Taylor Swift opens UK Eras shows as some fans wonder if the singer is ready to say ‘Bye, London’

LONDON – Fans of Taylor Swift love to analyze the singer-songwriter’s lyrics for clues about her love life and insights into her state of mind.

But fans of the pop superstar in the UK didn’t have to listen closely to her latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” to sense that Swift was fed up with the country’s capital, after it had long been a regular hangout and then her second home. The record’s fifth track is titled “So Long, London.”

As Swift hits London’s Wembley Stadium this weekend with her hit “Eras Tour,” some Swifties are wondering if they’re witnessing the beginning of a longer goodbye.

London isn’t ready to let her go yet. The area around Wembley was transformed for the shows, with fans posing in front of a giant mural of the singer and walking up stairs dubbed the “Swiftie Steps” and other tributes.

Swift revealed that 88,446 people attended Friday’s show in the “most exciting city in the world.” Among the famous attendees: Prince William, who celebrated his 42nd birthday at the show and posed for a photo with Swift and two of his children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

Swift waved to her fans with a wink and a nod to her life in London during one of her two surprise acoustic solo songs: a piano medley that began with the London-set song “The Black Dog” and moved into “Come Back, Be Here” and then “Maroon.”

In addition to this weekend’s shows, Swift will return to Wembley for five more in August to complete the European leg of the tour.

London is the only city on the tour where Swift will stop twice. Some fear the arrangement could be a swan song of sorts, while others say it simply reflects a new era in Swift’s connection to the big city. Whether “So Long, London” turns out to be the final chapter or the conclusion of her love affair with the city, the song “London Boy,” Eras, will be an emotional milestone.

“Her relationship now kind of assumes that London is not going to be where she’s going to be. It’s not like an American football player lives here,” said Maggie Fekete, 22, a Canadian graduate student who credits the London references in Swift’s music as a guide when she moved to the city three years ago. “I think there’s going to be a lot less London in her music, which is sad.”

Stella Elgood, 25, of London said Friday she expected Swift to sing “So Long, London” at some point during her eight nights in the city, but that Swift was “always welcome.”

“Especially since she was with Harry Styles, she’s been in the zeitgeist,” Elgood said.

For those who haven’t been paying attention, Swift has had a string of romances with famous British nationals (including Styles in 2012), which ended last year when she began dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Speculation surrounding “So Long, London” and a sad backing song that mentions a London pub, “The Black Dog,” stems from the 2023 split of Swift and English actor Joe Alwyn, who were together for over six years.

Alwyn is said to have inspired “London Boy,” a song from her 2019 album “Lover.” A special edition of the “Lover” CD apparently included a January 2017 diary entry in which Swift talked about “living mostly in London” but trying to keep a low profile. British tabloids later reported that Swift spent much of the COVID-19 pandemic sheltering at Alwyn’s home in north London.

The Sun newspaper reported in December that the multiple Grammy winner had bought a large estate in the area and was turning it into her European base. However, after Swift released “The Tortured Poets Department” last month, a writer for the British edition of ELLE magazine noted that Londoners had an opportunity “for an all-American A-lister to take her place in our collective consciousness.”

“We had Swift before we lost her to her record-breaking and box office-smashing ‘Eras’ tour, and now her vacancy seems to have been taken by Zendaya,” writer Naomi May joked, before listing the various places where the American actress had been spotted with her longtime boyfriend, British actor Tom Holland.

Either way, the capital is putting on quite a show to make Swift and her fans feel appreciated. Tour guides are offering walking, bus and taxi tours that retrace Swift’s footsteps, including a visit to a kebab shop whose owner says his shop is supplying the singer and her crew with sandwiches on Friday.

Before the end of August, Swifties can attend numerous Swift-themed brunches and dance parties or ride the London Eye, accompanied by a string quartet playing her music. Souvenir stalls in Camden Market, one of the locations mentioned in “London Boy,” have stocked up on Swift-specific hats, T-shirts, bags and stickers in preparation.

Amy Unsworth, 34, who comes from a small town near Manchester in England and was born a month before Swift, said on Friday that the singer’s ties to the United Kingdom and vice versa extend beyond the capital.

“I feel like I have an affinity with her as a Northern Irish person,” Unsworth said, noting that Swift wrote many of the songs on her album “Evermore” while she was in England’s Lake District with Alwyn.

“Given her past, it’s hard to say how she feels now that she’s back.”

Unsworth is not worried that Swift will turn her back on the UK. Swift said on stage that her British fans “have been some of the most supportive people since I started making music.” Swift first performed in London at the age of 17, when she performed at the student halls of residence at King’s College London.

“I think she’ll come back after Eras,” Unsworth said. “She has too many loyal fans not to come back. She’s built too much momentum here to just forget about us.”

Zachary Hourihane, co-host of a Swift podcast called “Evolution of a Snake” and YouTube and TikTok videos under the name Swiftologist, said Thursday it was too early to say whether the singer would keep her honorary citizenship or part ways with London. As her fans know all too well, with Taylor, only time will tell.

“Taylor is someone who often looks back at the past. It’s never over with her. She likes to relive things that are over,” he said. “Let’s be realistic. Even though her relationship is ‘goodbye, goodbye,’ she has good reasons to be in London and to make good money there.”