Swift doesn't miss a beat in 45-song three-hour concert

Singer-songwriter uncorks bottles and bottles of nostalgia

- ANNABEL NUGENT

As Taylor Swift emerges on stage, stepping out from a billowing shell of pastel sheets like Venus herself - a Botticellian blonde in a bejewelled bodysuit – it dawns on me that I’ve seen this before. I know on what exact beat she’ll turn her head and flip her hair. Like the world’s most useless soothsayer, I can see precisely 30 seconds into the future of this evening at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh, where Swift performs her hugely anticipated Eras Tour for the first time in the UK.

The show’s mammoth three-hour duration has been sliced, diced and fed to the people, willing or otherwise, in videos, photos, and front-page spreads that have circulated endlessly since it kicked off in Arizona in March 2023. The Eras Tour – immortalised last year on the big screen (the highest-grossing concert film of all time) – has already made a billionaire out of Swift, and an omnipresent one at that. Because although tonight may be the first time I see Eras in person, virtually, it’s the gazillionth time Swift has beckoned me, and the 73,000 others in the crowd, with the fast flick of her wrist to the woozy tones of set opener “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince”.

You’d be wrong to think that familiarity breeds boredom, though. As the onstage clock strikes midnight (in reality, it is 7.15pm), we all watch, our collective breath held, as though it’s the first time she has ever stepped onto a stage. The excitement reaches fever pitch as Swift charges into the euphoric synth pop chords of fan favourite “Cruel Summer” – the second in a 45song set in which the musician surveys her 18-year ascent from Nashville prodigy to culture-dominating pop behemoth.

The show is a well-oiled machine, pistons firing on all cylinders. Every move is choreographed to perfection: every sashay of fringe on her hips, each heel turn of her cowboy boot. The consummate professional, Swift doesn’t miss a beat even as she alerts security to a fan in need of help.