Watch Taylor Swift break out of character on stage at the Eras Tour

Taylor Swift doesn’t have to fake a smile on stage during the Eras Tour!

As the 34-year-old pop superstar performed her first of three sold-out shows on the Eras Tour in Gelsenkirchen, a mid-sized city in western Germany north of Cologne, fans witnessed a funny moment Swift shared onstage with one of her dancers.

When the singer goes into her performance of “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart,” her dancer Kam Saunders usually pretends to cheer her on — helping her into a sparkly jacket and even waving to the crowd to cheer her on.

But as the dancer waved Swift’s arms as part of her number during Wednesday’s show, the Grammy winner’s indignant face twisted into a half-smile and appeared to be stifling a laugh, according to a fan video posted on X (formerly Twitter).

But Swift managed to pull herself together – and started the track with The “Tortured Poets” section exactly on the right track.

She was also visited at the show by her boyfriend Travis Kelce – the 13th Eras Tour show the Kansas City Chiefs tight end has attended. Kelce was spotted in a private suite at the concert, enjoying the show before he is expected to return to the U.S. for the Chiefs’ training camp, which begins on July 19.

Although this is the first German stop on the Eras Tour, Swift is no stranger to Germany on previous concert tours. While she skipped the country in 2018 for the Reputation Stadium Tour, the singer played two dates in Germany during the 1989 World Tour, one for the Red Tour and another for the Speak Now Tour – though never in Gelsenkirchen.

To welcome the “Fortnight” singer to town, local Swiftie Aleshanee Westhoff started a petition to Mayor Karin Welge to rename the town “Swiftkirchen” during the star’s tour stop. This obviously caught Welge’s attention, because on July 2, the town unveiled a new town entrance sign with the town’s new temporary name, captured in an Instagram post from the town’s official account. (The account even changed its profile picture to match the colors of Swift’s eras!)

Swift’s latest stop on her record-breaking Eras Tour follows a two-night performance in Milan last weekend. During the second show, Swift caused a stir among fans with a technical mishap onstage – as she began a piano mashup of “Getaway Car” and “Out of the Woods,” the instrument malfunctioned. (“We finally broke that thing,” Swift joked to the crowd.)

Nevertheless, in an Instagram post after the shows, Swift said that performing in the Italian city was “a dream come true” – and described the audience as two of her “favorite audiences ever.”

The “Cruel Summer” singer will play two more nights in Gelsenkirchen – or Swiftkirchen – on July 18 and 19 before moving her performance to the next German city: Hamburg.