There were no surprises during Taylor Swift’s final Toronto stop on her Eras Tour, but there was plenty of emotion.
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Swift, 34, who became the first musical artist to sell out the Rogers Centre six times on the same tour, broke into tears after a heartfelt rendition of Champagne Problems.
The track is from 2020’s evermore LP, which, along with folklore, was one of two albums Swift recorded during lockdown.
As she has done throughout the Eras Tour, Swift recalled how she made the records as a way to escape from the pandemic, not knowing if she’d get to perform songs from either release in front of a crowd.
“Folklore was an album that I started writing about two days into the pandemic,” she said. “Folklore was this imaginary place I would escape to in my head everyday when I was writing stories.”
It was the first album, she said, where Swift didn’t make herself the main character. “I decided, what if I tried (out) being more of a narrator and kind of create characters, and these characters, they could fall in love and have their hearts ripped out and lots of drama … in this fictional place I made up.”
Clad in a cranberry-coloured gown, she told the 49,000 gathered Swities that the creative decision gave her “a lot of fulfilment” and helped spark a musical output that included her subsequent albums: Midnights (2022) and her more recent six-time Grammy nominated The Tortured Poets Department.
But as she soaked in a thunderous ovation, Swift, who also called the duel records the most Canadian in her catalogue, fought back tears.
Repeating a line she had said throughout her Toronto run, the Eras Tour has been the most fun she’s had on the road, and it’s coming to an end, with just three more shows planned for Vancouver next month.
On Saturday, tears filled her eyes as she thanked the team that has been with her since the tour started in March 2023 in Arizona.
“And to my band and to my crew and everybody who has put so much into this tour … and I don’t even know what I’m saying, I’m just having a bit of a moment, sorry,” she said to the packed baseball stadium.
“It’s not even the last show!” Swift wiping away tears, before continuing. “My band, my crew, all of my fellow performers, we have put so much of our lives into this. And you’ve put so much of your lives into being with us tonight and to giving us that moment that we will never forget. We’ve loved our time in Toronto. It’s been so amazing … I love you guys. Thanks so much for that.”
The massive global success of Swift’s Eras Tour is unmatched. When it was first announced in 2022, it was an instant sellout, with the 14-time Grammy winner adding international shows that took her all across the world.
She’s ending her run in Canada because she wanted to play in front of her most “loyal, passionate, kind, thoughtful fans.”
But for every city she visited, her economic impact has been vast. In Toronto, it was estimated that the concerts would give the city a much-needed $282 million economic boost.
It’s hard to find a contemporary equivalent to the Swift craze that gripped the city over the past two weeks. Elvis Presley only played five shows outside of America, two of which were at Maple Leaf Gardens back in the 1950s. The Beatles gave Toronto its first taste of Beatlemania in 1964. Of course, the Rolling Stones rehearsed for several of their world tours here, and performed to 500,000 people at SARSstock back in 2003.
Then there was the Who, who famously held their “final” concert in Toronto back in 1982 at Maple Leaf Gardens.
But Swiftmania is unique. At the end of 2023, the Eras shows became the first tour to cross the billion-dollar mark. Her merch sales were well north $200 million, and a concert film she self-produced sold more than $250 million worth of tickets, making it the highest-grossing concert film of all time.
With her added dates this year, Swift could bring in another $1 billion.
Then there are her album sales.
Earlier this year, Swift broke her own record for the most sales of a vinyl album in a week, moving 700,000 LP copies of The Tortured Poets Department in just three days. She sold another 800,000 copies of CD, cassette and digital downloads of the album during its first week.
According to Billboard, Swift was responsible for 7% of all vinyl albums sold in the U.S. in 2023.
Since launching her career as a country artist in 2006, Swift has exceeded all expectations, with her legion of fans consuming her every career move.
After she performed Cassandra from The Tortured Poets Department with Mad Woman and I Did Something Bad during the acoustic section of the evening on Friday, Swifties expected she would announce the release date for her rerecorded version of 2017’s Reputation.
That much-hoped for surprise didn’t happen, but Swift still sent fans into a frenzy when she played an acoustic guitar mashup of Sparks Fly and Message in a Bottle that she followed by a piano medley of You’re Losing Me and How Did It End?
Although tour opener Gracie Abrams popped up as a surprise guest on Us and Out Of The Woods at show number three last Saturday night, there were no special guests for her final night in Toronto. Unless you count Ed Kelce, the father of her boyfriend Travis Kelce, who was spotted alongside her mom Andrea Swift at the show.
Instead, it was just Swift and 49,000 of her besties celebrating a musical run we’re unlikely to see ever again.
“Toronto, we’ve had the most wonderful time with you. We’ve had the most fun,” Swift said at the end of the night. “If you (came) to any of the other shows, if you just came in for this show, if you’ve travelled to be here, or if you just live down the street, you’ve been so generous to us.”
Swift ends the Eras Tour in Vancouver on Dec. 6, 7 and 8.