Taylor Swift Wraps First Leg of ‘The Eras Tour’ With 6 Dazzling Nights in Los Angeles

Sandra Miska

After months of headlines about Taylor Swift’s record-breaking “The Eras Tour” — the frenzy for tickets, long lines for merchandise, $100,000 bonuses she gave members of her road crew, performing under pouring rain in Foxborough — Swift finally arrived in Los Angeles on Aug. 3 for six shows, the longest string of concerts at any of the cities on the North American leg of her tour. These SoFi Stadium shows were initially set to be Swift’s last dates of her initial run in the United States, and Entertainment Voice was there to capture one of Swift’s dazzling, career-spanning performances.

“The Eras Tour” has been likened to Beatlemania, a comparison that is not just hyperbole. While Swift’s camp has not released official figures, Pollstar estimated that she has been raking in $14 million in ticket sales for each show. This means that by the time the tour, which will stop at a total of 146 stadiums around the world, wraps in November 2024, it will have made approximately $1.4 billion, making it the highest-grossing tour to date, surpassing Elton John’s current record of $939 million for his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour. And, that’s not to mention the economic boom Swift brings to each city she performs in. Multiple international politicians have even petitioned Swift to stop by their countries, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The impact of “The Eras Tour” is far more than just economical, it has also become a cultural phenomenon with many celebrities turning up for “The Eras Tour,” both on and off the stage. Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner, Phoebe Bridgers, Ice Spice, Maren Morris and Marcus Mumford have all performed alongside Swift, while Selena Gomez, Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, Billy Joel, Jennifer Garner, Charlize Theron, Mindy Kaling, Gigi Hadid, Channing Tatum and many, many more have popped up among the throngs of Swifties spending hundreds to thousands of dollars to attend a performance. Swift-mania has swept across the globe, and exploded on social media. Even a Filipino drag queen, Taylor Sheesh, has been performing a recreation of “The Eras Tour” in front of packed crowds in Manila and other cities, and has become a hit on TikTok.

Much has happened since Swift’s 2018 “Reputation Stadium Tour.” The world came to a standstill due to the global pandemic, but Swift managed to stay more active than any notable recording artist, releasing four new albums and three re-recorded albums since 2019. Now, her most expansive tour to date encapsulates her 17-year career, celebrating her evolution as an artist. The maturity and experience Swift has acquired through the years is evident in her most recent albums, “Folklore,” “Evermore” and “Midnights,” but she can still get down to teen love songs, such as “You Belong With Me” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” and fans at the SoFi Stadium concerts have loved every minute of it.

The energy at the SoFi Stadium has been electrifying as Swift played beloved songs from her different albums, or “eras,” and while there is no doubt that Swift is a one-woman force of nature, she has had an incredible team behind her who helped bring to life the concept behind each of her albums for each era; not only her back-up singers and dancers, but also her production and design team. Swift started off the shows with the “Lover” era, full of pinks and other pastels, and ended the sets with the dark light of “Midnights,” and in-between there’s the sultry hues of the “Red” era, the boldness and flashes of the “Reputation” era, and a set meant to look like an enchanted wooded area to represent the “Evermore” era. But the most breathtaking set is that of the “Folklore” era, which features an A-frame cottage that Swift climbs atop, living her best life isolated in the woods in front of thousands of people. Every outfit Swift wears contains some degree of sparkle, and many fans at the SoFi shows were inspired to wear their own sequined and jeweled outfits.

The crowd at these shows is heavily female, and while the media likes to make much out of Swift’s relationships with men, no one who has attended any of her concerts could ever be left in doubt that she is a girl’s girl. At many points during her three-hour-plus performances, she gives intros to her songs that feel very personal, and she bonds with the audience, making a packed stadium feel like an intimate venue. Who else could perform a ten-minute ballad of “All Too Wild” in an arena, and have the crowd go wild? Among a collection of openers, “The Eras Tour” has reunited Swift with Los Angeles natives Haim, whom she praised and called her close friends. These genuine feelings were evident when the band of sisters joined her on stage again for “No Body, No Crime” at the Aug. 7 SoFi concert.  

Another highlight of Swift’s concerts is her performance of “22,” Swift’s upbeat ode to young adulthood in which she pokes a little fun at herself. The singer wears a bowler hat during this number which she proceeds to give to a child in the crowd. At her first of the six SoFi concerts, she gifted her hat to Bianka Bryant, the young daughter of late basketball great Kobe, who not many people realize was a pal of Swift’s.

Other highlights of the shows include Swift performing “Lover” in front of a dollhouse set, going back to her country roots for “Love Story,” making a choreographed dance number look effortless for “Shake It Off,” pumping up the crowd with “…Ready For It?,” and a rendition of “The 1” on top of the aforementioned A-frame. At every concert, Swift has played two surprise songs unique to that show, and on Monday, Aug. 7 she brought down the house with two stripped-down numbers, “Dress” on guitar and “Exile” on piano.

Next up, Swift will make her final North American stop for 2023 in Mexico City, before taking a much-needed break ahead of her next leg in South America this November. In 2024, she is scheduled for several international concerts before returning to North America for a string of newly added performances, and is scheduled to wrap up “The Eras Tour” November 2024 in Toronto.