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

By Lisa Leff, The Associated Press, June 22, 2024.

FILE – Taylor Swift performs as part of the “Eras Tour” at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo on Feb. 7, 2024. As Swift brings her successful Eras Tour to London’s Wembley Stadium, some fans are wondering if they are witnessing the start of a longer farewell. She will perform for three nights starting Friday, June 21, 2024, and is scheduled to return to Wembley for six nights in August to conclude the European leg of the tour. (AP Photo/Toru Hanai, File)

LONDON (AP) — Taylor Swift’s fans love to parse 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 Britain didn’t have to listen closely to her latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” to sense that Swift was growing tired of 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 successful Eras Tour, some Swifties are wondering if they’re witnessing the start of a longer goodbye. London isn’t ready to let her go. The area around Wembley was transformed for the shows, with fans posing in front of a giant mural of the singer and climbing stairs dubbed the “Swiftie Steps” and other tributes. Swift revealed that 88,446 people attended Friday’s show in what she called “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 solo acoustic songs: a piano medley that began with the London-set “The Black Dog” and segued 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 conclude the European leg of the tour. London is the only city on the tour where Swift is stopping twice. Some fear this could be a swan song of sorts, while others think it just reflects a new era in Swift’s association with the big city. Whether “So Long, London” is a final chapter or a conclusion to her love for the city, the song “London Boy,” Eras says, is an emotional milestone. “Their 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,” says Maggie Fekete, 22, a Canadian graduate student who credits the London references in Swift’s music with guiding her move 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 expects Swift to sing “So Long, London” at some point during her eight nights in the city, but that Swift “will always be welcome.” “Especially since she’s been with Harry Styles, she’s in the zeitgeist here,” 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 dated 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 included a January 2017 diary entry in which Swift talked about being “basically based in London” but trying to keep a low profile. British tabloids later reported that Swift spent much of the COVID-19 pandemic sheltering in place 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 converted it into her European base. After Swift released “The Tortured Poets Department” last month, a writer for the UK edition of ELLE magazine noted that Londoners had a chance “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, box office-smashing Eras tour, and now her vacancy seems to have been filled by Zendaya,” writer Naomi May jokingly noted, before listing the various places the American actress had been spotted with her long-term boyfriend, British actor Tom Holland. Either way, the capital is putting on quite a show to make Swift and her fans feel appreciated. Guidebooks offer walking, bus and taxi tours that follow her footsteps, including to a kebab shop whose owner says his shop will deliver sandwiches for the singer and her crew on Friday. Through the end of August, Swifties can attend numerous Swift-themed brunches and dance parties or ride the London Eye Ferris wheel 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 caps, T-shirts, bags and stickers in preparation. Amy Unsworth, 34, who hails from a small town near Manchester, England, and was born a month before Swift, said Friday that the singer’s ties to the United Kingdom, and vice versa, extend beyond the capital. “I feel like as a northerner, I have an affinity with her,” 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 about being back.” Unsworth isn’t afraid Swift might turn her back on Britain. Swift said from the stage that her British fans “are some of the most supportive people I’ve had since I started making music.” Swift first performed in London at 17, when she performed at the student union at King’s College London. “I think she’ll come back” after Eras, Unsworth said. “She’s got too many loyal fans not to come back. She’s built up too much momentum here to just forget about us.” Zachary Hourihane, who co-hosts a Swift podcast called “Evolution of a Snake” and posts YouTube and TikTok videos under the name Swiftologist, said Thursday it was too early to know whether the singer will 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 retraces her steps. With her, nothing is ever really over. She likes to pick up things that are over,” he said. “Let’s be realistic.” Their relationship, even if it is just “goodbye, goodbye,” has good reasons for being in London and making good money there.” 25
-24