If March 17, 2023 feels like a long time ago to folks like you or me, imagine how distant the date must feel for Taylor Swift. That’s the day her record-smashing Eras Tour began, ushered in with a Ticketmaster debacle and—just two weeks into the tour—news that Swift’s six-year-long relationship with actor Joe Alwyn had ended. Back then, she was literally doing it with a broken heart. It’s safe to say that a lot has changed since then (including the state of Swift’s ticker), so it’s no wonder that the artist appeared to be fighting back tears at one of her final shows in the series.
The widely reported moment of emotion went down Saturday night in Toronto when Taylor Swift played her last Rogers Centre (née the Skydome) show of the tour. At the conclusion of “Champagne Problems,” a 2020 ballad Swift co-wrote with a pseudonymous Alwyn, the crowd responded with a minutes-long standing ovation, as shared on social media. And Swift, who is surely no stranger to applause, was visibly moved.
“Toronto, we’re at the very end of this tour, so you doing that, you have no idea how much it means to me and to my …” Swift said, turning away from the mic for a moment.
Turning back, she continued with visible emotion. “This tour…I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore. That was…uh, I’m just having a bit of a moment so… It’s not even the last show!”
After composing herself a bit, Swift continued. “My band, my crew, all of my fellow performers, we have put so much of our lives into this. And you’ve put so much of your lives into being with us tonight and to giving us that moment that we will never forget. We’ve loved our time in Toronto, it’s been so amazing. I love you guys. Thanks so much for that.”
Swift first confirmed that the epic tour would end in June, “This has definitely been the most exhausting, all-encompassing, but most joyful, most rewarding, most wonderful thing that has ever happened in my life.”
“This is the very first time I’ve ever acknowledged to myself and admitted that this tour is gonna end in December,” she said. “Like, that’s it. And that feels like so far away from now.”
It appears that the reality is now sinking in for the star, who said in June that “this tour has really become my entire life. Like, it’s taken over everything.”
“I think I once had hobbies, but I don’t know what they were anymore. Because all I do when I’m not on stage is, like, sit at home and try to think of clever acoustic song mashups and think about what you might want to hear. So when I’m not on the stage, I’m dreaming about being back on the stage with you guys.”
Swift still has time to determine how she might spend those days and hours suddenly freed by the end of the tour. There are still three dates remaining for the Eras Tour, as Swift has a final three-day stint at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver from December 6-8.
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