Taylor Swift concert review in Singapore: A near-perfect celebration of the singer’s legacy thus far The Singapore leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour commenced on

It finally happened. It took us days of snaking queues outside post offices and many, many articles about her to get here but global megastar Taylor Swift finally kicked off the Singapore leg of her Eras Tour on Saturday (Mar 2) to great fanfare.

I’ll admit: I’m not the biggest Swiftie. I stopped religiously listening to her songs after the non-Taylor’s Version of 1989 – an album that came out in 2014. That’s an entire decade of not keeping up with Tay Tay. As such, coming into the concert, I was worried if I’d be able to appreciate the experience – especially once post-1989 songs started playing.

However, as I quickly learnt, that’s the beauty of the Eras Tour. Unlike most other concerts which feature a selection of songs from various albums lined up randomly, the setlist of the Eras Tour is split into sections that mark a different Taylor Swift album across her 18-year-long career – an era, if you will.

If you aren’t familiar with a particular album, motifs and visuals related to its themes will play at the start of each “era”, giving you an aperitif. As Swift puts it, the Eras Tour is for old fans to “celebrate the memories” shared over the years and for new fans to “catch up with all the fun”.

Before we go any further with Taylor Swift, I need to quickly talk about Sabrina Carpenter – the opening act for this leg of the Eras Tour. She was simply magical. The 24-year-old singer made every moment of her set count, whether it was displaying her vulnerability with Because I Liked A Boy or working the crowd with her cover of ABBA’s Dancing Queen.

Her masterful performance of her viral hit Nonsense was another strong display of her musicality. In 35 minutes, Carpenter proved she was ready to command and conquer a bigger venue for her next solo concert in Singapore.

Thirty minutes after Sabrina Carpenter’s set, it was time for the show to start properly. The countdown before Swift’s appearance will forever be etched in my mind; the cheers and screams from the audience at this concert were louder than any other show I had ever attended. And again, this is before Taylor Swift got onstage.

Swift kicked things off with songs from her Lover era, starting with Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince. Admittedly, Lover isn’t my favourite album but it didn’t matter as Swift was operating at 110 per cent from the get-go. Her energy was infectious and it was honestly hard to look away from her iconic bedazzled Versace bodysuit which has since become a calling card of the Eras Tour.

As one would expect from Taylor Swift, her vocals were on point. In fact, they were unwavering. Not once during the three-and-a-half-hour show did Swift’s voice show any weakness. Couple that with the choreography and instrument playing she did and it becomes clear that Taylor Swift has further evolved as a bonafide entertainer since her last Singapore concert in 2015.

My favourite performance that night was undoubtedly Swift’s mash-up of I Don’t Wanna Live Forever and Dress. Swift punctuated every line with raw emotion while deftly playing the piano. That, for me, was peak Taylor Swift.

The set designs also deserve praise for elevating each era’s themes. For instance, Swift’s 2020 release Evermore was an album I had never listened to before this concert. However, its section in the Eras Tour was one of my favourites, thanks to the immersive background videos which highlighted the album’s brooding themes. Another worthy mention goes to the Midnights section of the concert because I genuinely thought Taylor Swift climbed up that ladder to the clouds.

Taylor Swift herself also seemed to genuinely be having fun during the show. She regaled attendees with a story of how her mother grew up in Singapore and later showed the singer her childhood haunts here. She even acknowledged the overseas fans who flew in for the concert, asking them to “make some noise”.