“We have done something that no one has ever done,” Taylor Swift tells her fellow Eras tour performers in the first seconds of her Disney+ docuseries, The End of an Era. It’s just before the tour’s final show in Vancouver.
“We have performed for over 10 million people, in person. That’s not like 10 million people watched a TV show. That’s pretty amazing, too. We performed for 10 million plus people,” the singer continues. “I think about every single one of you as a little kid. I think about the moment that you decided that dancing was your calling. The moment that you first saw a band. Every single one of us has picked professions that categorically people tell you [that] you should do it.”
Thanks to the six-part docuseries Swifties finally have the chance to look at moments like this and many more behind-the-scenes of Swift’s Eras tour. Swift previewed the series for the media earlier this week in New York, joined by co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, Dana Walden.
The series debuted on Disney+ at midnight Friday, fully inviting fans inside the world of Swift’s record-breaking, career-defining world tour by also dropping a recording of Swift’s post-Tortured Poets version of the show, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, The Final Show.
Back to the beginning of the Eras tour, Swift says the idea came two years before the tour began and was born out of two “unpleasant” things happening to her: her catalog, which she has since bought back, had been sold, and she had decided to rerecord her music from those albums. The second factor was the pandemic. But ultimately, once the planning and rehearsals began, Swift set out to “over-serve” her fans in terms of variety of songs, length, production design and more.
“What if I did a tour that celebrated all of these different moments in my life and career?” Swift recalls for the camera of how the “eras” concept came to be. The singer’s mother, Andrea Swift, remembers her daughter telling the team the show would be three hours, which led several people at her company to think about how they could plan and execute a tour of that size.
In the first episode, Swift breaks down the logistics of how a tour this size gets underway. She’s also seen announcing the tour on Good Morning America, along with the Ticketmaster chaos that followed once tickets were on sale.
While there was a focus on the fun of the Eras tour in the beginning of the episode, things get real quickly. “Never in my life did I think we would have a terrorist plot,” Swift says seriously in the episode. The singer was speaking about her canceled Vienna, Austria shows after officials uncovered plans to carry out a terrorist attack at the concert site.
In an interview to the camera, Swift is overcome with emotion recalling the thwarted attack in Austria and a Liverpool stabbing at a Swift-themed dance party. The singer breaks down in tears, explaining those targeted in the attack were children.
Before her first show post-Vienna in London, Swift speaks with her now-fiancé Travis Kelce on a call. Swift and Kelce are the perfect picture of in love. The singer’s previous collaborator and personal friend Ed Sheeran also makes an appearance, having performed their duet “Everything Has Changed” at that London show.
In the show’s second episode, Swift dives into the album she wrote while on the first half of the tour — The Tortured Poets Department — and the super secret process to rehearse the songs and choreography before the songs came out.
The singer, who added a Tortured Poets section to the show, recalls the “risk” that she took in adding it, noting her doubts that fans might miss the old show. The performer now hard the process was. She’s all smiles and excitement before the first Tortured Poets show in Paris.
Swift also spoke about her decision to work with acclaimed choreographer Mandy Moore. The singer says she asked good pal Emma Stone, who had worked with Moore on La La Land and suggested the choreographer as someone who wanted to do something different.
With what will likely be a hit move amongst Swift’s diehard fanbase, the episode also shone a spotlight on one of Swift’s dancers, fan-favorite Kameron Saunders. The dancer is shown throughout the episode in different parts alongside Swift and the tour, preparing for a performance of “Florida!!!” with Florence Welch.
The docuseries will air weekly on Disney+. The concert film, Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour | The Final Show, also dropped today (Dec. 12).
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