Taylor Swift is still touring on one of the hottest tours in history.
On opening night, the concert broke Madonna’s previous record for “the most-attended female concert in U.S. history.” And the Eras Tour is currently on track to become the highest-grossing tour of all time, according to Evie Magazine.
In 2023, Swift performed her three-hour and 15-minute set 44 times — 11 times in her Latin America shows and 33 times in the U.S. shows.
During the show, Swift has the same 42-song setlist with a window where she performs an additional two “surprise songs” for concertgoers. She plays the first song on an acoustic guitar and the second she plays on the piano.
Following her first show in 2024, the show followed the same format, so fans assume it will continue throughout the rest of the tour.
“The plan, the goal, would be to play different songs every single night and never repeat one. Right? So that when you heard one on this tour, you would know it’s the only time that I was going to play it in the acoustic set, unless — caveat — unless I mess it up so badly,” she said during the first show in Glendale, Arizona, per Billboard.
She started out with the rule of no repeats, but did end up repeating a few songs throughout the tour in 2023.
After her last shows of 2023, she did say she decided to do a hard reset for the 2024 shows.
“I decided that in 2024, when we go back on tour, I’m just gonna open back up all the songs for surprise songs,” she said, per Us Weekly.
Then in February during a show in Melbourne, Australia, she chose chaos and scrapped the rules entirely.
“I want to be as creative as possible with the acoustic set moving forward and I don’t want to limit anything or say, ‘Oh, if I played this song, I can’t play it again,’” Swift said, per US Weekly. “So, from now on, I don’t want to take any paint colors out of the paintbox [or] tools out of the toolbox.”
💬 | “Welcome to the acoustic section! There used to be rules for the acoustic section, and now I’ve just decided that I can do whatever I want.”
— Taylor on surprise songs #ParisTStheErasTour pic.twitter.com/sv6XoAwTuG
Swift has 10 albums, or eras, as she and fans call them. She has sung surprise songs from every one of her albums so far, but has also definitely favored some over others.
2024:
Before she plays the song, she will often share an introduction to it or explain the meaning or background behind it.
“I was trying to think of sort of an eloquent way to say that I love you and I need your attention all the time, and I came up with ‘I’m a mirrorball,’” Swift said before introducing “mirrorball” at her first show in Glendale, Arizona in March, per Mashable.
Other times, she will perform a song at the request of one of her friends or openers. During Swift’s performance in Arlington, Texas, she played “Clean” because she heard it was Gracie Abrams’ favorite song.
“I felt so grateful to hear it in that way, so stripped and raw,” Abrams told Teen Vogue. “That song has been kind of a constant security blanket since it came out. I have so many little memories listening to that song at times when I needed it.”
Some songs have even gotten guest appearances from other artists, like when Marcus Mumford joined her to perform “Cowboy Like Me” in Las Vegas or Aaron Dessner joined her to perform surprise songs multiple nights in Tampa.
A picture of me listening to the live version of Cowboy Like Me with Marcus Mumford on repeat since I will never get to see it live. I’m completely fine. It’s fine. I’m fine. pic.twitter.com/8xDpCmUZZl
me tuning into a grainy livestream to see taylor swift performing the surprise songs i want at a show im not attending pic.twitter.com/aL5zKDcTG3
Here are the songs Swift played more than once during The Eras Tour in 2023.
Here are the songs from her discography that Swift did not perform during The Eras Tour in 2023.
“Taylor Swift” debut album:
“Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” album:
“Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” album:
All songs from “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” have now been performed.
“Red (Taylor’s Version)” album:
“1989 (Taylor’s Version)” album:
“reputation” album:
“Lover” album:
“folklore” album:
“evermore” album:
“Midnights” album:
All songs from “Midnights” have now been performed.
“The Tortured Poets Department” album:
Songs written for soundtracks:
The Taylor Swift fan who went viral for her reaction to Swift performing “exile” as a surprise song talks to Rolling Stone:
“There’s no point letting it upset me. I reacted the way I reacted. I know my friends weren’t judging me. That’s just me. I’m just a passionate person. The… pic.twitter.com/IBTO2h7Ry9
