pom poms from the Fearless era.
Image source, Getty Images
Swift took the stage at La Défense Arena in Paris shortly after 8 p.m. local time as Miss Americana and the Broken Prince, before greeting the sold-out crowd with a flirtatious “enchanted.”
She added that she felt “incredibly lucky” to kick off the European leg of her tour in “the most beautiful and romantic city in the world.”
The 34-year-old remained on stage for more than three hours, finishing just after 11 p.m., having performed 45 songs during her 18-year career.
The tour is themed around the different “eras” she created in that time, with individual sets dedicated to each of her 11 studio albums.
The Paris concert was Swift’s first since the release of The Tortured Poets Department, a 31-track double album, three weeks ago.
To make room for new material, condensed sister albums Folklore and Evermore (both recorded during the Covid pandemic) into a single “Folkmore” chapter.
All songs added and removed by Taylor
Songs cut from the setlist:
- The Archer (Lover era)
- Long live (Speak Now era)
- The 1st (folklore era)
- Tis The Damn Season (Evermore era)
- Tolerate It (Evermore era)
- The Last Great American Dynasty (Folklore Era)
- But dad, I love him
- So high school
- Who’s afraid of little old me
- Down bad
- Fifteen days
- The smallest man who ever lived
- I can do it with a broken heart
Surprise songs / acoustic set
- Paris (midnight)
- Loml (Department of tortured poets)
Image source, Getty Images
Fans spotted changes to the lavish stadium show almost immediately after it began, with the intro music updated to include samples of music from the tortured poets department.
But the first real confirmation came when The Archer cut off, 15 minutes into the concert. It was traditionally the sixth song in the setlist of previous stages.
Then, Swift pulled another surprise: moving the sequence focusing on her album Red to an earlier part of the show.
During these songs, the star wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the declaration: “This is not Taylor’s version” – a reference to the ongoing campaign to re-record her first six albums.
Image source, Getty Images
Swift performed the material from the Department of Tortured Poets in a billowing cream ballgown, while the onstage visuals adopted a new black-and-white theme.
For the downbeat ballad Down Bad, she appeared in the tractor beam of a UFO – a reference to the song’s opening lyrics: “Did you really teleport me / Into a cloud of sparkling dust / Just to make experiences?”
The new music largely deals with the breakdown of two relationships – with British actor Joe Alwyn and The 1975’s lead singer Matty Healy.
On stage, Swift jokingly described this part of the show as “female rage, musical comedy.”
The final part of the show – focused on the diaphanous pop of 2022’s Midnights album – remained unchanged, with Swift ending with the hit single Karma.
Image source, Getty Images
The pop superstar’s tour has become a cultural phenomenon, on a scale not seen since Madonna and Michael Jackson’s concerts in the 1980s.
She plays 152 stadium dates, with dates booked through December 2024.
When it finishes, ticket sales are expected to reach $1.4 billion (£1.1 billion), making it the highest-grossing tour of all time, topping $939 million (£750 million pounds) that Elton John earned on his multi-year farewell tour.
The tour hits the UK on June 7, with dates in Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and London.
Gn entert
News Source : www.bbc.com
