Taylor Swift revisited the darkest moments of her Eras Tour in her newly released docuseries, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour | The End of an Era, which is now streaming on Disney+. The first two episodes, released on Dec. 12, show the singer working through the shock and fear caused by the terror plot that led to the cancellation of her three Vienna concerts in August 2024.
Authorities had arrested three men connected to an ISIS-inspired plan that the CIA warned could have killed "tens of thousands of people". In the docuseries, Swift opens up about the intense anxiety that followed and how she gathered herself to return to the stage for her first show after the threat — a massive comeback performance at London’s Wembley Stadium.
Taylor Swift says in the docu-series, "It's just kind of a weird feeling going into these last five shows in Europe because it sort of feels like we've done like 128 shows so far, but this is the first one where I feel like… I don't know, like, I'm skating on thin ice or something. We've had a series of very violent, scary things happen to the tour. We dodged, like, a massacre situation. And so, I've just been kind of all over the place."
Swift added, "There was this horrible attack in Liverpool at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party, and it was little kids that... I have a hard time explaining it."
Before stepping onto the Wembley stage on August 15, 2024, she told her mother Andrea that she felt 'twitchy and fidgety', but knew she had to "get back on the horse" and perform again.
The Life Of A Showgirl hitmaker added, "From a mental standpoint, being like afraid that something's gonna happen to your fans at any moment, this is a new challenge. I want to keep all of the nerves I have away from the crowd. because when you're sort of the ringleader of this show, they can sense any kind of shift energetically in you. and you have to really focus on that and factor that in, that you're at the Eras tour, nothing's wrong."
Along with dealing with the terror threat, Swift was also mourning the loss of three young fans killed in a stabbing at a Swift-themed dance and yoga class in Southport. In the docuseries, she explains how she tried to bring joy to her audiences despite feeling like she was navigating emotional "turbulence". Before her London shows, she met with victims and their families and broke down backstage afterward, comforted by her mother, Andrea. She also reunited with Ed Sheeran and shared that performing again felt necessary to regain her joy. After her powerful return to the stage, she phoned fiancé Travis Kelce, happily telling him how good it felt, and he responded that he could hear the happiness in her voice.
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