“The Eras” Tour in Spain!
By Javier Herrero
Madrid, May 30 (EFE).-
Like a papal visit or the first Rolling Stones concert in Madrid in 1982, Taylor Swift’s record-smashing, globe-trotting ‘The Eras Tour’ is which has touched down in the Spanish capital is likely to be remembered by an entire generation.
The renovated Santiago Bernabéu stadium was geared up Wednesday for its premiere as a temple of major musical events to host 65,000 people, according to Swift herself.
Despite the transience of the modern music industry, the Pennsylvania-born singer has become one of the few ‘millennial’ artists who provokes the kind of massive fervor that the old legends used to do, as well as bringing together famous faces such as Spanish singer Aitana, and Hollywood power couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.
There was a sense of the big occasion and party atmosphere around the stadium well before the concert got under way, with many local and foreign fans dressed in sequins and Swift’s iconography, or even with the jersey of her current boyfriend – American football star Travis Kelce – amid temperatures of 34 degrees.
The Bernabéu was almost full for the performance of the opening act, the American rock band Paramore, who had not been in Madrid since 2011, the same year that Swift first performed in Spain – which brought together a mere 4,000 people.
Despite the high price of the tickets – VIP seats cost nearly 600 euros -, more than 65,000 people enjoyed 45 songs over three hours, which featured multiple costume changes as Swift touched on the various eras of her career since her second album, ‘Fearless’ (2008).
As has been the case since ‘The Eras Tour’ kicked off in the US over a year ago, Swift’s exhaustive review of her work started with ‘Lover’ (2019), one of the most jovial and beloved albums of her career.
“¡Encantada de conoceros! (Nice to meet you),” she told the crowd as she appeared on stage in front of a devoted audience.
“What a way to sing and dance, what a great way to start!,” she exclaimed while opening the show with ‘Miss Americana’ and ‘Cruel Summer’.
The globe-trotting tour is one of the most ambitious any star has embarked on, and that scale is reflected in the tour’s production displayer – a huge screen covering an entire grandstand, a giant catwalk, an undulating podium, six band members and four backing singers, 15 dancers, LED bracelets and multiple trap doors on the stage through Swift would disappear and reappear.
Swift ended to the show by thanking the Spanish crowd: “You have made this concert seem to have lasted only 10 minutes”. She will hold her last ‘The Eras Tour’ performance in Madrid on Thursday with a second sold out performance. EFE
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