Taylor Swift is undeniably on top of the world.
Eighteen years into her career, her success is constantly reaching new heights and her popularity is growing. Holding almost every record under the sun, Swift is undeniably one of the biggest superstars of all time. In the past year alone Swift has received honors ranging from her 14th Grammy (including her 4th –record breaking– album of the year award) to being TIME’s person of the year. Still she continues to release music left and right, recently releasing 31 brand new tracks for her album The Tortured Poets Department. In the midst of all this, Swift has also been on her record breaking world tour.
The Eras Tour is Swift’s sixth concert tour; the three hour performance takes her audience through 9 of her ten musical eras. With 152 sold out stadium shows, the tour marks the highest grossing tour of all time, with a staggering billion-plus dollars in revenue. With shows across five continents this tour is reaching fans all over the globe.
One thing you should never do is underestimate Taylor Swift’s impact. Her influence has allowed her to change the way streaming platforms pay artists and her fans even managed to decrease the price of eggs by 13% due to a joke at the 2023 Grammys. The impact of the Eras tour was evident as soon as the tickets went on sale. After the absolute debacle that was the presale for the U.S. leg of the tour, which caused very few fans to secure tickets and the prices to skyrocket, Swifties’ displeasure towards the company Ticketmaster spearheaded movements to call the company out for their fees, reselling, and overall monopoly. This resulted in senate meetings and later several bills and laws to be introduced across the U.S. to regulate the ticket industry.
Throughout the different stops of the tour, every city Swift toured showed their excitement about hosting her. The city leaders of Glendale, Arizona, ignited this trend by announcing that the city would be known as ‘Swift City’ during the days of her shows. Following this, each stop found their own way to honor the singer as she graced their arenas.
After Glendale, Las Vegas chose to light up their iconic gateway arches in honor of the singer. Next up Arlington, Texas not only renamed a road ‘Swift Way’ for the weekend, but gave Swift a key to the city. Tampa, Florida made her the honorary mayor, giving her the ‘key to the city’ as well. When Swift visited Houston the stadium she performed at renamed itself NRG Stadium (Taylor’s Version) for the weekend, while Nashville dedicated a bench to Swift in Centennial Park with the lyrics to her song invisible string that reference the park. Following this one of Philadelphia’s popular radio stations played exclusively Swift’s music during the time of her visit. The Governor of New Jersey then jumped onto this trend by announcing the Taylor Swift Ham, Egg and Cheese Sandwich to be the “state sandwich of New Jersey” and requested his favorite song be played at the concert. Minneapolis and Santa Clara temporarily renamed themselves Swift-apolis and Swifie Clara respectively, and Kentucky changed their Taylor Avenue to Taylor Swift Avenue for the weekend.
Arguably one of the biggest honors Swift has received so far was during her tour’s visit to Brazil. An image of Swift’s ‘junior jewels’ shirts from her infamous You Belong with Me music video was projected onto Rio de Janeiro’s iconic ‘Christ the Redeemer.’ The 125 foot statue of Jesus Christ is a cultural icon for the country of Brazil and one of the new 7 wonders of the world. In return for the projection, Swifties were challenged with fundraising for the Catholic Church’s Day of the Poor, and ended up raising over $37,000 dollars for the fund that went towards Rio’s homeless.
The ‘hype’ around her visits isn’t just from excitement to see the singer, but also her impact on the places she went. The arts and crafts industry felt her effect with all the fans rushing to buy materials to make and trade friendship bracelets, an Eras Tour tradition. The tour elevated the economy of most of its destinations by generating tourism and revitalizing local businesses. Forbes estimated that the tour has generated around five billion in consumer spending in the U.S. already.
In addition to enhancing profits and businesses, Swift also quietly helped out and gave back to communities where she performed, donating her own money to food banks at every stop, and exclusively employed local businesses for all of her crew’s needs.
In addition to the impacts of the concert, the later released concert film had its own major economic influences. On top of becoming the highest grossing concert film, Swift’s unique deal with AMC and movie theaters, which cut out any studios, helped bring many theaters out of the struggles they’ve been facing since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to the economic impact of hosting the Eras Tour, countries all over the world have been begging for the singer to bring her tour to their countries. The president of Chile himself even wrote to Swift requesting her to come, as did the mayor of Budapest. Additionally, before the Canadian dates were announced Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invited her to his country, writing, “It’s me, hi. I know places in Canada would love to have you. So, don’t make it another cruel summer. We hope to see you soon,” in one of his tweets, referencing lyrics from several of her songs.
Swift has even had official governments getting involved in her affairs. In the excitement around the Super Bowl and Swift’s relationship with Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce, many fans began to point out that Swift’s shows in Japan were scheduled right before the big game. Fans and news outlets began speculating on whether Swift would be able to attend the big game. The concern on whether the singer could make it in time got so much attention that the official Japan Embassy went as far to assure fans that the commute was completely plausible. The official statement even included references to several of Swift’s albums.
Despite the general enthusiasm and happiness spread through the tour, the demand for Swift’s show has also caused some political tension in Southeast Asia. Early in March Swift hosted six sold out shows in Singapore, the only Southeast Asia dates of the whole tour. As it turns out, the country of Singapore actually payed an undisclosed amount for this to be the only stop in the region. This caused many of Singapore’s neighbors to be upset, including the Philippines, Thailand, and Hong Kong, who felt that this was an unfair move on Singapore’s part. While Singapore maintains that their deal was not ‘unfriendly,’ it has robbed the other countries of the extreme tourism boom that comes along with Swift. Economists estimated that the shows would bring in around $370 million in tourism to Singapore.
Overall, it is safe to say that Swift garnered much positive reception and enthusiasm during the past year. The recognition she has received from the world has been compared to other musical legendary giants such as Michael Jackson and The Beatles. She has become much more than an artist, but a global icon as well, which can be seen through the ways she’s been honored across the globe. As the next leg of the tour resumes we will get to see how different European countries and Canada celebrate the arrival of the singer.
One thing you should never underestimate about Taylor Swift is her impact.