Checkmate! Taylor Swift reveals behind-the-scenes nuggets of her ‘Eras’ tour
Taylor Swift fans up in the bleachers of her soon-to-be-completed Eras Tour surely missed a host of Easter eggs she stashed in plain sight.
The billionaire singer-songwriter’s “Eras Tour Book” hit shelves on Black Friday, revealing previously unknown tidbits about the record-breaking concert run that’s spanned five continents over 21 months.
The $39.99, 256-page hardcover was available at Target stores, which is in desperate need of a boost after its latest quarterly earnings report fell well short of Wall Street expectations. The retailer is also exclusively selling “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” album on both vinyl and CD along with the book.
Online sales are set to start Saturday.
The initial print run was two million copies, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The book marks the latest, presumably successful, effort by Swift to monetize her music beyond concerts and recordings. Her movie, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” was the highest-grossing domestic concert film of all time.
Fans have had to strategize and plan for the best time to attack the massive lines for merchandise at her shows.
In the book, Swift went deep into the vault to reveal that:
- In her performance of “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” she spins around on a small, moving platform that fans have compared to a “Roomba” cleaner. Swift’s book revealed it’s not automated: “The ‘rover’ platform I travel on is actually operated by a crew member, who lays inside the platform and drives it from inside.”
- Dancers in “Mastermind” glide to a checkered, black-and-white stage that is not about checkers: “And as for ‘Mastermind,’ we recreate a chessboard and when I signal the dancers to move to different spots on the board, they actually create the exact sequence for a checkmate.”
- Fans had long known that Swift rolls backstage stashed inside a janitor’s cart. She revealed Friday that the short, claustrophobic journey is relatively comfortable with a seat and decorated walls.
Swift’s tour ends next weekend with three shows at BC Place in Vancouver.
Shows on the “Eras Tour” run with military-like precision, always starting on time. Swift plays nearly four dozens songs in an average of three hours and 15 minutes, according to the book.
She called it the “Eras Tour” because it included songs from her albums “Lover,” Fearless,” “Red,” Speak Now,” “reputation,” “folklore,” Evermore,” “1989,” “Midnights” and “The Tortured Poets Department.”
Swift thanked fans and said more was to come, signing off in the book: “See you next era.”
