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How 2024 was the Year of Taylor Swift: Grammy wins, a new album and the record-breaking Eras Tour
True to fashion, Taylor Swift broke a few records this year and gave her fans a lot to sing with the release of her album The Tortured Poets Department.
Taylor Swift just rounded off a great 2024! From winning the Grammy for Album of the Year for Midnights, releasing her eleventh studio album The Tortured Poets Department, concluding her record-breaking concert tour, countless public appearances with boyfriend Travis Kelce, and becoming the most-streamed artist on Spotify- no one is doing it quite like Taylor. This year, she elevated her stardom to a level seldom seen since for years. (Also read: Taylor Swift is everywhere you look right now. Wonder what's the big deal about her? Read our special story, a primer on everything Swift)
Big night at the Grammys
Taylor made a huge surprise announcement at the Grammy Awards ceremony in February, as she went on stage to accept the award for the best pop vocal album. She announced that her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, would release in April.
The singer shared the album’s cover on Instagram shortly after. The same night, she also made history by becoming the first performer to win Album of the Year four times. She had previously won Album of the Year three times for Fearless in 2010, 1989 in 2015, and Folklore in 2021.
The release of The Tortured Poets Department
The Tortured Poets Department released and instantly broke several records. However, true to the style of the singer, she had another major surprise in store. She went on to release 31 new songs instead of the 16 main and four bonus tracks that were confirmed before.
With 300 million streams, it became Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day in history in less than 12 hours post release. Fortnight, featuring Post Malone, went on to break the Spotify record for the most streams for a single song in a day. It also became the fastest album in Spotify history to surpass one billion streams in a single week.
The Eras Tour
The Eras Tour was the shimmering highlight of this year for Taylor. The tour, which began in Glendale, Arizona on March 17, 2023, was picked back up by the singer on May 9, 2024, in Paris, France. The show's setlist was rearranged, and new tracks from The Tortured Poets Department were added. Meanwhile, the singer also included surprise songs, new arrangements with piano versions, and new outfits. Since then, she made stops in Sweden, Portugal, Spain, France, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
As per a report by Forbes, the record-breaking Eras Tour helped boost the economies of several countries. The eight-show stop in London generated £300 million for the local economy, as estimated by the tourism agency London & Partners. Taylor's stop in Melbourne generated a whooping estimate of $1.2 billion in Australian dollars, claimed the same report.
According to The New York Times, the singer’s production company, Taylor Swift Touring, confirmed to the outlet that the tour sold a total of $2,077,618,725 tickets, which is “double the gross ticket sales of any other concert tour in history”.
In the span of eight months, The Eras Tour went on to gross over $1 billion on a single tour. Social media was flooded with clips from the bright, sparkling sets from the tour—thriving in glorious melodrama and bound with the swapping of friendship bracelets. After her concerts at Seattle's Lumen Field in July caused seismic activity, a California Institute of Technology research team sought to better understand what causes "concert tremor.”
From Haim, Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern to Selena Gomez, Diplo, Cara Delevingne and Jack Antonoff, celebrities gathered in numbers to attend her show. Bollywood stars Sonam Kapoor, sister Rhea Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor's mother Neetu Kapoor and sister Riddhima Kapoor Sahni were also ‘certified Swifties’ as they made sure to attend the Eras Tour.
Retired tennis legend Roger Federer announced he is a Swiftie too, as he attended her Eras Tour stop in Zürich, Switzerland.
The Eras Tour came to an end on December 8. The singer got emotional onstage as she received a standing ovation during her performance in the final show in Toronto. "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,” she said.
Taylor and Travis
Last year, when news broke that Taylor and the NFL star Travis Kelce had started dating, the internet went into a collective meltdown. Over the course of this year, the two made countless appearances together: she attending his games, and he going an extra mile by appearing on a set for the singer's Eras Tour in London on June 23. Travis joined Swift during her I Can Do It With a Broken Heart outfit change, and carried her as part of the act.
What's more? Travis recently threw a massive surprise party to celebrate Taylor's 35th birthday party, filled with iconic props and references to her illustrious career.
In a nutshell, 2024 was the year Taylor Swift ruled. Fans got new songs, tons of new versions, and a lot of memories from the Eras Tour. No one can really tell what the singer has in store for 2025, but come what may, we will be there for the era that arrives next!
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