Why Taylor Swift means so much to the fans seeing her live
On the third night of Taylor Swift’s marathon six shows in Los Angeles, fans came out in full force to experience her epic three-hour-plus performance of the sold-out Eras Tour.
Amid the dramatic outfits, homemade costumes, snaking merch lines and wholesome friendship-bracelet exchanges on Saturday, Swifties from across the country — and even around the world — paused to consider how the country-turned-pop-turned-folk/indie songwriter had affected their lives over her last 17 years of music making.
Almost everyone who chatted with these two reporters shared that Swift’s music went much deeper than any break-up anthem or boy-crazed tune — her music has helped fans grow up, grieve, get through challenging times and, most important, find joy.
Amanda Walsh of Irvine waited with her mom in a long line for Swiftie merch Saturday afternoon at Sofi Stadium. The 29-year-old had fashioned flowery ʙuттerfly wings from a tapestry, with some sewing help from her mother-in-law, meant to emulate the Nashville mural Swift posed in front of in 2019 to promote her “Lover” album. (Don’t worry, she said, she’d take off the wings during the show so as not to block anyone’s view.)
A Swiftie from the beginning — Walsh saw the rising star perform when Swift was a teenager at Stagecoach’s Country Music Festival in 2008 — she said it was one of Swift’s more recent songs that had spoken to her most deeply.
“I actually lost my husband to cancer in January 2022, so the song ‘Bigger Than the Whole Sky’ really means a lot to me,” Walsh said. “Just because it’s talking about all the possibilities that are honestly never going to get to happen.
“I just think that song speaks a lot about grief,” she said, “and things you’re missing out on when you deal [with] and go through loss.”
Brian Rush, 36, came to the show from Koreatown with his partner of five years, Justin Thai, who turned Rush on to Swift’s music.
The couple decided Saturday morning to splurge on floor seats, spending $3,000 to see Swift up close and (kinda) personal.
Although he was dressed in a combination of “Red”- and “Lover”-era outfits — mixing Swift’s “A lot going on at the moment” T-shirt with a tie-dyed “Lover”-themed ʙuттon-down — he said he’d found her “Reputation” album most powerful.
“How she came back, in a sense, from all the negativity and everything like that,” Rush said. “We all go through that in life, when people have something to say about us.”
