'Toronto, we are sooo back!': Taylor Swift takes fans through her eras on epic opening night
Swifties came from across Canada and beyond for the 1st of six at Rogers Centre
Swifties took over Toronto Thursday as pop superstar Taylor Swift played the first Canadian show on her globe-spanning, record-breaking Eras Tour.
Swift opened her Rogers Centre set just before 8 p.m. with Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince, before launching into her 2019 hit Cruel Summer, with thousands of screaming fans singing along.
"Toronto, we are sooo back!" she said to roaring applause.
Swift moved through songs from each of her studio albums, playing for nearly three-and-a-half hours with costume changes to match each era, as fans sang along to every word from hits like I Knew You Were Trouble and Look What You Made Me Do.
She took several breaks to address the crowd, giving praise for local fans.
Dedicating Folklore album to Canada
"If we're going to bring the Eras Tour to a close — which we are, in nine shows — I was thinking, you know, I really want to spend those last shows with the most generous, encouraging, welcoming, passionate, excitable fans. So we came to see you in Toronto," Swift said.
When she got to the 2020 Folklore album, around the halfway point of the show, Swift made a special dedication to Canada.
"Doesn't it seem like the entire Folklore era just belongs in Canada? It just does," she said.
"The kind of place that I envisioned in my mind where Folklore took place, is very natural wilderness, beautiful, forests that have been there since the beginning of time. And it just kind of feels like we're returning the Folklore era to where it belongs anyway."
For Swift's "surprise" songs — during every show she throws in some unexpected numbers outside the Eras order, something fans eagerly anticipate — she brought out an acoustic guitar for My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys mashed up with This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things. She followed those with a piano mashup of False God and 'tis the damn season.
Swift closed her marathon 45-song set with Karma from her 2022 album Midnights, complete with a lyric changed to reference her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs NFL player Travis Kelce.
"Karma is the guy on the Chiefs, coming straight home to me," she sang.
Thursday's show is the first of six consecutive sold-out concerts that had fans scrambling for a year to secure tickets and accommodations.
The stadium began to fill up after 6 p.m., turning into a sea of tassels and sparkles. Fans were laughing, taking selfies and buying Swift-themed drinks and friendship bracelets from the bar.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got in on the excitement, posting on social media platform X, "We're ready for you, @taylorswift13. Good choice wrapping the Eras Tour in Canada." He also threw in a reference to Swift's 2017 hit End Game, asking, "Has this always been your endgame?"
Opener Gracie Abrams took the stage at 6:45 p.m.
The singer-songwriter released her album The Secret of Us in June this year, and it's been topping the charts ever since, with That's So True currently the No. 1 song in the U.K.
'It's once in a lifetime'
Thousands of lucky fans who found a way to attend were buzzing with excitement at Swift-related events across the city before the show, many dressed in colourful, glittery, Taylor-influenced outfits.
Julisa Brace, a 25-year-old who came from Newfoundland and Labrador, said she paid $1,500 for a resale ticket to see the singer she's been a fan of since she was eight years old.
"I just think it's once in a lifetime. You can't really put a price tag on something that brings so much joy to so many people," she said.
Some fans travelled from the U.S. and abroad to be in Toronto Thursday.
Caitlin Merrill from Winnipeg flew to Austria with her best friend to see Swift in August, only for the concert to be cancelled following a foiled attack plot.
She and some family members secured tickets to the Toronto show just one week ago.
"It's so huge. We're super excited to be here. We've been listening to Taylor Swift since I was in probably Grade 2, Grade 3, so a lifelong fan," she said.
"I'm just really grateful and happy that I was able to come to the Toronto show."
Swift will also perform at the Rogers Centre on Friday and Saturday, then three more shows will take place on Nov. 21, 22 and 23.
'I would do anything to get those tickets'
Some came to Toronto in hopes of scoring last-minute tickets.
After trying everything she could to buy in advance, Sarah Goree flew in from Cape Breton with her daughter to get glammed up for the Taylgate '24 event at the Metro Convention Centre.
Since arriving, she has been constantly refreshing queues on ticket sites like Ticketmaster and StubHub in hopes of finding re-sale tickets for one of this week's shows.
"I booked flights and I said, you know what, I'm going to give my girl the best experience that I possibly can," Goree said.
Her 10-year-old daughter Charlie said she was sad about not having tickets, but "really happy" to be taking part in the festivities.
"All the Swifties are really nice and I love trading bracelets with them and being around them, and it makes me feel good," she said.
And if they manage to score tickets? "I would cry and I would scream and I would be really happy," said Charlie. "I would do anything to get those tickets."
City expecting 500,000 visitors
The City of Toronto is expecting up to 500,000 visitors during the nearly two-week period around the shows, including parents and travel partners.
Destination Toronto, a non-profit representing the city's tourism sector, estimates the Eras Tour will bring more than $152 million in direct spending, and $282 million in economic impact to the city.
Swift will close out the tour by playing three shows in Vancouver next month, in her only other Canadian stop.
The dates were announced in August 2023, a month after Trudeau pleaded with Swift on X to come to Canada.
The concert announcement set off a mad scramble for tickets and accommodations, with many Swifties being unable to secure either. Hotels and Airbnb hosts were criticized for hiking prices on accommodations for people coming from out of town for the shows.
The Eras Tour is the first tour ever to gross more than $1 billion US.
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With files from Griffin Jaeger and CBC News