Taylor Swift can do it with a broken heart — and with a stomach ache.
The pop star, 35, revealed during her Wednesday, December 10, appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that she performed with stomach bugs on more than one occasion on her Eras Tour.
“For me, when I’m on tour, especially the Eras Tour, I just make a decision at the beginning of the tour that there’s no option to not go on stage,” Swift explained. “That’s not an option, and it’s not an option to perform, like, ‘I think I’ll do this show at a level six tonight.’ That’s not an option.”
The “Lover” singer continued, “Even if you have the stomach flu, which I had multiple times during the tour, my goal was, like, never let them know you have the stomach flu.”
Swift said one thing that helped her push through “physical pain” was her costumes, including her bedazzled Versace bodysuit, which she wore to kick off each show in the Lover era.
“I was constantly in a lot of physical pain, but when I put that on, I was just like, ‘No, this is popping. I’m doing it,’” she added.
Swift told Colbert, 61, that it was important to her to keep up with her scheduled shows because it meant so much to her fans.
“It’s also about knowing there’s something bigger than you, and for me on that tour, the bigger thing was these people have saved up their money, they have rearranged their schedules, they have arranged transportation, they’ve had parties, they’ve created costumes, they’ve made sweatshirts, they’ve made friendship bracelets,” she explained. “I’m doing the show.”
Swift’s Eras Tour consisted of 149 shows across five continents. Only three dates out of the two-year tour were canceled due to a suspected terror attack at Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna, Austria, in August 2024.
“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating. The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows,” Swift wrote via Instagram at the time. “But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.”
The Grammy winner continued, “I was heartened by the love and unity I saw in the fans who banded together. I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London. My team and I worked hand in hand with stadium staff and British authorities every day in pursuit of that goal, and I want to thank them for everything they did for us.”
Swift concluded her Eras Tour in December 2024. Now, one year later, she is set to shed light on her journey in Disney+’s The End of an Era, a six-part behind-the-scenes docuseries that chronicles the development and impact of the Eras Tour. Along with the docuseries, Disney+ will release The Final Show, a concert film of her last Vancouver show that includes the Tortured Poets Department set.
“It was the End of an Era and we knew it,” Swift wrote via Instagram in October when the projects were announced. “We wanted to remember every moment leading up to the culmination of the most important and intense chapter of our lives, so we allowed filmmakers to capture this tour and all the stories woven throughout it as it wound down. And to film the final show in its entirety.”
Taylor Swift: The End of an Era and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour: The Final Show premiere on Disney+ on Friday, December 12.
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