Taylor Swift European dates kick off in Paris
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The highest-grossing tour in history finally arrived in Europe on Thursday as Taylor Swift kicked off her European dates with four nights in Paris.
Thousands of fans were already visiting the La Defense Arena 24 hours before the show just to get their hands on the merchandise as soon as possible.
A handful of superfans camped out from Tuesday to ensure they got a prime spot in the standing section.
"I didn't plan to, but I came to check it out and I saw the first tents and I panicked a little," said Chris, 30.
Noah, 20, is seeing all four Paris concerts -- he used 22 email addresses to get through the lottery system and secure the tickets.
Many accents in the crowd were American -- the venue says a fifth of the audience has come from the United States.
Georg'Ann Daly decided to celebrate her 23rd birthday with the show in Paris. It meant flying from Nashville to Chicago to London and catching the Eurostar to Paris.
"I've always been obsessed with Taylor Swift," she told AFP.
"I went to her show in Nashville and thought I'm never doing that again because it was crazy. It's a lot of over-stimulation and I have social anxiety.
"But it's my birthday and it's Paris and it's the first night of the tour, and I thought why not? It's so worth it!"
- Record-breaker -
Some 42,000 people will see Swift in Paris before she heads on for dates in Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Poland and Austria.
The Eras Tour has worked its way across North and South America and Asia since starting in March 2023.
By the end of the year, it had already become the first to sell more than $1 billion in tickets and is on track to more than double that by the time it concludes in Vancouver this December.
Swifties in Paris are especially excited to hear songs off her new album, "The Tortured Poets Society", being performed for the first time.
Many critics have derided the 31-track album as bloated and lacking in sure-fire hits.
But you won't hear that from the devoted crowd in Paris.
"I love the new album -- it's chill, it's fun to listen to even though it's got a sadder vibe," said Kelly Shrout, 40, who flew with 11 friends from Kentucky in the United States for the show.
"I hope she plays 'Fortnight'," she added.
Her popularity shows no sign of dimming -- the new album shifted 1.4 million copies on its first day and broke every streaming record going, reaching a billion streams on Spotify within five days.
Swift's tell-all dissections of her love stories have been the fuel powering her global domination, and fans have been pouring over "The Tortured Poets Department" for cryptic clues about Joe Alwyn, her short-but-dramatic fling with Matty Healy (lead singer of The 1975), and her current partner, American football star Travis Kelce.
"Taylor talks about toxic relationships, impossible love, politics, mental health, and so much more -- I think we can all find a song that resonates with our experiences," said Chris as she waited by her tent for the big moment.
Taylor Swift mania outscores Olympics
Pop star Taylor Swift’s Paris 'Eras Tour' leg eclipsed the world's biggest sporting event, the 'Olympics', in drwaing American tourists.
Paris authorities have spent years readying for the almost 2 million international visitors expected for the 2024 Summer Olympics, but they may have overlooked a far bigger phenomenon now coming to the city: Taylor Swift.
Taylor's massive fanbase is stealing the spotlight from the summer Olympics as Americans head to Paris for The Eras Tour. The excitement surrounds her, with fans flocking to see her perform, creating a buzz that's hard to miss.
In a report by Bloomberg, the appeal of the key athletic games is pale compared to the Grammy concerts outside Paris from May 9 to 13 that are drawing as many as five times as Americans to the country as the games.
Jack Ezon, who is a co-founder of a New York travel company called Embar Beyond, said:
"I never would have anticipated it; she's even overshadowing the Olympics."
Overall, the chief says, Carolina's hitmaker tour is benefiting the local economy as he shares data from his company that pointed to over 200 trips to Paris in which a number of clients opted to stay at the luxury hotels and a portion of them are mother-daughter duos who are set to go on a shopping sprees.
The report, meanwhile, adds that the unexpected low demand for the Olympics games cut down the prices of hotels.
In the meantime, Taylor's Eras Tour is considered a Midas touch for economies as her concerts added $4.3 billion to the U.S. GDP in the past year.
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