Like most typical teenagers, I love Taylor Swift. That is no surprise if you know me, I have the posters, CDsand hoodies. Back in 2022, Swift announced her stadium only tour “The Eras Tour” which opened in March 2023 in Glendale, Arizona. Now, two years later, the tour has finally concluded on December 8th, 2024 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Something that has resurfaced from past Swift tours is surprise songs. Surprise songs are two songs, one piano, one guitar, that aren’t on the setlist that Taylor Swift plays just for your show. An example would be at the Philadelphia Night 2 she played “Forever and Always” from Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and “This Love” from 1989 (Taylor’s Version). With that being said here in my opinion the best surprise songs.
Opening night of the tour was on March 17th, 2023 in Glendale, Arizona. The first surprise song of the night was “Mirrorball” from Folklore then the second song was “Tim McGraw” from her self-titled debut album. “Tim McGraw” feels like the perfect song to open this tour because it completely encapsulates Swift’s growing up. Then, we jump to March 25th, 2023, Night 2 in Las Vegas, Nevada. She started with “Cowboy Like Me” from Evermore with the first ever special guest of the tour, Marcus Mumford. And the second song was a personal favorite, “White Horse” from Fearless (Taylor’s Version).
Now to jump to Nights 2 and 3 in Tampa, Florida. On April 14th, Swift brought out Aaron Dessner to sing “The Great War” from Midnights. Then Dessner made an appearance again on April 15th to help out and sing “Mad Women” from Folklore. Now, stay with me because in Nashville Night 3 Mr. Dessner pops out again, but this time to sing “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” from Midnights.
During Night 1 of Nashville, Tennessee many fans, including myself, were confused on why every single outfit had some sort of purple on it. Well, it turns out that later that night in the show Swift announced the recording of Speak Now. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) would come out on July 7th, 2023 with six new vault tracks.
The weekend of May 12th, Swift hit The Lincoln Financial Field to perform for all of the Philly and South Jersey Swifties. On Night 1, she sang “Gold Rush” from Evermore and “Come Back…Be Here” from Red (Taylor’s Version). Night 2 was when I went and the songs she played for me were “Forever and Always” from Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and “This Love” from 1989 (Taylor’s Version). Both of these are personal favorites so I was excited to say the least. Night 3 was the Mothers Day show and Swift hit us with “Hey Stephen” and then “The Best Day” both from Fearless (Taylor’s Version).
Let’s jump over to our very own New Jersey. Swift played the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford and what really surprised everyone this weekend is that during the “Midnights” set Swift brought out Ice Spice to help sing the new version of “Karma. The night that hurt the most was Night 1 of the Chicago, Illinois shows. The songs for that night were “I Wish You Would” from 1989 (Taylor’s Version) and “The Lakes” from Folklore. Now if you know me you know that these are my two all time favorite songs by Swift, so this one was painful.
Night 2 of Cincinnati, Ohio had not just one, but two special guests, and three surprise songs. Swift started with “Ivy” from Evermore and brought out Mr. Aaron Dessner once again. The second song was Gracie Abrams “I Miss You, I’m Sorry” of course with Ms. Abrams. This was especially cool since Abrams started as just a fan and now over the tour, and being an opener for Swift, they are good friends and even have a song together. Then the final song for the night was a personal favorite of mine “Call It What You Want” from Reputation.
The Los Angeles shows were the end of the first US leg of the tour so everyone figured Swift had to do something big and, well, we were right. On the final night of the Los Angeles shows on August 9th, 2023 Swift made the announcement that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) would be out that October. I was over the moon since that album is my favorite.
A bit of a flash forward to February at the international dates Swift started introducing mashups as surprise songs. In Melbourne, she played “Getaway Car/August/The Other Side of the Door”. Then, still in Australia but this time in Sydney, Swift brought out good friend and opener, Sabrina Carpenter to sing “White Horse/Coney Island”. Then, moving to London, Swift sang “thanK you aIMee/Mean” and brought out Hayley Williams to sing “Castles Crumbling.” Sticking with special guests, Ms. Gracie Abrams made an appearance yet again in London on June 23 to sing her new song with Swift “Us”.
A couple more special guests on the tour are, once again, Sabrina Carpenter on October 26th to help sing “Espresso/Is It Over Now?/Please Please Please.” And then, long-time friend Ed Sheeran in London to sing a mashup of “Everything Has Changed/End Game/Thinking Out Loud”. Now we jump to Toronto, Canada because Swift pulled out a song I didn’t even know was allowed and that was “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever.” However, she didn’t bring out Zayn unfortunately.
Gracie Abrams makes two more appearances on this tour during the surprise songs. The first is in Toronto so the two of them can once again sing “Us”. Then, on the second to last night of the tour Abrams came out to sing “I Love You, I’m Sorry/ Last Kiss”.
Then on December 8th in Vancouver, British Columbia the tour ended. And Swift went out with “A Place in This World/New Romantics”. “A Place in This World” is my favorite track from Debut so this one hurt. But what hurt more was Swift proceeding to sing “Long Live/New Years Day/The Manuscript”. All three of these songs are heartbreakingly beautiful. “Long Live” is written about the fans and tour. “New Years Day” perfectly encapsulates the end of tour with “Girls carrying their shoes down in the lobby” and then “The Manuscript”. Rereading the manuscript, reminiscing on this two year long tour. This tour began two years ago and in December 2024 it’s over now. I’m also a Harry Styles fan so I’ve seen this film before.
