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Review: Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ in Singapore – ‘Folklore’ And ‘Evermore’ Needed More Love

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Mar 08, 2024 / 4736 Views

After nine years, Taylor Swift is performing at one of the biggest stages in Singapore in 2024. But there were minor snags that marred the first of six performances at the National Stadium. Here’s our concert review of Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ in Singapore.

“My mum (Andrea Swift) actually spent a lot of her childhood with her mum and dad and sister growing up in Singapore,” Taylor Swift shared this personal information nugget to the 60-thousand-strong crowd after performing marjorie, a song off her ninth studio album, evermore. Marjorie was written as a tribute to Swift’s late maternal grandmother, opera singer Marjorie Finlay. This relation reflected Swift’s impression of the city-state too.

Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ is undeniably the main concert event of 2024 in Singapore. As the Singapore leg is the only stop in Southeast Asia, many fans are coming from our neighbouring regions to town just for this gig.

Being one of the biggest living pop stars in the world currently, getting a ticket to see Swift perform wasn’t the easiest task. In fact, the process was even dubbed ‘The Great War’ by fans.

Taylor Swift TAS_1667 — Image credit: TAS Rights Management

While I’m not an ardent Swiftie, her music discography got me through particular moments in my life. Heck, I’m just a year older than Swift, and hence, the relatability. Specifically the crush-coded You Belong With Me and ethereal Snow On The Beach (featuring Lana Del Rey). Also, she has my respect for being a sharp songwriter and lyricist with her compositions. I knew I had to try my luck for a ticket to ‘The Eras Tour’ in Singapore. The concept and setlist are perfect to sum up her successful 18-year-long career.

I’ve watched the movie edit of ‘The Eras Tour’ and it’s safe to say there wasn’t a stark difference between the real and reel, save for a couple of region-specific banters (Singapore colloquialism) and, of course, the surprise acoustics segment (which we’ll get to later). After all, any attempts to alter and veer off what’s expected will send Swifties into frenzy mode.

Entry to the Singapore National Stadium was orderly. Most Swifties were dressed for the occasion, from the pastel colours of ‘Lover’ to sequinned outfits for ‘Midnights’ – whichever era resonated with them. The fan who wore a key lime green dog costume (The Last Great American Dynasty) definitely got my vote for Best Dressed.

Opening act Sabrina Carpenter impressed with her fresh musicality and wit, especially for the custom outro on nonsense she does for every concert supporting Swift. Night one in Singapore was “Gardens by the Bay, I wanna go there. / Then I’ll take you somewhere that has no hair, / Singapore, you’re so perfect that it’s not fair.”

Swift’s set promptly started moments after 7pm, after the iconic countdown timer reached zero. The robotic synth of Cruel Summer (a personal favourite) kicked off the ‘Lover’ era. Swift used the sleeper hit song to interact with the crowd for the first time in the evening by prompting them to sing along to the bridge. A thunderous response followed.

Review: Key highlights of Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour Singapore concert

Taylor Swift TAS_1364 — Image credit: TAS Rights Management

Overall, Swift’s delivery throughout the three-and-a-half hour-long concert was textbook perfect. She started a little clinical but quickly warmed up to Singapore from the ‘Fearless’ era. The acoustics proved to be flawed and caused a dent in this experience. Yes, National Stadium still isn’t an ideal concert venue to best appreciate music. It is, however, one of the only few venues that can allow a 55,000- 60,000 crowd.

*Note: Swift was more relaxed on night two, where she shared with fans that her hair “went back to factory reset-setting due to the humidity in Singapore.” If you’re wondering, her hair morphed from tamed to curly within the 3.5 hours.

It was also evident that eras before ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ were crowd favourites from the volume of the chants and sing-a-longs. Catchy and made for radio to be mega hits, those songs are certainly easier to digest. It was disappointing to hear the cheers dimmed and see a portion of the crowd in my zone getting restless during the ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ eras as both are Swift’s magnum opuses, music-wise. In Singapore, they are underrated.

To give benefit of the doubt, the casual fans here might be enjoying the slower-tempo songs in their own way, but scrolling through social media definitely wasn’t a polite way of doing so. As a consolation, I did spot a handful of Swifties mouthing enthusiastically to every word. One dude deserves to be #MVP for the night.

For me, I switched from casually singing to roaring on Champagne Problems (“She would’ve made such a lovely bride. / “What a shame she’s fucked in the head,” they said”) and The Last Great American Dynasty (“There goes the most shameless woman this town has ever seen. / She had a marvelous time ruinin’ everything”). Genius lyrics.

The brooding cinematic quality sets of ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ eras presented excellent accompanying narratives to the songs. This can be seen with the cult-like haunting circle of Willow and the ‘Folklore’ cabin.

Another highlight was experiencing the smooth transition from Don’t Blame Me to Look What You Made Me Do in person. Swift foreboded the increasing tempo and sinister bass with an assertive stance to become “the actress starring in your bad dreams”.

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There were also a couple of endearing localised easter eggs peppered throughout the concert like dancer Kameron ‘Kam’ Saunders’ “No lah” on We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.

taylor swift surprise songs tracker the eras tour 2024

Then there was the surprise song acoustics segment, which is like a rewarding blind box. As Swift sauntered towards the resting instruments in the infamous yellow dress, the crowd crossed their fingers tightly, hoping she would perform a song on their wishlist. Night one featured a mashup of Mine and Starlight performed with the guitar and another mashup of I Don’t Wanna Live Forever and Dress performed with the piano. Interestingly, the latter two tracks are songs from ‘Reputation’ and Swift’s Instagram streamed this segment live. This prompted a guessing Game regarding the release of ‘Reputation’ (Taylor’s Version).

*Update: Night two featured a mashup of Long Story Short and The Story Of Us on the guitar and a mashup of Clean and title track evermore on the piano.

A greatest hits concert can be tricky to pull off but Swift shrewdly delivered the peaks of her career straightforwardly. ‘The Eras Tour’ has got to be one of the most important concerts in today’s popular culture, so make no reservations and catch it should the opportunity be presented to you. You’ll definitely see me at the National Stadium again on the final night of the Singapore leg.

(All photo credit: TAS Rights Management; Special thanks to AEG Presents Asia)

(Hero and featured image credit: Ashok Kumar/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management/Getty Images)