Award-Winning Popstar, Taylor Swift, is taking the world by storm with her sixth stadium sell-out concert, The Eras Tour. This concert set list consists of iconic songs from all 10 of her hit albums, taking fans on a full journey through 17 years of music. This past weekend, Swift performed 3 shows on May 12th, 13th, and 14th, at Lincoln Financial Field (home of the Philadelphia Eagles), near her hometown. I went to the Friday night show, without knowing the set list prior, and this is what I have to say about it. 

I arrived a little late to the stadium and missed Swift’s first opener, Gayle, but I arrived just in time to hear Phoebe Bridgers. I’ve been a big fan of Bridgers for a couple years now, so seeing two of my favorite artists in one day was awesome. Bridgers set did not disappoint. She played iconic songs from all her albums, including my favorite Bridgers song “Graceland Too”. People believe Phoebe may be the next Taylor, and after seeing her setlist live, I can’t help but agree. 

Soon after Bridger’s finished her set, a big clock, alluding to the clock from her most recent album “Midnights”, with a countdown popped up onto the screens that surrounded the top of Swifts stage. Fans immediately started screaming, awaiting Swift’s arrival.

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Taylor's Eras tour stopped in Philly this past weekend. Photos provided by Maya Cavolo

As the clock hit zero, we hear Swift’s voice fill the entire arena singing “It’s been a long time” from her song “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince” on the album “Lover”, also alluding to the fact that Swift’s “Lover” tour was cancelled due to COVID, sending fans into copious amounts of screams.

She then continued to repeat the line, adding to it with “It’s been a long time coming”. As this line was continued, dancers with big pinkish-purple sheets entered the stage, and iconic lines from Swift’s albums, filled the blank noise including “It’s Fearless”, “Big Reputation”, “And they said Speak Now”, “My name is Taylor, and I was born in 1989”, “Loving him was Red”, and “Meet me at Midnight”. As these words were repeated, the dancers with the sheets, cover the center of the stage and suddenly, they all pulled back their sheets, revealing a rising Swift in the center singing “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince.” 

The “Lover” Set 

I was not expecting “Miss Americana” to be the opening song at all, but I was not disappointed. It was the PERFECT choice. Swift knows what she’s doing and starting with the “Lover” album was honestly a really strong start since the music is happier. Swift then goes right into “Cruel Summer” which in the middle of the song, she gets the audience pumped up for her first bridge of the night.

After completing the song, Swift speaks for a moment with her audience, talking about how she was going to take them on a journey through 17 years of music and this is her craft, legacy, and she shares how excited her is to share her music with the audience. Swift finishes the “Lover” set with “The Man”, “You Need to Calm Down”, “Lover”, and “The Archer”.

I honestly feel like these 6 songs were beautiful choices to show off the album, I was little disappointed by the lack of “Cornelia Street” and “False God”, but the 6 choices truly did show the tone differences between the different parts of the album since songs like “Lover” and “The Archer” are more softer lover songs while “The Man” and “You Need to Calm Down” are pegging at Swift’s haters (which is ICONIC).

If there’s one thing Swift knows how to do, it’s how to come back stronger than ever. Taylor then disappeared, making time for her to quick change into her next outfit for her next Era. 

The “Fearless” Set 

Taylor’s electronic stage changed from pink to the iconic yellow guitar from her Grammy award winning country album “Fearless”, and we start hearing the backing track to the titular track. The crowd went WILD. Though the title track isn’t the most popular track of the album, it truly encapsulates the writing style of Swift in the beginning of her career. It’s true teenage hopeless-romantic core and I’m HERE for it.

She then played two of her most iconic songs “You Belong With Me” and “Love Story”. Honestly, I was in tears the entire set. If there’s one thing Taylor Swift can do besides song writing and performing, it’s stage presence. Though the “Fearless” set was shorter than the “Lover” set, I think it perfectly showcased all the beauty that is the “Fearless” album. We then once again see Swift disappear into the stage and we know it’s time for our next Era. 

The “evermore” Set 

As Swift left the stage, the stage started growing LITERAL TREES OUT OF THE STAGE. The stage also brought on a greenery covered piano. The lighting shifted to orangish-brown. The vibe immediately shifted from what was a teenage lust to an adult maturity about love, that being “evermore”. Swift then almost immediately pops back out of the stage in a completely different outfit (this quick change had to have been like 1-minute tops), and she begins singing her hit song “’tis the damn season”, which the crowd went especially crazy for this weekend due to the line “it always leads to you in my hometown”.

Swift then sang her most popular “evermore” song “willow”, followed by “marjorie”, Swift’s song about her grandmother. To honor her memory and show their support, fans put on their phone flashlights which quite literally made Swift’s jaw drop in compassion. After the song, Swift headed over to her piano, and anecdotally tells the story of her grandmother and her thankfulness to have such a great crowd at her hometown show. She shares about her father was so excited for her to perform that night after seeing how great the audience reacted to Phoebe Bridger’s opening set. She then begins to play “champagne problems”, one of her most emotional songs after heartbreak and once she finished, she humbly took in the applause for a moment before inviting her pianist on stage to play the backing for her final song in the set, “tolerate it”. Swift gracefully left the stage to change once again, this time for her most cut-throat era yet. 

The “Reputation” Set 

So it goes, her reputation’s never been worse so we must like her for her! “Reputation” being her next era was SUCH A MOVE. Going from one of her deepest most emotional albums to her most pegging at the hater’s album was an amazing choice.

To make fans aware of what was coming next, she put snakes slithering on the screen then across the stage. She then popped up in a beautiful black fit with a red snake on it, covered in sequins. She began the set with the iconic song “Ready For It?”, which led into “Don’t Blame Me”, “Delicate”, and “Look What You Made Me Do” to finish it off. Not to mention, the transition between “Delicate” and “Look What You Made Me Do” was the smoothest thing I have EVER heard. These were such powerful choices for not only her vocal abilities, but also to showcase the POWER that is “Reputation”.

The only thing I feel like this set really lacks is the different types of songs on it. She sang only the very intense powerful songs on the album, but not the songs like “Getaway Car” or “New Years Day” which could’ve been cool editions, but nonetheless, I think the “Rep” set was one of my favorites of the night. The dancers were eccentric during this set too. It was just so enjoyable to watch. 

The “Speak Now” Set 

After ending the “Rep” set, Taylor disappeared again, but this time when she returned, she came waltzing through the center of the back of the stage in a purple ball gown singing the iconic song “Enchanted” from “Speak Now” meaning it was time for this era of the tour, but honestly, this era was the most disappointing because “Enchanted” was the only song from the album that she sang. In my opinion, “Speak Now” is one of Swift’s no skip albums, so it was honestly surprising she didn’t sing more from the fan-favorite album. She recently announced that she will be releasing her version of the album on July 7th, so she may be trying to keep most of the new versions of the album on the downlow until it’s released but nonetheless, any true Swiftie was disappointed by this era’s stage time. But after “Speak Now”, it was time for my personal favorite album to hit the stage. 

The “Red” Set 

Nex thing we knew, we were onto the next era, starting off with the hit single “22” from Taylor’s iconic album “Red”. The vibe of this album is what makes me love it the most because it’s what bridges the gap between Swift’s teenage hopeless romanticism and her pop self-aware heartbreak. She was wearing a shirt that said, “A lot going on at the moment” to allude to her iconic OG shirt from back in the day that read “Not a lot going on at the moment”.

Wearing this more lowkey outfit to start off this set was the perfect choice because it showcased how carefree the “Red” era truly was for her. All her back up dancers were in completely red outfits too, which truly sealed the deal. After “22”, Swift switched into a red and black romper for her iconic songs “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and “I Knew You Were Trouble”. Though I love these songs, I SOOOOO wish she sang “State of Grace” too, that song just feels like it’d fit perfectly. After those songs, Swift added a red and black sequined jacket and her guitar, and invited Phoebe Bridgers back onto the stage for their sob-fest of a song “Nothing New” from “Red (Taylor’s Version)”. I was not expecting this song to truly kill me but both of them together singing IRL was a masterpiece. To finish off the era, she sang “All Too Well (10 Minute Version from the Vault)” and when I tell you this song was everything I ever wanted and more, I’m not even joking.

At her core, Taylor Swift is a brilliant lyricist through her storytelling and this song is the perfect display of that, plus she sang for 10 minutes nonstop which was extremely impressive considering how much she sings over the entirety of this 44-song concert. The “Red” set was impressively exhilarating as Swift took you through every emotion in roughly 30 minutes. 

The “folklore” Set 

During this set, she created somewhat of a cabin set on the stage and changed into a completely off-white flowy dress to go more with the story telling soft vibe that is “folklore”. The first song she sang was “the 1” and honestly this song was such a move with the shift from “ATWTMV” to this because this song is more of a reflection and about how it sucks when you lose a love but like what can you do. It shows more of her maturity in how her music has grown and that was super cool to hear that difference live. Her next song was “betty” which was extra special at my show because all of the names in the song, James, Inez and Betty, are based off her nieces and nephew aka Blake Lively’s kids and they were at the concert, so she acknowledged them, and it was adorable. “the last great american dynasty”, “august”, “illicit affairs”, “my tears ricochet”, and “cardigan” followed in the set. They were really strong choices to display the beauty of the album. Lyrically, this album is one of her best albums. “tlgad”, “august”, and “cardigan” were the somewhat happier choices for the set and “illicit affairs” and “my tears ricochet” were deeper lyrically. This album overall is one of her sadder sets, but I’m glad she included so much of it nonetheless because it’s very powerful. 

The “1989” Set 

I was SO excited for the “1989” set because this album has some of her most iconic songs plus it’s such an easy album to jam out to. I knew this set wouldn’t disappoint and I was right. Firstly, she had a pink sequined outfit on, and it was the MOVES for the album. She started with the iconic song, “Style” which was such a solid choice to start off her iconic album. Then followed by her classic songs “Blank Space”, “Shake it Off”, “Wildest Dreams”, and “Bad Blood”, it was clear that she truly loves doing this album because the stage presence and setting was INSANEEE.

The dances were so good, and the stage effects were awesome, like when fire set off on every other beat in “Bad Blood”. This set was one of the most enjoyable to watch. The only thing I wish was different was that I was hoping she’d include some of her other songs on the album like “Out of the Woods”, “Clean”, or “Wonderland”, but nonetheless the set was jaw-droppingly beautiful. 

Surprise Song O’Clock 

This is the only part of the concert I have been following on social media since it’s different songs every time. I had some speculations about what my songs could’ve been, but I was completely wrong. Firstly, she came out in her deep magenta flowy dress, which was gorgeous, but she started speaking to the audience once again about how special it was to be performing in her hometown. She then went on to explain how people always ask if her line from her song “gold rush” from the album “evermore” that says, “with my Eagles t-shirt hanging from the door” is about the football team or the band “The Eagles”. But she explains that it’s about the football team, making “gold rush” her first surprise song of the night innnnn the Eagles stadium, which was so cool.

She played the song on the guitar, and it was a pretty cool rendition. For her next surprise song, she moved over to the piano and shared that the song was requested by Phoebe Bridgers, and she’ll do anything Bridgers’ asks her to do which was an adorable little anecdote. Then she just started to play “Come Back…Be Here” from her album “Red”. I LOVE THIS SONG and getting to hear it live on the piano was unreal. I never would’ve thought that’d be one of her surprise song choices though because I feel that the song is somewhat underrated, but paired with “gold rush”, it made the little section of the concert so special and perfect. 

The “Midnights” Set 

Swift kept her most recent album, “Midnights” for her closing. This was the perfect choice since the album is more upbeat but also about self-awareness and maturity at its core but also being petty. It’s a phenomenal album and just pure Taylor writing. “Lavender Haze” was the first song in the set followed by “Anti-Hero” and “Midnight Rain”. They all looked visually amazing but what really took the gold was “Vigilante S—“. Swift and her dancers used chairs that they all danced on as they raised and lowered on platforms. Watching it was just beautiful.

“Bejeweled” followed and the entire stadium was shimmering!! “Mastermind” followed and then Swift ended the entire night with “Karma”. It was a really beautiful closing and strong choice after everything Swift has been through to get her music back under her name.

In her closing performance, she acknowledged every musician and dancer who was on her stage that night and it was honestly super cool to see one of the biggest pop stars in the world showing her appreciation for everyone who made the night so special. 

Overview 

The concert was absolutely amazing and it’s a MUST for all Swifties. She truly thought of all the little details from copious amounts of merchandise to every attendee having a light up bracelet that lit up different colors depending on what song was playing. Everyone there could connect and feel something whether they could sing every word or only a few. This concert was one of the best nights of my life and I’m so grateful for it. I will “remember this moment” forever.