Taylor Swift wrapped up the European leg of her Eras Tour with a historic, surprise-filled performance at Wembley Stadium.
The pop icon shared the stage with Florence + The Machine and Bleachers’ frontman Jack Antonoff, premiered a new music video, and delivered the first live performance of her song “So Long, London.”
This marked Swift’s eighth show at Wembley this summer, breaking the previous record held by Michael Jackson, who performed there seven times during his 1988 Bad Tour.
“You’ve made me the first solo artist to ever play Wembley eight times on a single tour,” Swift told the audience. “We will never, ever be able to thank you enough.”
This achievement also tied her with Take That for the most performances at Wembley during a single tour, matching their 2011 Progress Tour record.
A Tour of Unprecedented Success
Swift’s headline-making tour spanned Europe throughout the summer, with the Wembley finale marking the 131st show of her two-year journey.
In the UK alone, nearly 1.2 million fans attended her concerts, contributing an estimated £1 billion to the nation’s economy.
The impact of her performances was even measured by geophysicists in Edinburgh, who recorded seismic waves generated by fans dancing at Murrayfield Stadium. The ground shifted by up to 23.4 nanometers during the song “Ready For It?”
Among all her stops, London stood out as a highlight, with more performances there than in any other city on her schedule.
“I’ve always loved playing here in London, but this is the best,” Swift said during her final show. “I’ve never had it this good before. I’ve never had a crowd that’s so generous.”
She made the last show count, inviting Florence Welch to join her on stage for a duet of “Florida!!!” The British singer’s surprise appearance sparked a wave of excitement, as the two stars passionately sang the chorus together at the end of a catwalk.
Acoustic Surprises And Collaborations
For die-hard Swifties, the real thrill of the Eras Tour lies in the acoustic set, where she performs two “surprise songs” not typically part of the setlist. Last week, she was joined by Ed Sheeran for performances of “Endgame” and “Thinking Out Loud.”
On the final night at Wembley, Swift was accompanied by Jack Antonoff, a key collaborator on her Grammy-winning albums Folklore and Midnights. Together, they performed a guitar medley of “Death By A Thousand Cuts” and “Getaway Car.” To the crowd’s delight, they even recreated the spontaneous moment when they wrote the bridge for “Getaway Car.”
Debut of “So Long, London”
Swift continued the acoustic set at her piano, where she gave the live debut of “So Long, London,” a track from her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. Fans had speculated for days about whether she would perform the song, which is widely believed to reflect her breakup with British actor Joe Alwyn last year.
The couple, who were rumored to have lived in Primrose Hill during the pandemic, ended their six-year relationship shortly after Swift launched the Eras Tour in North America.
In “So Long, London,” she reflects on the end of the romance with the lyrics: “You left me at the house by the Heath… And I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free.”
The Eras Tour has also sparked a side-industry of spreadsheets tracking every costume variation and surprise song along the way. Fans are so familiar with the show’s routine that they often echo her scripted stage lines, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of a pop-themed version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
On stage at Wembley, Swift basked in the adoration, calling it “a privilege to do the thing I love, in front of any size crowd at all.”
Earlier in Liverpool, she had described the Eras Tour as “the most exhausting, all-encompassing, but most joyful, most rewarding, most wonderful thing that has ever happened in my life.”
Now, the 34-year-old will take a well-earned break before resuming the tour for its final stretch across the US and Canada this autumn.
When the tour concludes in Vancouver this December, it’s expected to have generated an estimated $2 billion in ticket sales alone, making it the highest-grossing tour of all time—doubling the revenue of Elton John’s farewell tour, the previous record-holder.
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