Every month, Taypedia publishes a blog post rounding up the news from Taylor Swift’s life during the last 30 or so days. Every month, the article informs readers that her life was hectic, her work took her around the globe and more. Perhaps a new milestone was added to her portfolio of achievements, or she and her team expertly handled a public relations crisis.
This month, unfortunately, not all of the news about Swift is good. The first section of this post will focus on the Eras Tour cancellation in Austria; after that, it will be back to the regularly scheduled programming — A.K.A, all Swift-related good news from the month of August.
The First Eras Tour Cancellation Happened in Vienna Due to Terrorist Threats
As anyone paying attention to pop culture is aware, the Eras Tour was supposed to take place in Vienna, Austria this month, but the three shows scheduled had to be cancelled due to a terrorist threat posed before the show. 65,000 Swifties were expected at each show, with an estimated 15,000 expected to be gathered around the stadium to tailgate the event. Needless to say, this threat was massively dangerous for Swift, her team, the dancers and crew and of course, all those in attendance.
Swift tends to be pretty careful with what she says online, and she explained in an Instagram post on August 21 why she did not immediately speak out about the cancellations: she was already preparing to ensure the safety of the shows in London, which were scheduled a few days after the Vienna shows. She also said that she refuses to speak publicly on a topic that may trigger more harm to her fans, and that she is grateful for the authorities in Vienna who ensured that they “were grieving concerts and not lives.”
To read more about what happened, take a look at Hannah Yasharoff’s post, “A Planned Terrorist Attack Canceled Their Eras Tour Shows. Swifties Gathered Anyway.”
AI Deep Fakes Convinced Donald Trump that Taylor Swift Endorsed Him
Swift generally does not share her political views, which is why it was surprising when Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for the 2024 Presidential Election, seemed to believe that she had endorsed him in his run for president because he posted images of her that implied she supported him. It was also surprising because when she has expressed her views, they haven’t really aligned with the Conservative party’s. But what really threw everyone — including Trump — for a bit of a loop was the fact that the images were generated by artificial intelligence.
Trump claims that he did not generate the images, and that he is often the victim of AI-generated content that misrepresents him.
A Trump spokesperson also made a statement that the “Swifties for Trump” group started by Jenna Piwowarczyk is gaining popularity. The group has 17.7 thousand followers on X, formerly known as Twitter. The account acknowledges that Swift may or may not support Trump, but also uses a clearly doctored image of her wearing a Make America Great Again hat in the account’s profile picture.
Swift Chose Different Lyrics for the Original Version of “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”
As if The Tortured Poets Department wasn’t gut-wrenching enough, there are apparently different (and more heartbreaking) versions of some of the songs, which Swift revealed on August 3. She was selling the original versions of songs such as “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” which revealed that the lyrics “He was my best friend / down at the sandlot” were once “He was my best friend / and that was the worst part.”
This version of the song was recorded on her phone, with her playing acoustic piano along to the song. It is written about the feeling of no longer being wanted, a heartbreaking, everyday tragedy to which many Swifties can unfortunately relate. The original lyrics only bring more depth to the song, although the “sandlot” line does reinforce the metaphor of being treated like an object.
Malala Youafzai Attended An Eras Tour Show in London
Swift’s music had an impact on girlhood in the 2000’s — it played a role in sisterhoods, friendships, mother/daughter relationships, and still does. And apparently, even a Nobel Peace Prize winner and someone who is also admired by young girls around the world can relate.
Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist who was shot in the head on a school bus as a child because of her advocacy for girls’ education in the country, attended a show in London. She wrote in a post on Instagram about how Swift’s music was a “gift” to her growing up in a country where music and art were once banned.
“One of my favorite memories from Swat Valley is a field trip I took in middle school with my best friend, Moniba,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “We were so excited because we were finally allowed to go to school again and could be outdoors with our friends, laughing and singing together… Moniba and I found the highest rock we could, climbed on top of it and announced to all of our classmates and teachers we were going to perform our new favourite song called ‘LOVE STORY’… That’s where my Swiftie journey began. It feels magical that my first-ever proper concert would be to see @TaylorSwift, singing along to every song surrounded by friends.”
Yousafzai also explained that the Taliban holds power in Afghanistan today, and music and art are now barred there like they were in Pakistan when she was a child.
She makes a good point in her post, that music is a gift. Even if you couldn’t attend the Eras Tour, be grateful for the music.
“It Ends With Us” Premiered and Put “my tears ricochet” on the Charts
Blake Lively starred in a new movie “It Ends With Us,” based on the book by Colleen Hoover. The story focuses on the main character, played by Lively, at two different points of her life and in two different relationships: a teenage love affair with a peer from school who was unhoused, and her mid-twenties romance with an abuser. The latter mirrors her mother’s experience with relationship abuse. If you’ve been paying attention to the Internet’s discourse on the book, you can probably tell that it’s the type of book you either love or hate. If you’re interested as a Swiftie about her involvement in the movie and want to know why she’d lend her music to it, I implore you to read the book in full.
Swift has not made a public comment about the Internet’s new hatred (or love, depending on what appears on your For You Page!) of Blake Lively. However, “my tears ricochet” did reach number eight on Billboard’s list of the bestselling alternative-only tracks in the U.S. So, despite the negativity surrounding the film, Swift stays winning.
Reputation (Taylor’s Version) Still Isn’t Out…
…but Swift certainly had fans excited when she sang “I Did Something Bad” as a surprise song on August 15 in London. Approximately 90,000 fans were there, and Swift definitely wanted to have something up her sleeve for them, because she pulled out even more stops than this (full-length, no mashup) performance of this Reputation favorite. This might have something to do with the fact that she broke a record for number of people in attendance for a solo run of shows in Wembley Stadium, beating out Michael Jackson’s record from 1988.
During this night, she of course sang “So Long, London” and changed the lyrics “You’ll find someone” to “I found someone,” which was likely a shoutout to Travis Kelce. But there was even more:
Ed Sheeran was a surprise guest that night, and they sang “Everything Has Changed,” “End Game” and his song “Thinking Out Loud.”
Swift also brought out Florence Welch and Jack Antonoff. With Welch, she sang “Florida!!!” and with Antonoff, she not only performed “Getaway Car,” but they recreated the viral video of them coming up with the song’s lyrics. They also performed “Death by a Thousand Cuts.”
A lot of people have compared her tour to the Beatles’ playing at Shea Stadium in 1965, but this show has to be the most comparable.
As for the other Eras Tour shows in August, Swift performed the following surprise songs:
Warsaw, Poland Night 1: mashups of “Suburban Legends” and “New Year’s Day” and “mirrorball” and “Clara Bow”
Warsaw, Poland Night 2: mashups of “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” and “I Can See You” and “Red” and “Maroon”
Warsaw, Poland Night 3: mashups of “The Black Dog” and “exile” and “Today Was a Fairytale” and “I Think He Knows”
London, Night 4 (she performed 3 other shows in London earlier in the tour): “Everything Has Changed” with “End Game” and “Thinking Out Loud” with Ed Sheeran as well as “King of My Heart” and “The Alchemy” solo
London, Night 5: mashups of “London Boy” and “Lover” and “Sad Beautiful Tragic” and “Dear John”
London, Night 6: “I Did Something Bad” and a mashup of “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” and “coney island”
Now, Swift has a break before her shows in Miami, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana and Indianapolis, Indiana and Toronto, Canada with opener Gracie Abrams.
Cover photo credit: Photo by TAS2024/Getty Images
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