It’s been a long time coming. With Taylor Swift gearing up to say goodbye to her Eras Tour — a record-breaking show that spanned the globe for nearly two years — she’s taking a retrospective look at her favorite on stage moments, behind-the-scenes secrets and more in her Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour Book.
“I’ll never forget the call when I explained my idea of the concept for The Eras Tour to my team,” Swift, 34, recalls in the prologue of the publication, which hit shelves on Friday, November 29. “At the time, I was working on the Midnights album and if we were to do what I’ve always done, I would’ve embarked on planning The Midnights Tour. But there’s nothing I hate more than doing what I’ve always done.”
In the book, Swift recalls telling her team she wanted to “fully commit” to each era and past album, “musically, stylistically and aesthetically,” noting that if done right, the show should “celebrate and honor both new fans and fans who have been here from day one.”
Citing the three albums she had yet to tour on — 2020’s Folklore and Evermore and 2022’s Midnights — as well as the re-recording process of her first six albums as inspiration, Swift says she fell “back in love” with her past work, which made her want to “honor” what fans had done for her and the Taylor’s Version albums. “And so the new albums and my re-records left me with the dilemma. HOW on Earth are we going to play all this music live?”
What came out of the brainstorming process was a three-hour and 15 minute show that revisits all 10 (and eventually 11) of Swift’s past albums through 45 songs, and a concert that has spanned 152 shows in 54 cities worldwide over the course of nearly two years.
“My goal was for every fan to leave that show knowing I gave them absolutely everything I had,” she writes. “I made a promise to myself to be physically and mentally tougher than I ever had been before. To be more disciplined and committed to my health, fitness and stamina. Thankfully, I’m surrounded by my incredible crew, band, singers and dancers who all matched my dedication to the massive scale and challenges of this show.”
Swift would go on to play her Eras shows in “the pouring rain, in the blazing heat, in the thickest of humidity, in the wildest of winds and in the bitter cold,” she writes, showing up to perform even if she was “sick or exhausted of injured,” or was working through a “broken heart.”
“We do this because we love having the rare opportunity to create happiness and wonder up on that stage,” she says. “We do it because we know it takes time and effort and money and energy to plan out coming to a concert. We do it because every friendship bracelet traded has the potential to become a new friend, and you never know what dreams can be sparked if we succeed in painting a dreamscape in every city we visit.”
While Swift ends her prologue with an introduction to the retrospective, she also shares a glimpse of what lies ahead next: “See you next era …” she teases in her own signature handwriting.
Swift’s Eras Tour Book is on shelves now. Keep scrolling for all it’s the biggest highlights, revelations and more:
‘Lover’
In the book, Swift chooses to revisit each era in the order of which they appear throughout the show, starting with 2019’s Lover — the album she “always knew” should open each night.
“Specifically the line ‘it’s been a long time coming.’ Because it had been!” she writes. “I’d never gotten to tour the Lover album and so this was a brand new era we were creating. Bright and romantic and celebratory.”
Swift notes that the show “had” to open with “Cruel Summer” for a “blast of energy” that would lead the rest of the night, adding that her Versace glittery bodysuit could pull her “out of any funk, fix any headache, heal sore muscles.”
She continued, I always adored the shows when the sunset happened at the same time as the Lover era, just pink skies on pink skies. I learned how to say ‘Welcome to The Eras Tour’ in 15 languages.”
‘Fearless’
Swift highlights the importance of the Fearless era reflecting the “hopeful, effervescent, girlhood” of when she wrote the album at ages 16 through 18. “It was all glitter and whimsy and daydreams,” she writes. “High school crushes and possibility.”
She reveals that her parents, Andrea and Scott, and her brother, Austin, are the ones who personally bedazzled her guitar for this section of the show, and shares how important it was that this section “is where we highlight the magnificent musicians in my live band, who are also the studio musicians on the Taylor’s Versions of my re-records.”
Her favorite moments from the era include seeing people “hold their hands up in the shape of a heart” and “waiting for the crowds to EXPLODE at the line, ‘Marry me, Juliet.’”
“Many crowd proposals later, this era completely captured the nostalgic magic of Fearless,” she says.
‘Evermore’
Swift says her second pandemic album was about being “rooted in storytelling and nature,” as well as “Wintertime myths and the fireside of tales of love lost and found.”
While she gushes over the set design of “trees that grew up from beneath the stage and a moss covered piano,” she points to the “spontaneous act” of fans choosing to hold their phone flashlights up during “Marjorie” — a song about her late grandmother — as particularly special.
Her most beloved moment of the era, however, is the “meeting of forest sorcerers” during her performance of “Willow,” which served as the first single off the album. “All of the dancers and me in our velvet capes with their glowing magical orbs — twirling through the mist like a coven of mythical creatures,” she recalls.
‘Reputation’
Swift marks this as her “favorite entrance of the night,” describing the “sound of mysterious footsteps timing up perfectly with the ominous synth beats of ‘…Ready for It?’” She praises the section for how it goes “absolutely wild with choreography, strobe lights, snakes everywhere and dancers dressed as me from former eras trapped in glass boxes.”
Swift notes Reputation was all about “rebellion and defiances,” noting she “looked forward” to hearing the crowd scream “1,2,3, LET’S GO BITCH” (a trend the fans dreamed up themselves) at every show during the song “Delicate.”
‘Speak Now’
Noting that her third — entirely self written — album was “all about romance,” Swift says she chose the song “Enchanted” to represent the entire era (although later joined by “Long Live” for some nights) because “it was always” her “favorite song on the album.”
“Even though it was never chosen as a single, the fans made sure it became one of the most recognizable songs from that album (this is one of my favorite things they have tended to do over the years!),” she shares. “In a dreamscape of purple twinkling lights, ballet and ball gowns, I wanted to elicit that midsummer haze of intrigue we feel when we lock eyes with someone across a room.”
‘Red’
Swift says that designer Ashish helped her recreate the “exact original look” from her “22” video for much of the Red setlist, and looks back on picking a fan every night to gift her hat to, “which was signed on the inside.”
She said the “hugs and moments of such joy’ from the “22” hat exchange (where she hands off the iconic hat to a superfan in the crowd) “warmed my heart every night.” She also highlights getting to perform “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” which she called “my chance to stop and really take in the size of these crowds and how loudly they were singing every lyric. It was so surreal every time.”
‘Folklore’
Swift focuses much of Folklore section on the set itself, praising Ethan Tobman for the centerpiece cabin — the same designer who helped create the cabin for her “Cardigan” music video and her 2021 Grammy performance.
“We were able to transport those stadiums to the forest. It even had a smoking chimney and moss covered roof,” she details, adding, “The storytelling element is what we wanted to convey most, and I think this chapter really transported us to a different world.”
‘1989’
Swift says she wanted her 1989 era to be a “stark contrast” to that of Folklore, bringing in a “sonic landscape of fashion, freedom and fun.”
Everything culminates in the blasting flames of pyro in ‘Bad Blood,’” she describes. “It’s hands down the danciest, bounciest chapter of the night.”
‘The Tortured Poets Department’
Swift explains that this era was added halfway through the tour after TTPD was released in April 2024.
“We conceptualized and rehearsed it secretly, and surprised the Paris crowd with it when we started our European leg of the tour,” she writes, noting she wanted it to feel “minimalist, white, stark and bold.”
“There was nothing else in the show like it, and it was such an exciting challenge to try and improve upon a show I already loved,” she continues. “Costumes were designed by Vivienne Westwood, with my lyrics printed in cursive all over my white dress.”
Swift also reveals that the “rover” platform that takes her around the stage during the performance is “actually operated by a crew member who lays inside the platform and drives it from the inside.” Swift says she wanted to “create the illusion of an alien abduction, a battle scene, a religious institution, a mental institution, a haunted house, and a showgirl’s dressing room routine.”
Swift calls the attempt “ambitious as hell” but one she and her team ultimately “pulled off, creating what I think is the most dramatic, cathartic, elame-rage driven part of the night.”
Acoustic
Swift takes a look back at how many “iterations and rules” the Surprise Songs part of the concert has gone through, from telling her U.S. fans she was going to “challenge” herself to only play a song “one time” in order to revisit as much of her discography as possible.
“Because of this, fans would watch the concert and keep track of which songs had been ‘lost’’ that night,” she says of the online trend.
Once she had played “pretty much every song I’d ever released,” Swift says she began composing the “mashups” that would include “two to three songs that go together thematically or rhythmically, so by the end of the tour I was playing between four to five mashed up songs a night in the acoustic set.”
“It takes a lot of rehearsing to get the mashups just right, but when the crowd screams like crazy when I transition into a new song, It’s beyond worth the prep time involved,” she writes. She also details diving into the stage, which becomes an ocean, after the songs are done, calling it the “coolest illusion of the night.”
“I’ll never forget the sound of the crowd the first time they saw it, somewhere between shock, horror and elation,” she quips. “Mission accomplished.”
‘Midnights’
Swift says the Midnights era contains some of her “favorite choreographed numbers,” calling “Vigilante S—“ her “favorite moment of the night.”
“It’s just the most fun I’ve ever had, that one,” she explained. “The chair choreography! The catty, vengeful, mischievous personas we get to try on and play with.”
Swift also breaks down the choreography of “Mastermind,” noting that she signals her dancers to move to different spots on a chessboard throughout the song until “they actually create the exact sequence for a checkmate.”
She ends the show with “Karma,” a ”flurry of confetti and celebration,” writing, “I’ll never forget the feeling of standing there with my fellow performers, utterly exhausted and invigorated at the same time, knowing we just pulled off another night of getting to live the childhood dreams we never in a million years thought would be this cool.”
Pre-Show Rituals
The book is filled with BTS photos of the stage — which takes four days to build — her custom mics, guitars, costumes and images from both her original rehearsals and those that were added for the TTPD era.
Swift also lets fans in on a pre-show ritual with her dancers, band and backup singers, where they huddle up before the show to have a special bonding moment together.
“Someone gives a speech to get us fired up to play, motivate us or just say whatever is on their mind,” she explained. “Whoever went last picks the person to go that night. it’s been a really powerful part of the tour and helped us get to know each other really quickly. SO many of those speeches have made me cry. We put our hands in the middle and all chant the same thing together, and then we’re off to the races.”
‘To the Fans’
Swift closes out her book with a tribute to the fans, thanking them for coming to The Eras Tour and making it “what it became.”
“At the start of this, I never could have imagined that you would cheer so loudly it registered as an earthquake on a seismic charts (this happened multiple times) or that you would lift economies of whatever city we went to,” she writes. “More importantly, you lifted the spirits of those around you with your intricate and clever costumes and outfits. you made people feel included by making friendship bracelets and friends. Teaching each other our little tour traditions and looking out for each other.”
Swift praises the fact that so many people recognized the tour as a “safe space” for “radical girlhood, boyhood or personhood and unapologetic joy. Your excitement was truly contagious. The Eras Tour had no typical demographic of stereotypical attendee. It was for everyone, because you made everyone feel included. For that, I will never be able to thank you enough.”
She ends with a wish going forward: “My hope is that you won’t let that behavior end with the end of the Eras tour. It doesn’t have to be the end of an era of joy and acceptance. My hope is that you find ways to create these spaces around you in your daily life, your school, your job. That would be a real legacy to leave.”
