MELBOURNE, Australia — You might not know about Oliver Mills, but I bet you want to! The 24-year-old became the 72nd “22″ hat recipient at night two of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Australia.
“It’s in the search bar on TikTok: How do you get the ’22’ hat?” he said the morning after his most epic night. “I love a bit of mystery surrounding Taylor Swift and the love that runs so deep so I’m going to place myself amongst the mystery.”
Every night of the Eras Tour when she performs her song “22”, Swift gifts a hat to a lucky fan plucked by her team. Past recipients have been Bianka Bryant, Kobe and Vanessa’s daughter, and Ally Anderson, the brave 16-year-old who battled a rare soft tissue cancer.
The lucky one comes up to the edge of the stage at the end of “Long Live” when Swift changes backstage into a bedazzled T-shirt for her “Red” era.
“Her team placed me on the stage,” he said. They asked him to kneel between two lights.
“It feels like a perfect night,” Swift sang emerging from the back wall with her black hat and bedazzled “We are never getting back together like ever” shirt. Mills went to dance town. He could not contain his pure and unadulterated excitement.
“When she walked towards me,” he said, “I thought, ‘You’re a real person and you have love and kindness in your eyes.’”
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A lot was going on at the moment Swift danced down the long catwalk and, after the second chorus, jumped over to him to say, “I love your videos. You are so funny.”
She placed the hat on his head, and he gave her a hug and handed her a bracelet.
“For someone that famous,” he said, “to be that personally, individually connected to her fans is impossible. She’s really, really lovely.”
He watched the concert from the VIP area. Inside the tent, Mills witnessed a proposal during “Love Story,” sang with Australian singer G Flip and danced with Scott Swift.
“He’s still so proud,” Mills said about the singer’s dad. “He was holding his phone camera, and I was thinking my parents would do the same thing.”
So what’s Mills’ story? The comedian and TikTok influencer sings Taylor Swift in the car, and posts fun affirmations and candid mental health chats on @olivermillsn. His goal is to spread positivity. He also gets a lot of comments saying he resembles Harry Styles.
“I’ve only had social media for 11 months,” he said. “Before that I didn’t have social media for six years because I took a massive mental health break.”
As for the autographed hat, Mills said it will be his forever and ever.
“It’ll be a piece of memorabilia that will stay in my house forever,” he said. “When my friends and family come over, they will ask about it and I will allow them to put it on and take photos with it. I will have this unbelievable, mind-blowing story associated with it.”
Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network’s Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
