What makes Taylor Swift fans — known as Swifties — so fanatically devoted to the pop star?
After talking with fans from London, Ont., Oshawa and Toronto — who won tickets from Rogers to one of Swift’s six Eras Tour shows at Rogers Centre (Nov. 14-16, 21-23) — it seems there’s a multi-generational connection to her lyrics, music and nice girl persona.
“My parents have always been fans since Taylor has been around,” said Kate Murphy, 21, who is studying fine arts at Western University in London, and will see the Nov. 16 show with her homemaker mom Martha, 58, who lives in the Sarnia area.
“And ever since then I just loved her. (I’ve) just been like the biggest superfan, and now I’m an artist and so it all works into my art,” said Murphy. “My mom knows every single song just like I do. And we listen to her together all the time with my dad, who also has the appreciation and love for her, but not to same (level). My mom is a teenage girl about her.”
It was Kate’s dad, Bob Murphy, who entered the Rogers ticket contest after he and his wife met Swift and her mom at the Nashville airport.
“For me, Taylor sings the words, writes the words, that I think Kate can relate to,” said Martha Murphy, who added she, too, can relate to the star’s lyrics.
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“I really appreciate her writing, and she’s a beautiful person — inside and out — that I think for me as a mom of a young woman, it’s a role model for her.”
Sarah Andrews, 46, who works at Durham College, and her daughter Brielle, 15, who both live in Oshawa, are appreciative about going to the Nov. 16 show together, especially as Sarah’s mother battles cancer.
“I truly think like Taylor is a lyrical mastermind,” said Sarah Andrews. “You can listen to the same song, over and over again, and all of a sudden start peeling back the layers of her different meaning. And I think that reaches so far, across so many fans. Her albums, her song catalogue, are basically the soundtrack to moments in our lives.”
“I’ve been a Swiftie all my life,” added Brielle Andrews. “I watched one of her music videos when I was really young, maybe like four or five, and ever since then I just adored her so much. She’s just so amazing. She’s like a poet. You can read her songs as poetry. It’s practically like there’s Shakespeare … and Taylor Swift.”
Toronto commercial litigator Haley Brittain, 29, will attend the Nov. 14 show with her mom, Heather White Brittain, 62, who is flying all the way in from Halifax.
“I’ve really grown up with Taylor Swift,” said Haley. “I was 12, 13, when I first started listening to her music and I remember one of the songs, The Best Day, off her Fearless album, which she wrote about her mother. I remember sharing that song with my mom and saying, ‘I feel like this relates to our relationship.’ We talk about her lyrics a lot and what we both get out of them.”
Heather White Brittain, who is the mother of two daughters, appreciates Swift’s overall talent and goodness.
“When I think about it, Taylor Swift can do everything,” said Brittain, who works remotely in development for Imperial Theatre in Saint John, N.B.
“She’s a singer-songwriter. She’s an instrumentalist. And she can also perform. Also, her persona is a nice person. I think about every time (Taylor’s) presented a new work, there’s something in there, that, no pun intended, but it strikes a chord — even at my age.”