If there’s one thing 2023 has taught us: it’s Taylor Swift’s world and we’re just spreading ourselves thin in it.
Miss Americana herself turns 34 today, the same day she Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour the film begins to be broadcast, ending a year of career peaks. Scoring a Golden Globe nomination this week for her concert film is the icing on the cake of being recently named Time’s Person of the Year and the news that her “Eras Tour” is officially the first to raise more than US$1 billion.
While some may complain too much about Swift, it was a banner year for the “Lavender Haze” singer — a year in which she hit her stride in seemingly every facet of her life. Her successes have been so varied—like her record-breaking tour being turned into the highest-grossing concert film of all time and potentially winning a Globe—that it truly seems like everything she touches turns to gold. All the while, she looks so comfortable wherever she wants to be—onstage in front of a sea of Swifties, on the red carpet at her movie premiere or off-hours, chaperoning a Kansas City Chiefs luxury box.
A year of sensational records
When tickets for the “Eras Tour” went on sale in 2022, it was such a disaster that it led to a government investigation. With all the drama – including the astronomical ticket prices – it could have been a PR disaster. Instead, Swift changed the narrative and – after six months of hardcore tour preparation – put together a killer three-hour, 40-plus-song show spanning every musical era of hers to date.
Swifties, her loyal fan base, showed up in force. When the tour kicked off in the US in March, fans rocked special outfits, including Swiftie Dads with colorful elbow-length friendship bracelets. They became participants in the show, making so much noise in Seattle that it caused record seismic activity. It has been estimated that the average concert goer in the US spent $1,300 to attend a show. Some fans traveled to different cities and booked hotels or Airbnbs. People who couldn’t get tickets showed up at the arenas anyway at the “Taylor-gate” outside. All of this pumped so much money into local economies that the Federal Reserve gave Swift credit for boosting the economy and “Taylornomics” became a thing.
This month, the tour surpassed the $1 billion mark in earnings, setting a new record. Now international, with dates until 2024, it is estimated that it will raise twice as much throughout the tour.
The “Eras Tour” was also turned into an epic three-hour concert film released on October 13th. Savvy Swift, following her father’s advice, cut out the middleman, releasing the film directly through AMC. It became the highest-grossing concert film (among other records) and was nominated for a Golden Globe in the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement category.
To coincide with its anniversary, the film – with bonus songs “Wildest Dreams”, “Long Live” and “The Archer” – is available to rent on Wednesday.
She also re-recorded two of her albums amid her efforts to recover your music after a dispute with his former record company. First it was Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), originally released in 2010, which dropped on July 7th. It debuted at number one, and Swift broke the record for most number one albums by a female artist. Then it came 1989 (Taylor’s version), originally released in 2014, released on October 27th. It became his 13th number one album and was his best debut ever. (She is also broken records after records this year for your music).
Then there are the new awards she won in 2023:
At the end of the year, she was named Time’s Person of the Year, joining a list full of presidents, innovators and activists. (Another cat fact: Her cat, Benjamin Button, was in the photo shoot.) She was also crowned Apple Artist of the Year and Spotify’s Top Global Artist of 2023.
Everything she did this year was so big that Gannett hired a reporter just to write stories about her (even though there was backlash against the hiring). Meanwhile, the number of universities offering Swift courses has grown and now includes Harvard. Google until blocked her from the trending searches list for the year 2023saying that Swift’s inclusion was too “predictable”.
A year of personal growth
In her Time interview, her first in print in four years, Swift said, “This is the proudest and happiest I’ve ever felt, and the most creatively fulfilled and free I’ve ever been.” It shows.
Swift’s personal life has always gone hand in hand with her songwriting (as John Mayer knows all too well), so fans are now hoping for some pop-style love songs amid this happy era of her romance with NFL star Travis Kelce. After her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn — and whatever it was with The 1975’s Matty Healy — she’s clearly happy with her partnership with Kelce, loving out loud for the first time in years.
“When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see you do what you love, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care,” she said, adding, “Life is short. Have adventures. Me locking myself in the house for many years – I’ll never get that time back.”
In turn, Kelce said WSJ. Magazine from her “genius” partner in November: “The scrutiny she gets, how much she uses a magnifying glass, every day, paparazzi outside her house, outside every restaurant she goes to, after every flight she gets off, and she’s just living, enjoying life. When she acts like this, I better not be the one acting weird.
Despite her unhappiness about, in her words, “some parents, Brads and Chads,” she is cheering Kelce on at her games, looking A+ as always in the plush box with his familyyour old friends and some new. He did the same for her on her Brazil tour. They have PDA, here and outside the country.
It is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion per Forbes, Swift has continued to be a philanthropist, donating $1 million to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee’s Emergency Relief Fund just this week in the wake of the tornadoes there. She gave money to food banks throughout her “Eras Tour.” When her fan Ana Clara Benevides Machado died at her concert amid a heatwave in Brazil last month, Swift connected with her family, took them to a concert and donated money to her parents.
His generosity extended to his friends. For example, when her friend Sophie Turner embarked on an international custody battle amid her split with Joe Jonas (also Swift’s ex), the singer allowed the The Game of Thrones actress to stay in one of her apartments in New York. She supported friend Emma Stone’s debut and won’t say no to a fun night out with her best friends, including Selena Gomez, Cara Delevingne and Zoë Kravitz.
Especially noteworthy, however, is his alliance with Beyoncé, who also rocked this year on tour and with a concert film. They appeared at each other’s premieres, teaching young fans that lifting up other women is the way forward.
“There were so many stadium tours this summer, but the only ones that were compared were me and Beyoncé,” Swift told Time. “It is evident that it is very profitable for the media and stan culture to pit two women against each other, even when the two artists in question refuse to participate in that discussion.”
It’s not just women. Swift appeared for Hugh Jackman amid his divorce and supported ex Harry Styles at the Grammys.
Looking to 2024
Swift’s tour resumes in February and continues until December 2024. During that time, she is expected to break her current record, with the tour grossing more than $2 billion. Each tour stop and new album will be covered in the news and will be on all social networks.
The same will happen with sightings of Kelce at his shows, especially those where she yells at him in her lyrics or run to kiss him. The same goes for her support of him when it comes to the Chiefs this season. Their dinners will also be “open” and if their relationship reaches a new level, all bets are off as far as media coverage is concerned.
The Grammy Awards are on February 4th — and Swift already made history at the Grammys with the most nominations for Song of the Year. This year, “Anti-Hero” has seven, but she also scored her sixth Album of the Year nomination for Midnight, leaving her tied with Barbra Streisand for the most nominations for a female artist in that category. She has six nominations in total – and her schedule is clear that day, so expect her to be there.
We are also still waiting for two more re-recordings of the album: Taylor Swift (2006) and Reputation (2017). And that’s to say nothing about new music. Although we apparently saw her separation from Alwyn through her Midnight vault track ‘You’re Losing Me’, you know she’s going to dig deep – and then catch us up on all of Kelce’s feelings.
She will do all this with the new sensitivity she has acquired. After being – in her words to Time – “lifted up and down the mast of public opinion so many times over the last 20 years”, she has reached a point where “I don’t have the time or bandwidth to be pressured about things that don’t matter,” while also being “mentally strong enough” to handle all the things that come with stardom “for the first time in my life.”
Are you ready for this?”
