Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour lands in Toronto with a mind-blowing, spectacle-scale joint concert

The final warm-up song played before Taylor Swift took the stage Thursday for the first of six sold-out concerts at the Rogers Center in Toronto was Dusty Springfield’s 1964 version of the defiant You don’t own me. The song was written by two men, but Springfield was an artist who took charge of her own career and confronted the sexism of the music industry at the time. She didn’t just sing “Don’t try to change me in any way”, she practiced what she preached.

And Swift? She not only practices empowerment, she has perfected it.

Famously, after a dispute with her original record label, she re-recorded her early albums to regain control of her earlier work. She calls her own shots, her current Eras Tour became the first in history to gross more than $1.04 billion, and I suspect she tells her football-playing boyfriend, Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, which hats she must wear in public.

Nobody owns her. But with fans in Canada paying thousands of dollars on the resale market for a seat to Swift’s November dates in Toronto and Vancouver in December, Swifties may feel they can at least rent her for three hours.

That’s the length of her concerts. Thursday was a tsunami of ferocious balladry, exhausting emotion, relationship-based pop and melodic mid-tempo communion. The show was not as ultra spectacular as, for example, the recent tours of the Weeknd and Beyoncé. However, Swift sparkled with sequins and a flare matched by costumed fans in giddy, shouting spirit. (Also, more than a few men in the audience wore Kelce jerseys.)

The concert was divided into themes representing eras and albums from a career that began with the release of her self-titled debut LP in 2006. The eras were not arranged chronologically; the show began with five songs from the 2019 album Lovebelow The man (“I’m so tired of running as fast as I can, wondering if I’d get there faster if I were a man, and I’m so tired of them coming at me again…”) and You need to calm down (“Say it on the street, it’s a knockout/ But you say it in a tweet, it’s a cop”).

Swift’s voice was clear and distinct; her singing, unsophisticated but in fine pitch. And she was song, which is more than can be said for many a pop star and rock act these days.

When you take a career-spanning show from Swift, you notice the lack of what you might call blockbuster hits. That she doesn’t really have them is pretty remarkable for one of the most dominant pop artists ever to take the mic. Yes, she’s had a dozen No. 1 singles, but they don’t rule the charts very long. Since 1977, starting with Debby Boone’s You light up my life45 singles have topped the Billboard Hot 100 for at least 10 weeks. None of those songs are Swift’s.

With her, it’s depth, as evidenced by more than 160 Top 40 songs and album sales. Streaming? So far in 2024, Swift was the most streamed artist each month. Unless Mariah Carey is having a big December, look out Shake it off singer to rule the table. Her fans devour all of her music – singing along to most of the nearly 50 songs (or parts of songs) performed at the Rogers Centre.

At one point, Swift asked how many people had attended an Eras Tour show before. The great applause was no surprise. The tour began way back on March 17, 2023 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. A concert film, Taylor Swift: The Era Tourwas released more than a year ago. It feels like the rest of the world has seen the movie and Canada is still reading the book.

You didn’t even have to attend the concert on Thursday to realize that something was wrong. Police horses outside were decked out in giant Swiftie friendship bracelets around their necks. A tram driver called out the city’s landmarks as if he were driving a tour bus. Fans lined up for blocks to attend a pre-show Taylgate ′24 party near the Rogers Centre. Was this a concert or was it a town rally?

The show, which included a solo set on piano and acoustic guitar, ended with bursts of confetti and fireworks. Yes, why not. But the evening was as much about a safe space, about catharsis and community as it was about music and razzle-dazzle. I saw complete strangers bonding all night, beaming smiles all around.

On Saturday, Halifax indie musician Rich Aucoin plays Toronto’s Longboat Hall, capacity 400. After more than 15 years, he ends his interactive shows that involve confetti, singing and dancing together under a giant colored parachute. Swift does exactly the same thing, just on a larger scale. Her friendship bracelets aren’t a gimmick, they’re the whole point.

Taylor Swift plays Toronto’s Rogers Center on November 15, 16, 21, 22, 23; Vancouver’s BC Place, December 6 to 8.