Sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. WHY? Oh, cause she’s headlining a critically acclaimed stadium tour.

Since she first broke out onto the country music scene in 2006, Taylor Swift has been America’s Sweetheart. And after 10 albums, 2 re-recordings, a short film and a whopping 540 awards, she’s not done yet. 

In 2015, Swift seemed to be at the height of success, with her album 1989 marking  an iconic shift from country to pop. The record breaking album not only solidified Swift’s talent as a songwriter, but as a force to be reckoned with. And while she’s undoubtedly had her fair share of controversies, including the infamous feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, and being labeled as a “serial dater”, Swift wasn’t  going anywhere. In fact, her way to respond to her doubters was by throwing herself head first into her work.

In her 2020 Netflix documentary Miss Americana, Swift described the music industry as a graveyard of female pop stars who are disregarded the second they turn 30. She believed that her 2019 album Lover would be one of her last chances to grasp onto success while the industry still tolerated her achievements. So lets recap what Swift has achieved since she turned 30: the release of  sister albums folklore and evermore, two re-recorded albums, an award winning short film for her song All Too Well, her 10th album Midnights, and her sold out Era’s Tour.

When Swift first announced the tour – her first since 2018 – millions of fans signed up for the Ticketmaster presale (14 million, to be exact). People waited for hours in the Ticketmaster queue and were aggravated as the site continued to crash. The vast majority of fans left the queue disappointed. The lucky fans who walked away with tickets have expressed their joy by saying that they “survived the great war”; a reference to Swift’s song The Great War. Fans experiences’ trying to buy tickets has led to widespread criticism of Ticketmaster.

On March 18th, 2023, Taylor Swift opened the Era’s Tour in Glendale, Arizona. The city, which was temporarily renamed to “Swift City” in honor of the tour’s opening, went  on a journey throughout the last 15 years of Swift’s career. She  brought each of her albums to life, starting with the pastel wonderland that is her album Lover. She then created the dark cityscape of Reputation, the forests of both folklore and evermore, and everything else you can imagine in an impressive three and a half hour spectacle. 

I am attending Swift’s show at MetLife Stadium on May 28th, 2023, and I could not be more excited. I’ve been a hardcore swiftie since I was a kid and I am counting down the days until I am finally able to hear all of my favorite songs live.