Taylor Swift has revealed the intense training she went through in preparation for her massive ‘Eras’ tour.
READ MORE: ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ concert film review: this is cinema (Taylor’s version)
In a new interview with Time magazine, who named the pop star 2023’s Person of the Year, Swift opened up about what it took to be able to take on her intense, over three-hour-long shows every night.
Each show included over 40 songs performed from a span of nine albums, 16 costume changes, pyrotechnics, an optical illusion in which she appears to dive into the stage and swim, and two cottagecore worlds adorned with loads of moss.
Speaking to the outlet, Swift broke down her gruelling training regime saying: “Every day I would run on the treadmill, singing the entire set list out loud…Fast for fast songs, and a jog or a fast walk for slow songs…Then I had three months of dance training, because I wanted to get it in my bones… I wanted to be so over-rehearsed that I could be silly with the fans, and not lose my train of thought.”
aylor Swift performs during her Eras Tour at Sofi stadium in Inglewood, California, August 7, 2023. Photo by Michael Tran / AFP) (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)
She continued and explained why maintaining her strength through the intense workouts is key. “I know I’m going on that stage whether I’m sick, injured, heartbroken, uncomfortable, or stressed…That’s part of my identity as a human being now. If someone buys a ticket to my show, I’m going to play it unless we have some sort of force majeure.”
She also discussed wanting to provided a high-value experience for her fans, after their devoted dedication to her, noting their constant support at efforts as something she needs to repay. “They had to work really hard to get the tickets…I wanted to play a show that was longer than they ever thought it would be, because that makes me feel good leaving the stadium.”
In the interview, she joked about how she used to “tour like a frat guy” but changed everything for the ‘Eras’ tour. After a run of show dates, Swift takes a day to recover.
Back in October, it was announced that Swift’s ‘Eras’ tour was set to become the most lucrative tour in music history.
The stadium-filling shows, which kicked off in March and are set to run until late 2024, are projected to raise a total of $5.7billion, which would be enough to send everybody in the US $20.
The estimate, cited by the Washington Post, came from Peter Cohan, an associate professor of management at Babson College in Massachusetts. The numbers suggest that Swift’s income from the tour would be larger than the annual GDP of 42 countries in the world.
Taylor Swift performs during The Eras Tour at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood Monday, Aug. 7, 2023. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The record-breaking tour had a significant impact on the US economy too, with ticket sales, merchandising and travel all contributing to the overall total. The software company QuestionPro has calculated that each show raised around $93million for the local economy.
“Swift and her ‘Eras’ tour have redefined entertainment economics,” said Chris Leyden, director of growth marketing at the ticket retailer SeatGeek, in an interview with Washington Post.
Reflecting on finally getting to a place of harmony with her past and the current success of her tour, Swift said: “It’s not lost on me that the two great catalysts for this happening were two horrendous things that happened to me…The first was getting canceled within an inch of my life and sanity…The second was having my life’s work taken away from me by someone who hates me.”
In other Taylor Swift news, Aaron Dessner recently shared that the pop singer wrote ‘Willow’ in “less than 10 minutes”.
When asked about a memory from his collaborations that demonstrates Swift’s excellence by PEOPLE, he spoke about how quickly she wrote ‘Evermore’ opener ‘Willow’. “When I sent Taylor the music for our song “Willow” — I think she wrote the entire song from start to finish in less than 10 minutes and sent it back to me,” he stated. “It was like an earthquake. Then Taylor said, ‘I guess we are making another album.’”
Elsewhere, Blake Lively praised both Swift and Beyoncé for “aligning” women rather than “dividing” them.
The post Taylor Swift reveals her gruelling training preparation for the ‘Eras’ tour appeared first on NME.
