A lesser star than Taylor Swift might have been broken by the events of the last few weeks. First, the awful events in Southport, when three little girls were killed at a Swift-themed dance class. Then, the cancellation of her Vienna gigs over a credible terror threat. If Swift had called off the Eras Tour, few could have blamed her.
Lesser fans, too, might have given these Wembley dates a miss over security fears. But here they were, nearly 92,000 of them, a mass of sequins, friendship bracelets and slogan T-shirts (A Lot Going On At The Moment was particularly popular). The mood was so sweetly wholesome that when everyone started cheering and waved madly at someone arriving in the VIP tent, it wasn’t for an A-lister, but for a middle-aged lady they had identified as Taylor’s mum.
“Fancy meeting you here at Wembley Stadium,” Swift told the crowd when she arrived on stage, dressed like a super heroine in a silver bodysuit. When she tells her fans that it’s an “absolute honour” to play for them, she sounds like she really means it. “I know how much planning, how much energy and how much effort it takes to come to these shows. It means the world,” she said.
Some had queued since 11am on Wednesday for the chance to be first inside. Others received their exam results in the queue – it’s A-level results day, but who cares about that when you’ve got a ticket to see Taylor Swift?
This is the first of five Wembley dates. By next week, she will have surpassed Michael Jackson to become the solo artist with the most shows at Wembley in a single tour (he played the venue seven times in 1988). By the end of the world tour, which is already more than 100 dates in, Eras will have made more than £1.5 billion in ticket sales.
It’s worth every penny. Swift knows how to put on a brilliant show. Yes, there are pyrotechnics, outfit changes and dancers, but you barely notice them, she holds the centre with such power and poise.
Special guest Ed Sheeran joined Swift for the acoustic set of ‘secret’ songs, which included one of his own (Thinking Out Loud). She ruffled his hair and called him her “second brother”, adding to the feel of this being a giant family gathering.
The set list of 46 songs, over more than three hours (requiring Springsteen levels of stamina), spans her career and diarises her romantic highs and lows. “I tend to be a bit personal and autobiographical in my songwriting. Have you noticed?” she joked.
If security was heightened following events in Vienna, it wasn’t noticeable except for the journey home, with what looked to be armed police stationed outside the Tube.
The atmosphere was relaxed, although when Swift first came on she surveyed the vast audience with what looked like a tear in her eye.
It’s customary for Swift to give her hat to a young fan near the front of the stage during the song 22. This time it was to a starstruck little girl who looked around eight or nine; I can’t have been the only person who was reminded in that moment of Southport. Swift made no direct reference to that tragedy or to Vienna, but it didn’t feel like an omission. The positivity of the night felt like an antidote.
A confession: before tonight, which was a treat for my daughter, I didn’t fully ‘get’ Taylor Swift. Now I do. Midway through the set, proceedings were temporarily halted by an ovation so long and loud and heartfelt that Swift took out her ear monitor to experience it fully.
She likened the audience’s appreciation to “a love system overload”. You could apply that to the whole show. It’s what the world needs right now.
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