the show starts at Wembley Stadium in London

As Swift brings her blockbuster Eras Tour to London’s Wembley Stadium this weekend, some Swifties are wondering if they’re witnessing the start of an extended goodbye.

London is not ready to see her go. The area around Wembley was transformed for the shows, with fans posing in front of a giant mural of the singer and stairs dubbed “Swiftie Steps” and other tributes.

Swift announced that 88,446 people attended Friday’s show in what she called “the most exciting city in the world.” Among the celebrity guests: Prince William celebrating his 42nd birthday at the show and posing for a photo with Swift alongside two of his children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

Swift gave a wink to fans and a nod to her London life during one of her two surprise acoustic solo songs: a piano medley that opened with London set “The Black Dog ” and continued with “Come Back, Be Here”, then “Bordeaux.”

In addition to this weekend’s concerts, Swift will return to Wembley for five more concerts in August to close out the European leg of the tour.

London is the only city on the tour where Swift stops twice. Some fear the arrangement represents a swan song of sorts, while others believe it simply reflects a new era in Swift’s bond with Big Smoke. Whether “So Long, London” proves to be a final chapter or a bookend to his Valentine’s Day in the city, the song “London Boy,” Eras arrives as an emotional milestone.

“Her relationship now assumes that London is not going to be somewhere she will be. It’s not like there’s an American football player living here,” said Maggie Fekete, 22, a Canadian graduate student who credits to the London references in Swift’s music the orientation. her when she moved to town three years ago. “I think there will be a lot less of London in his music, which is sad.”

Stella Elgood, 25, of London, said Friday that she assumed Swift would sing “So Long, London” at some point during her eight nights in the city, but that Swift “will always be welcome.”

“Especially since she dated Harry Styles, she’s here in the zeitgeist,” Elgood said.

For those who haven’t been paying attention, Swift had a series of romances with famous British citizens (including Styles in 2012) that ended last year, when she began dating the winger Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Speculation around “So Long, London” and a mournful backing song that mentions a London pub, “The Black Dog,” stems from the 2023 breakup of Swift and English actor Joe Alwyn, who were together for over six years.

Alwyn is speculated to have inspired “London Boy,” a song from her 2019 album “Lover.” A special edition “Lover” CD included what appeared to be a January 2017 diary entry in which Swift talked about being “mainly based in London” but trying to keep a low profile. British tabloids later reported that Swift had spent much of the Covid-19 pandemic sheltering in place at Alwyn’s house in north London.

The Sun newspaper reported in December that the multiple Grammy Award winner had purchased a large property in the area and was renovating it as her base in Europe. However, after Swift released “The Tortured Poets Department” last month, a writer for the British edition of ELLE magazine observed that Londoners had an opening “for an all-American star who can take her place in our collective consciousness “.

“We had Swift before we lost her to her box office record-breaking Eras tour and now it looks like her vacancy has been filled by Zendaya,” writer Naomi May posited before listing the different places where the American actor had been seen with her long-time boyfriend, British actor Tom Holland.

Either way, the capital is putting on its own show to make sure Swift and her fans feel appreciated. Guides offer walking, bus and taxi tours that trace her footsteps, including to a kebab shop whose owner says his establishment is supplying sandwiches to the singer and her team on Friday.

Before August ends, Swifties can partake in a full diet of Swift-themed brunches and dance parties, or ride the London Eye Ferris wheel accompanied by a string quartet playing her music. Souvenir stalls at Camden Market, one of the locations mentioned in “London Boy,” stocked up on Swift-specific caps, T-shirts, bags and stickers in preparation.

Amy Unsworth, 34, from a small town near Manchester, England, and born a month before Swift, said Friday that the singer’s ties to the United Kingdom and vice versa extend beyond the capital city.

“I feel like, as a Northerner, I have an affinity with her,” Unsworth said, noting that Swift wrote many of the songs on her album “Evermore” while she was in the region. lakes in England with Alwyn.

“It’s hard to know how she feels right now, being back, given her history.”

Unsworth isn’t afraid Swift is turning her back on the UK. Swift said from the stage that her British fans “have been some of the most supportive people in my corner since I started making music.” Swift first performed in London at age 17, when she appeared at the student union at Kings College London.

“I think she’ll come back” after Eras, Unsworth said. “She has too many devoted fans not to come back. She’s created too much momentum here to forget about us.”

Zachary Hourihane, who co-hosts a Swift podcast called “Evolution of a Snake” and posts YouTube and TikTok videos under the name Swiftologist, said Thursday it was too early to know whether the singer would retain her honorary citizenship or would separate from London. As her fans know very well, only time will tell with Taylor.

“Taylor is someone who retraces her steps a lot. Things are never really over with her. She likes to revisit things that are over,” he said. “Let’s be real. Her relationship, even if it’s ‘see you soon, goodbye’, she has good reason to be in London and a lot of money to make there.”