Taylor Swift has kicked off the European leg of her record-breaking Eras tour in France with a revamped setlist.
The star cut several songs and re-structured the concert to showcase music from her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.
Fan favourites including The Archer and The 1 were dropped in favour of new songs like Fortnight and Down Bad.
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The star also debuted several new outfits, including a sparkling red bodysuit for the opening portion of the show, and a black dress with silver tassles during the Fearless era.
Swift took to the stage at La Défense Arena in Paris shortly after 8pm local time, playing Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince, before greeting the sold-out crowd with a coquettish “enchanté”.
She added that she felt “incredibly lucky” to be launching the European leg of her tour in “the most beautiful, romantic city in the world”.
The 34-year-old remained on stage for more than three hours, finishing just after 11pm, having played 46 songs from across her 18-year career.
The tour is themed around the different “eras” she’s created in that time, with individual sets dedicated to each of her 11 studio albums.
It kicked off in America last year, with fans boosting local economies and causing seismic activity with their dancing.
The Paris concert was Swift’s first since releasing The Tortured Poets Department, a 31-track double album, three weeks ago.
Despite lukewarm reviews, it broke several sales records in its first week on sale.
To make room for the new material, condensed the sister albums Folklore and Evermore (both recorded during the Covid pandemic) into a single “Folkmore” chapter.
All the songs Taylor added and removed
Songs cut from the setlist:
- The Archer (Lover era)
- Long Live (Speak Now era)
- The 1 (Folklore era)
- Tis The Damn Season (Evermore era)
- Tolerate It (Evermore era)
- The Last Great American Dynasty (Folklore era)
New songs added:
- But Daddy, I Love Him
- So High School
- Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me
- Down Bad
- Fortnight
- The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
- I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
Surprise songs / acoustic set
- Paris (Midnights)
- Loml (Tortured Poets Department)
Fans spotted changes to the lavish stadium show almost immediately after it began, with the intro music updated to include snippets of music from The Tortured Poets Department.
But the first real confirmation came when The Archer was cut, 15 minutes into the concert. It was traditionally the sixth song on the setlist on previous legs.
Then Swift pulled another surprise – moving the sequence concentrating on her Red album to an earlier part of the show.
During those songs, the star wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the statement: “This is not Taylor’s version” – a reference to the ongoing campaign to re-record her first six albums.
Swift performed the Tortured Poets Department material in a billowing cream ball gown, while the on-stage visuals adopted new a black-and-white theme.
For the downbeat ballad Down Bad, she appeared in the tractor beam of a UFO – a reference to the song’s opening lyric: “Did you really beam me up / In a cloud of sparkling dust / Just to do experiments on?”
The new music largely deals with the breakdown of two relationships – with British actor Joe Alwyn and The 1975’s lead singer, Matty Healy.
On stage, Swift jokingly described this portion of the show as “female rage, the musical”.
The final portion of the show – concentrating on the diaphanous pop of 2022’s Midnights album – was unchanged, with Swift ending on the hit single Karma.
The pop superstar’s tour has become a cultural phenomenon, on a scale not seen since Madonna and Michael Jackson’s concerts in the 1980s.
She is playing 152 stadium dates, with dates booked until December 2024.
When she wraps up, ticket sales are projected to reach $1.4 billion (£1.1 billion) – making it the most profitable tour of all time, surpassing the $939 million (£750 million) Elton John made on his multiyear farewell tour.
The tour comes to the UK on 7 June, with dates in Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and London.
By: Mark Savage, Music correspondent
Originally published at: BBC
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